The morning was beautiful. Clear and warm and calm. Perfect for either the manatee paddle, or the white-crowned pigeon birding. So we did neither. We got to talking with the neighbors, Don and Lisa, with the birds, and visited till noon. We were out on the dock, admiring the morning sunshine, when the guy brought the cages back out and set them on the table in the shade. He arranged everthing just like he wanted it, then opened up the cages and five peach-faced lovebirds came wandering out onto the table, talking and squawking, and eating the seed he had spread there. It was irresistible. He was sitting there with his arms out, talking to his birds, picking different ones up in turn, holding them for a while, talking to them, or rubbing their little bellies, then putting them back down. Little birds, just roaming the entire tabletop, but not venturing anywhere else. By noon we were picking up little Lovie, Dovie, Bert, Jack, and ZZ, handling them, talking to them, putting them back down and getting another.
Judy and I have seen skeptical expressions when we’ve resorted to spelling words around the dog, because she’ll understand what we’re talking about if we just say the words outright. It makes a difference if you say the word b.a.t.h., or spell it in Annie’s presence. Well, we caught these people spelling words in front of their birds. t.r.e.a.t. Come on people. They’re tiny little birds with tiny little brains. They’re not warm blooded thinking people like Annie. We had birds on the table. Birds on the ground. They put them on the ground and let them run around too. Then Don said out loud, “who wants a treat?” instead of spelling it. Five little birds all hurried over to his feet to be first. It was hilarious.
Turns out we didn’t forego the mangrove paddle either. Don and Lisa also have a sea kayak, just like the one we paddled in yesterday. We spent the afternoon paddling canals, shallows and mangroves. Back in the mangroves we got really close to a green heron. It’s like a little night heron. For the longest while we just floated out in the bay and let the drift take us. It took Annie about thirty seconds to get used to the boat. Then she just sat in the bottom, or hung over the side watching the shallows go by with her ears dragging in the water. There was lots of interesting stuff to see.
After visiting with the neighbors, lunch, kayaking, and an afternoon run, we decided to go back to
For this trip, we figured we’d just drive down, find a KOA, then look around to get our bearings and see if we found something we liked. We did. We found all of the keys. We like them all a lot. RV parks are very expensive here, but hotels probably cost a lot more. It cost twenty-five dollars just to spend the night in a State Park, except you can’t spend the night in a State Park unless you made a reservation months ago. They’re reserved up solid. We feel we were lucky to find the
No miles on the motorhome. No new birds. Neighbor meeting. More dock sitting. Birding. Kayaking.
Tomorrow, time to head north. We’ll spend the next night at the Flamingo campground in the southern end of the everglades. I read an account of some purple gallinules there.
