Sawgrass Lake Park, The Color of the Day was Blue

Of course I was racing ahead on the boardwalk. I just can't help myself, and so when Renita waved me back I knew I had again missed something important. Mike, my brother from North Carolina, had spotted a beautiful blue tailed skink. It was sunning itself on an upturned tree root and was unconcerned with our presence.

Ever since Mike and I stopped fighting, (Did you ever fight with your brother?), we have enjoyed each others company. Growing up we would scour the woods looking for morel mushrooms and Dad taught us how to to identify native plants, jack in the pulpit, leek, and ginsing along with many others.

Mike developed his love of botany and zoology and so became an expert himself, (he later earned a doctorate in zoology with a specialty in herpetology). So of course he was looking for lizards and snakes with his trained eyes while I was trying but missing so much.

A little further a couple were peering into the palmetto brush and Mona asked them what they were seeing. The man asked her if she could see the snake resting in the brush. Renita waved me back as I was charging ahead and Mike identified the snake as an Eastern Blue Indigo, (a rare threatened species). This snake is nonvenomous and routinely eats rattlesnakes, its immune to the poison, and grows to a length of over nine feet. Sighting it was a special treat and it was obvious the color of the day was blue!

Further down the trail we spotted a Cuban anole. Our resident expert explained the difference between anoles, skinks, and geckos and told us that the Cuban anole was an invasive species that has displaced the native green chameleons, (are actually an anoles),

Of course we saw the ever present alligators and turtles. Birding had been the main activity planned for the day and we hadn't been disappointed. Limpkins, rosettes spoonbills, American white ibis, and Louisiana herons waded and fed completely unconcerned with our nearness. Renita and Mona both spotted a downy woodpecker and as it fed a red bellied woodpecker joined it on the dead tree.

It was a fine day to be birding with family in such a place. Surrounded by the city and  the ever present traffic noise, Sawgrass Lake Park is a little gem in the area. I wish I had come here years ago to see the surrounding area before it was developed to death, (meanwhile Tampa news stations proudly reported that the last undeveloped track of forty acres was going to be turned into a condo and business plaza, go figure). Clear skies