Urban Wildlife

In an effort to stay to a schedule, which includes some exercise, we have been getting up earlier than normal to go to Megan’s apartment to clean and organize, and from there we go on our walk/run.  Cindy normally stays within the gates of the apartment complex until the sheets that she washed can be put in the dryer and then we go back later to fold and tidy again. My walks have taken me to some marvelous little pockets of unspoiled scrub, ponds, and rivers. Not too far away is a large park, Lettuce Lake Wildlife Park, that is hard up against the Hillsbrough River which meanders for about fifty miles before dumping its water into Tampa Bay. We had a picnic there last week with all the Florida kids, and it was a marvelous time, but we only saw a snake and someone saw a gator. On my walks thus far I’ve seen a family of ducks - mom and dad had red on their beaks and the ten little ones were all dull brown and mottled for protection. There was another fowl family, wild turkeys this time, mom and dad and eight young ones, wandering around the grounds of the regional office of Verizon. There are two donkeys and one bull and three cows in a field near the fire station and there are birds everywhere. We’ve seen three types of cranes, one large white stork, at least 3 kinds of herons, a pileated woodpecker or two, a pair of Sandhill Cranes, many ducks and swans, a flock of 5 parrots, and tons of songbirds who must winter over here in Tampa.

The absolute best viewing of wildlife however has been only a few feet away from the entrance to Megan’s apartment complex. We came across what we think is a Gulf Coast Box Turtle who was preparing a nest to deposit her eggs. She had come from a pond that is about two hundred yards from where she was digging (we figured out later). We assume that she has been doing this for decades since they can live to be a hundred, and we think it used to be a direct shot from the pond to the high ground that she chose for her nest. In the intervening years housing has been built that blocks her direct path so she decided to take the sidewalk and drop the eggs. We watched her for about an hour while she dug a nest. She would dig a little with her left hind leg using her webbing as a shovel, and then swing her butt over and use her right hind leg and dig a little more. After about eight of these sessions she would urine in the hole to make it easier to dig. When she had a nest about four inches deep, she began to deposit her eggs, a total of 22. If you have any interest you can click on this link to see my video.  When she was done, she buried the eggs, cleaned the area and then took off down the road and back to the pond as we followed to make sure she didn’t get hit by a car. It was spellbinding for us. We check every day to make sure no one has tampered with our nest!

Best wishes,  Cindy and Wm