Shrimp boats make for a good breakfast!

As I was driving around at the crack of dawn, I noticed a lot of bird activity on one shrimp boat in particular. It was apparent that it had shrimped the previous night and the nets still contained  some small fish and shrimp. Various birds were climbing about the boat looking for breakfast.

Immature black crowned night heron

Mature black crowned night heron,

Night heron finds a a small fish.

Night heron with a small flounder.

 

Great blue heron with a shrimp.

  Great blue spears a flounder.

Sometimes you have to take a break after all that eating.

October in Apalachicola

We've already had nights in the high 40-low 50 degree range. These changes trigger the movements of birds and fish, such as the increase in the number of wood storks in the last couple of weeks. I see very few during the summer, but now we are seeing them daily.

 

Our local herons and egrets are also more active, due to all the pogies and shrimp that are moving with the cooling waters.

The tarpon are also following the schools of pogies . It's not uncommon to see large schools of tarpon crashing into the migrating pogies.

The cooler weather also brings the southbound butterflies. The gulf fritillaries are coming through by the 1,000's and will soon be joined by large flights monarchs.

 If you've never visited the Panhandle in the fall, you're missing a wonderful experience. Fishing, photography or just sight seeing, now is the time.

Storm over Wewa

I had heard the rumble of an afternoon thunderstorm as I was working on an update for my new blog, which is another story that I'll explain in a minute. Anyway I decided it was time for an afternoon libation, just to get the creative juices flowing, and walked out on the front porch  and saw this thunderstorm to my west over Wewahitchka/ Dead Lakes. Unfortunately I had carried my camera inside to down load pictures that I had taken earlier today and a cool camera and warm humid air create instant fogging. The pictures aren't as sharp as I would like, but I think the refracted colors caused by winds across the top of the storm are evident.

 

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Thanks for the e-mails and calls checking on my health...ok, I was way behind on an update. Other than the fact that that this is my busy time of the year tarpon fishing, I've just completed a course through the University of Florida(IFSA) to become a Florida Master Naturalist. It covered plants, vertebrate and invertebrate animals, and the ecology of the coastal systems.  Plants have long been a weakness of mine and I was fortunate to have neighbor who  is also a Master Gardner; she took the course with me and has been of tremendous help in identifying native plants. Our class project was a blog that is dedicated to the rivers of East Bay and primarily the East River. My intent is to keep that blog focused on the flora and fauna of the East River, and the photographic opportunities that avail themselves through the year.

I invite all of you to visit us at East River Florida. It's a work in progress and we'd appreciate your pictures of East River and any comments or observations.

Tarpon time in the rivers

We've had a strong invasion of tarpon in the last 3 weeks and fishing will only improve since the cool fronts are most likely history. There are a lot of fish on the beaches and in some of the rivers. If you haven't booked your days yet, give me a call or email me so we can get your days on the books.

 I spend a lot of time looking for tarpon, when I'm not fishing for them. One of the nice things about cruising rivers and creeks are all the great flowers we see!

Spider lilies

String lilies

Dog roses

 

Water lilies

Button bush

Obedient plant

 And of course the magnolias!!

This is a great time of the year to be in the Panhandle. If you want to catch a tarpon or take pictures of our plentiful wild life, we can accommodate you.