Saturday December 25th 2021

Merry Christmas Everyone

Today was a beautiful day with a high temperature of eighty. It was about five degrees warmer than average with bright sun and very little wind.

The highlight of my day was a couple of hikes separated by cooking and eating dinner. There were plenty of people out enjoying the park. Some of the conversations I overhear are amusing. There are a lot of wildlife “experts” in many groups of visitors. Hearing the alligators identified as crocodiles is very common. The strength of conviction in some of the pronouncements is the amusing part. I’m not great with bird identifications, but some of the identifications I overhear are wild. The Rosetta Spoonbills are often identified as Flamingos because of their bright pink feathers and the Great Blue Herons get mistaken for “cranes”. Today a pair of Wood Storks got identified as Penguins by one very loud authority from a New York car then corrected to be Pelicans when questioned by another member of his party. My guess is he has never seen either bird before.

Birds

Alligators