Monsoons in the marshlands

As luck would have it, we've battled rain and wind for the past 10 days. First came TD5, then it fizzled and came back around to keep our winds blowing and thunderstorms for some-part of most days. i had a new camera ordered and it came in yesterday so I'm chompin at the bit to go play with it. Wanted to run up East River and take a few bird pictures and maybe a tarpon picture are two, but there are thunderstorms bouncing all around us...so I decided I'd run over to Tate's Hell and see what I could find that would hold still long enough for me to figure out what buttons to push and knob to twirl.

After a stop at Cash's creek for the first rain picture I  went to the dwarf cypress board walk.

Several unique stands of cypress wetlands are located within the forest. These cypress trees are documented to be over 150 years old but only reach a mature height of approximately 15 feet, hence the name "dwarf cypress". They are also referred to as "miniature" or "hat-rack" cypress. The Ralph G. Kendrick Boardwalk offers an observation tower overlooking one of the most prolific areas.

The cypress were too mono-toned to be any fun. As I started to walk back to the truck I noticed a number of water lilies in the swamp surrounding the board walk. I took several picture at different settings and I thought this one came out nice.

I didn't see anything else of interest other than a king snake, but he was too fast for me.

About that time another shower started to head my way, plus it was nearing lunch time so headed back to the house for a bologna sandwich and to study some of the software that came with the camera.

We'll after my sandwich and about 30 minutes of refusing to read the manual...here's my latest creation!

This is the picture above with colors manipulated...I think it turned out cool! This may expose my artsy fartsy side...nah, no way. I don't think it exists. But I do think I'm going to have fun with my new camera.

Manatees Love Apalachicola

Well... I saw a first today and didn't have my camera with me...just my luck.

As I started across the causeway to Apalachicola, there were about 10 vehicles pulled off the south side of  Hwy 98, with the drivers and occupants looking at the bay. After stopping I could see something splashing about 50 yards out in the bay and realized that it was a manatee breeding.

It seems that manatees are indiscriminate breeders and when a cow goes into heat, all the males in the neighborhood show up. Today there were 9or 10 in attendance when  I stopped, but I was told they had been there for several hours.

Oyster Radio's Blog

Here are some photos that John took.

John's photos

Here are some photos Laura took of the manatees.

East Bay Manatees

Tarpon Days of Summer

These sweltering days of late July, August and September are thought of as the "Dog Days", but I prefer to think of them as the "Tarpon Days". We have a great tarpon fishery in and around Apalachicola, that doesn't receive much pressure...at least the areas that I fish. We fished 4 days last week and we saw one other boat tarpon fishing!

Here's a nice account of 3 days from last week.     Jim & Tim's Tarpon Trip