Monday February 7th 2022

The weather forecast was a little more optimistic than reality today. The forecast called for partial sun this afternoon, but the heavy morning clouds continued throughout the day. The high temperature was in the low to mid fifties. Rain is in the forecast for tomorrow into Wednesday.

I was back to my two hike routine. My morning hike to the river found a few people paddling on the river. The warm river water was giving off a nice layer of steam like evaporation into the cold air. The birds were all back away form the river bank in the trees to stay warmer. Periodically one bird or another would break the quiet with a loud call or squawk. I hung around the kayak launch for a half an hour waiting to see anything interesting, but other than a couple of confused kayak paddlers nothing happened. The confused paddlers were disappointed to learn they had more than two more miles to paddle before they reached their takeout point.

My second hike, late in the day, was to the river overlook. I spooked a couple more deer on the way. Either I’m making to much noise walking or I’m very unlucky. I managed to catch the white tails of these deer as they bounded away. At the overlook I had a little better luck. A few manatee were having lunch in the weeds up river a few hundred yards. They were just close enough that I could get some reasonable zoom pictures when they took a break to breath.