Thanksgiving Fishing, Getting Our Etsy Store Ready for Christmas, Birding at Sawgrass Lake 2016

We really did put the turkey in the oven and then went fishing. It was easy as we just hoped on the elevator and walked to the fishing dock at Jen and Eric’s Condo. I had left my old cast net back in Wyoming and so I had to purchase a new one. Not sure of the size I bought a seven footer, oops!

It took me a few casts before I actually made a good one. The first six caught a few unlucky fish, only because there were so many greenbacks down there that a few had to get tangled in the net. Jen took one of the first ones, cast out, and caught a puffer on her first try. It blew itself up like a football and just as fast deflated.

My turn came next and of course I caught a lizard fish. It’s an ugly skinny fish that has the head of a barracuda and the body that is long and narrow. We kept getting bites from little fish and so we decided to head back along the sea wall. I made one last cast and threw the net right, filling it with enough green backs to last till the turkey was done.

I never caught another fish but Jen caught two undersize gag groupers and several ocean bream. Three hours later we went upstairs and the turkey was done to perfection, talk about being lucky. Eric came home from work and we celebrated being eating as much as we possibly could.

After dinner, we flopped down on the sofa and Renita checked our email. She told me that we had sold some jewelry on our Etsy store! The next day, we shipped the item and then spent the next three days posting new items on our online store.

Finally, we were caught up and so we decided to go birding at Sawgrass Lake Park. It’s right next to our rv park and after a ten-minute drive, we reached the park and headed down the boardwalk. It was immediately obvious that the drought has hit the area hard. The water level was down and the vegetation choked most of the canals. We only saw one fish and there seemed to be a dearth of wading birds.

Turtles were in abundance and we did see a few alligators. Walking the boardwalk, it took us about two hours as we stop and bird, provided us with the chance to spot the usual wading birds. I did get an image of an adult palm warbler in non-breeding plumage, and that’s about the only way we can id such a little bird, from an image!

There were quite a few American white ibis, a little blue heron, quite a few marsh hens and coots so we did see birds. The gopher tortoises did not make an appearance from their dens, you may recall their scandalous behavior from last year’s visit.

Still it was a nice day in the park, even with the roar of the traffic. There are about three million people in this area and another million and a half after the holidays. As we live near a town of 300 people, well I don’t do crowded cities well. Clear skies