March 23rd, 2022

Obviously, Joy and I haven't quite gotten back to our photo safari's yet and actually right this minute, she's out of town anyway. So I haven't had the opportunity to share with you the results of any of our hiking/photographing adventures.

So to fill that gap, I am offering up today the "Not a Photo Safari"  and "Not a Hike" photo exhibition.  Not long ago, Tim and I stopped by the Rookery  just to see what was happening there.  The what-ery, I hear you wondering?  As it so happens, here in Venice (but off island) , tucked in behind the County Building and behind an RV park is an area dedicated to protecting local wildlife and educating visitors about said wildlife; in particular, birds.  There is an official Audubon Welcome Center  and a couple of lovely big ponds that have islands in the centers.  

The ponds are surrounding by native, natural flora, which not only add to the beautiful environment but clearly are making big points with our feathered friends because they flock to the rookery.  Flock, get it!  What an awful pun. I should apologize, but I won't.

The rookery has recently undergone a lot of improvements so the bird population will only increase.  And that is a good thing.   The good folks at Aububon have even built special bat houses to help keep the insect population at bay.  I have never seen it, but I have been told that if you arrive at dusk you can see the swarm (Is swarm the right word? I just checked. The correct word is colony) of bats emerging from their houses en masse and watch them flapping and flying out into the night in search of dinner.  It sounds like quite an impressive sight but, I'm not sure if the awesomeness of having such a unique experience is fully outweighed by the ick factor. I'm sorry. I have no grievances with bats. I love that they eat bugs and I support their right to existence, but I'm also a little icked out by them.

Meanwhile, here are a few of the locals that we did get to view, and it's not all birds either:

The actual ponds and the  fountain (and an alligator that I did not get a photo of) on the grounds  bears noting as well:

We also headed up to the National Cemetery to 'visit' my dad. It may sound strange to you, but it is such a beautiful place, that when we have the time we also make it a point to just stroll the property.  We were delighted and surprised to see all of the birdie visitors that were there. Oh and one tortoise:

It was a big day for birds!  

So there you have it, the Not a Photo Safari.   I'm sure that soon enough Joy and I will be back out there trekking through the underbrush, wandering off trail, getting lost and taking some  photos of interesting and beautiful things!