Wildlife

After the Marine Aquarium, Bill wanted to take a drive up to a park he’d heard about. So we drove up to Honeymoon Island. The beaches there are rated the best. Unfortunately, it was way too windy to hang out on the beach, though we watched a few guys kite surfing, so we took a short hike through the nature preserve. It was only about a mile in and back. We saw many osprey and their nests. It is said they are always hunting and always protecting. Their squawks as they spotted us definitely told us to keep away from their nests.

Ben found a good size stick and spent the rest of the hike peeling the bark off, dragging it through mud, pole vaulting and whacking things. Luke was not much into the hike, so he spent a lot of time on my or Bill’s shoulders. I snapped this picture of Audrey and Daddy a little too late since right before that they were walking ahead holding hands.

A sign before we entered the park said that rattlesnakes were very common and we should be aware (we never saw any!). It also mentioned the osprey and a couple of other animals, but it never mentioned armadillos. We saw 5 on our walk! The novelty of armadillos wore off quickly for Ben and he asked us if we were going to keep stopping every time we saw one. Their eyesight is not very good so they passed right by us without even noticing, unless we were upwind. I snapped this picture for one of my students, Gabrielle, who had just composed a piece about a jumping armadillo!

We got to what ended up being the top of the trail and met a couple who told us that there was a bald eagle’s nest just a bit further in. The entire area had been fenced off so as to not disturb the nest. We could see the birds through the trees. There were two older babies. What a treat for us!

The vegetation along the way was so amazing. We really enjoyed this area!