Saturday February 20th 2021

After a day of all clouds and rain, today was a day of blue sky and sunshine. The only thing that didn’t improve is the temperature. The mercury just broke the sixty degree mark today. It was a nice day overall. It just wasn’t what you expect for this area at this time of year.

I got a slow start to the day. The inside temperature was in the forties, so after turning up the heat I went back to bed. It was afternoon before I left my RV home for my first hike of the day. Many other people were using the park for recreation today. At the day use area had about twenty cars in the parking lot. That is more than I’ve seen on other days. People were using the area as a base for hiking, fishing, boating and picnics. Lake Wauburg had many boats competing for space. Sailboats, peddle boats and a few kayaks came from the University of Florida’s recreation area on the far shore. Other kayaks and fishing boats came from the boat launch at the day use area.

After a few days without many bird sightings, the herons and anhingas were back today. They seem to frequent the same places everyday. The Anhinga has one tree that it uses for drying its wings every afternoon. The Heron also seems to search for food in same set water plants. The Heron is fun to watch as it steps carefully among the plants, pauses to watch the water then suddenly darts its head into the water. Usually it comes up with something edible in its mouth.

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