Ok, I admit it… I’m a fair weather walker. I mean, I do enjoy walking in a light rain, and I love watching the snow fall around me, and I don’t mind cool weather. But when the trails are covered in ice, and the temps are well below zero… well, that’s pretty much where I draw the line. Minnesota, so far in 2019, hasn’t been the most hospitable in regard to what I would classify as “fair weather” conditions. However, my husband and I did take a short trip to warmer climes last week, and did a bit of walking while we were there. Our trip was primarily to visit my father, as he was spending most of January on his own. He and my step-mother live in a large gated community in West Palm Beach, Florida. Their home is bordered on one side by a slow-moving stream, and along the back by a wide channel. And, despite the area being a fairly large community, all the water winding around buildings and streets attracts a fair amount of wildlife, particularly birds. This, along with the lovely Florida weather, made walking quite a pleasure! On our first night, the waning moon cast a beautiful soft light through palm fronds, and rippled gently on the stream’s surface.
Most of our wandering took place around the community, which is crisscrossed with channels that connect a couple of good sized lakes. Due to all the interconnected waterways, the opportunities for spotting wildlife are considerable, and walking along all those lush green embankments was quite soothing. In past years an alligator could be spotted, alongside several turtles, lounging on a wildlife raft on the channel, but we didn’t find any alligators this year. Instead, we wound up following the antics of an otter as it cavorted through the channel and along the shoreline. What a character!
But by far birds were the most abundant. Our wanderings brought us within fairly close range of White Ibis, Great Egret, Tricolored Heron, several species of duck, Fish Crows, too many Turkey Vultures to count, and mockingbirds, to name a few. Some of these I will post photos of here.
We were only in Florida for a few days, but we tried to make the most of them. The weather was mild, though we had little sun, and the relative warmth felt heavenly to us northerners! So we walked often. My father isn’t able to walk well anymore, so we were never gone for long, but we explored as many of the channels as we could. As we strolled long the stream one day, we spotted a soft-shell turtle, neck stretched long, cruising slowly through the languid water. Everything there seemed to move with a casual ease that we tried to fall into step with.
In the evenings the frogs came out in force, gossiping loudly from one bank to the other, pausing to draw breath, then beginning again. It was wonderful! There’s nothing like listening to frogs in January!
The sound of the wind in the palms was quite peaceful as well, and I enjoyed standing on the bridge over the stream, soaking in the mild evenings, just listening. I love the soft hush of falling snow, but there is something so very restful about the sound of a warm breeze moving through greenery… leaves, palms, grasses. I feel it all.
But now we’re back in Minnesota, and the temperatures have plummeted to nearly -30, with a wind chill approaching -50. I don’t recall it being this cold for many years. I understand the polar vortex has shifted due to climate change, and we can expect this kind of weather to be our new winter norm. ((sigh)) I don’t really want to think too much about that at the moment, though, so I’ll just post a final photo of a Tricolored Heron here, and remember the warm winds, the movement of water, the calls of birds, the antics of otters, and the feeling of re-connecting with family.