A week at Palm Beach Coast

We have just spent a week at Palm Beach Coast, a little bit north of Fort Lauderdale, with an unusual mix of weather to be sure!  There was a lot of rain, cold, flood warnings, tornado warnings, thunderstorm warnings, etc.  But we did get some bike riding and walking on the beach weather as well.  I'll just be posting lots of pictures in no particular order.  So here goes.

One of the things we like to do in Florida is to walk on beaches.  There were lots of sea birds on this one. 

I love to see these little sand pipers run through and ahead of the waves, poking their long bills into the sand, looking for goodies. 

These unusual birds are called skimmers, and they fly just above the waves looking for fish to eat, then when they find one, they skim into the water and grab it.

 

This one obviously spied something that interested him! 

This man was fishing from the shore, but didn't seem to be having much luck. 

This osprey was luckier than the man who was fishing - he caught a BIG one! 

One day I came upon this poor fellow who only had one foot.  I decided to call him "Stumpy".  It really didn't seem to slow him down a bit! 

Another time I came across a pair of gulls that were much bigger than the other gulls on the beach.  They were more like the size of ducks! 

 

This was the mate to the large gull.  She was a tiny bit smaller, and much prettier.  

In this picture, you can see the large gull behind the regular sized ones, and can see the difference in size. 

On one nice day, we decided to do a fairly long bike ride to a state park at the north end of the island we were on.  The island was called Singer Island, and the state park was called the John D. MacArthur Beach State Park.  This is a statue of Mr. MacArthur.  Apparently he was a VERY rich man, and donated some very valuable property to the State of Florida. 

There was a visitors centre where we watched a movie, and there was a bit of an aquarium as well.  This is a sea turtle, which can spend a lot of time under water, but does breathe air.  Anna and Riley, can you tell me some differences between this turtle and the ones we see in Ontario? 

Here's looking at you! 

This very pretty fish seemed quite willing to pose for me! 

This fellow was behind glass, which was okay with me! 

This beautiful butterfly was outside, and I followed it until I could get a picture of it. 

And this tiny little thing entertained us as we ate our picnic lunch.  Where you see the white streak, he kept poofing out an orange pouch, but not when I was taking his picture! 

This osprey seemed to be as interested in me as I was in him! 

Along the side of the Intracoastal Waterway, which is between the mainland and the islands along the ocean, there are trees growing which are sometimes called "walking trees"  Can you guess why, Anna and Rylee?  The Intracoastal water is a mixture of salt and sweet water, and these trees, which are called Mangroves do very well in this water.  There are 3 kinds of Mangroves - black, red, and white, but they all have roots growing down into the water like these.  The water rises and falls with the ocean's tides, and many critters make their home among the roots. 

From where we were staying, it was an easy ride to the south end of the island, where there was an "Inlet" from the ocean to the Intracoastal Waterway.  There were always lots of boats coming and going up and down the inlet, and we loved to watch them. 

There were lots of benches to sit and watch the boats, drink our coffee, read our books. 

One day when we were there, there was a man with a "drone".  He was using it to film the inlet for a boating magazine.  His cell phone was attached to the controls, and there was a camera mounted under the drone, and he could see on the cell phone the pictures that the camera was taking.  Amazing! 

When I'm not chasing butterflies, I'm chasing bees! 

This was the end of the "jetty" at the inlet, and on this day, the ocean was very rough.  I got my feet wet on this one! 

Because of the very cold weather that has been happening, even in the south of Florida this winter, many of these little guys have frozen to death, so I'm always excited to see some live ones! 

On our ride to the inlet, we always rode through this long, narrow park, with lots of trees and flowers.  This is a banyan tree, which shoots down air roots, which then start to grow into the ground to become more trunks, thus enlarging the tree.  If you look very closely, you will see me in the middle of the tree.  We heard that this tree is over a hundred years old. 

Some of the beautiful flowers. 

 One of my favorite birds to watch in Florida is the pelican.  This kind is the brown pelican, but there is another kind that is not nearly as easy to find.  It is bigger than the brown pelican, and it is all white.  I really hope that I will see some before the winter is over.  I was lucky to get right up close and personal with these beautiful birds, and they didn't even seem to mind.  Guess they are used to having people around. 

And so farewell until next Monday.  Hope you have enjoyed the pictures, Anna and Rylee.  Have a wonderful week!