Monday, April 30, 2018

Alligator Eats Fawn - April 28, 2018

Karen and I witnessed a very natural event (yet we felt much sadness) on Saturday evening (April 28) at a pond in The Great Outdoors.  If you are uncomfortable reading about grisly events, do NOT continue reading. 
Doe that we suspect was the fawn's mother

We noticed a doe walking back and forth behind Karen's home and stepped outside to see a large (10 feet OAL?) alligator in the water facing shore with something in its teeth. 
Fawn's rump is to your left of the mouth,
fawn's head is to your right. 





















Using binoculars to avoid approaching the gator too closely, we discovered a small fawn was in the large, toothy mouth.  From the first moment we saw the giant lizard, the fawn never moved on its own and we assumed it was already dead.  As we watched, so did the doe (we assumed it was the fawn's mother) and the huge reptile shook the fawn which split the small body in three parts.  The lower half was flung ashore, the entrails spilled into the water and the upper half remained held tightly by the gator.
This is after swallowing the fawn's upper half and has retrieved the lower half

Eating the lower half













The scaly monster proceeded to chew and chomp its way through the upper half, making crunching noises as the bones were broken to fit down the alligator's gullet.  The animal raised its tail as the fawn's upper body was swallowed.  The doe looked at us as if to ask us for help.  We felt so sad for the doe, but there was nothing to be done.  Of course, the gator deserved the right to fight for a meal.






Over the next half hour the cold-blooded creature retrieved the lower body from where it landed on shore, crunched and consumed it, then fished the entrails from the water and gulped them down.  This entire time the doe continued to wander across the nearby yards and shift its eyes repeatedly from us to the top of the food chain and back to us. 
It was a dramatic event that we were both saddened yet thankful to observe and experience.





Thursday, April 12, 2018

Little Manatee River State Park - April 8-12, 2018

Karen and I drove the RV west across the state to a wonderful state park along the Little Manatee River just north of Bradenton, Florida.  This proved to be a wonderful trip with much relaxation, reading and recreation.



The fun began immediately as we saw a gopher turtle (turtle ID courtesy of Mary Losi) while driving into the park.  Unless he was the fastest turtle we've ever met, we saw his twin in our campsite soon after pitching our dining fly.  We spent the evening and next morning relaxing and reading.  No TV in our RV and we like it that way!
Karen spies our turtle friend

Gopher turtle in our campsite
Our campsite
Our Monday recreation began with a bicycle ride around the park taking us through the picnic area, pavilions, canoe and kayak launch, then to the trailhead parking which featured a small amphitheater overlooking the river and finally out to the park entrance.  As the entire ride is only 5 miles, roundtrip, we decided to repeat it for a bit more exercise.  Besides, the weather was perfect, the Spanish moss draped trees were fascinating, the turtles were sauntering and the ground palms were entrancing. 

Karen watches three ducks splashing
Two turtles have climbed onto downed trees to capture the sun


For our afternoon recreation, we launched our kayaks onto the Little Manatee River for a gentle paddle trip through the calm, quiet waters and shaded passage upstream.  Without wind or rain to disturb the waterway, we could see the bottom and many fish in the clear brook.  Turtles and ducks populated the banks, but with one exception, we were the only humans on the tributary.  We pulled through the hushed stream for a couple hours, returning to our launch spot and leaving the kayaks on a nearby rack for use again later.

Tuesday was forecast to be rain and thunderstorms all day, so we drove into Sarasota, about an hour south of the park, to play tourist.  It turns out that two of our destinations were closed on Tuesday while the Selby Gardens were closed due to the thunderstorm's lightning.  So our touristing was limited to a walk in the gentle rain and finally a trip to the cinema for a dry, air conditioned movie.

Dinner proved to be quite the highlight as we enjoyed the atmosphere and victuals presented by Owen's Fish Camp restaurant in Sarasota.  Although lodged in downtown Sarasota, the appearance is a rural fish camp located in outback Florida, fifty years ago.  The seafood gumbo was superb as was the shrimp and oyster Po' Boy.  We ate in the "backyard" overlooking a ramshackle collection of colorful painted metal lawn chairs, light strings slung from tree to tree and over stuffed lawn lounge chairs collected under the splintery wooden porch roof.  Contrary to the dilapidated veneer, the porch roof didn't leak and the chairs were quite comfortable.



That's an alligator on the floating branch!
The weather having blown through on Tuesday, Wednesday was clear, sunny and comfortable with temps in the 70s and a smooth breeze to ease the bright sunshine.  With all the drainage from the rain, the current was nearly two knots on the river.  To make our recreation less work, we paddled our kayaks upstream against the current for the first half of our excursion getting the work portion out of the way, then meandered lazily back downstream with the current making all the effort as we enjoyed the flow through the creek's canopy.  The muddy backwater precluded seeing anything suspended in the current but the turtles and even a small alligator were sunning themselves on the many logs and branches.
Bicycling was again the activity for the afternoon as we repeated our double roundtrip experience from Monday morning.

Relaxation was the theme of our week's excursion as we slept in past eight AM every morning, finished reading our books, started new books and slept well sharing the night with barely discernable sounds of insects and animals situated well outside our secure little RV.