Week One on Big Pine Key

"Settling in" means setting up our campsite, getting reacquainted with friends from past winters, and starting to review names of birds, trees and plants that we have forgotten over the past year.  We also visit special places where we like to eat like "No Name Key Pub", and find local familiar landmarks like the Blue Hole.  We added a screen house to our camping gear and find it helpful both on chilly days or when the sun is quite intense.  Latona says "hi".

Big Pine Key is the site of the National Key Deer Refuge.  The deer that are found here are a sub-species of our whitetails, and in appearance, look like miniature versions of our deer in Maine, except for the fact that they don't grow any bigger than 26-30 inches at the shoulder. This Key and the immediate area is the only place they exist in the world - according to the literature.    Although quite "tame" here in the campground, most campers resist feeding them and spoiling their natural eating habits.  They always come and check however - just in case a morsel may be found.

The Blue Hole is one of the little side trips to enjoy here on Big Pine Key.  It is the remains of an old rock quarry and is the only natural source of fresh water on the Lower Keys.  From the observation deck, we have spotted alligators, turtles, Green Heron, Pied Grebes, American Coot, and a variety of fish.

Wonderful wildlife sightings are plentiful everywhere we go.  On another visit to Bahia Honda SP,  Latona took a picture of...

a Broad-Winged Hawk

             a Magnificent Frigatebird

and the Nickerbean Bush.  (Can't find another name for this is our guide but a ranger at park identified this for us. Gotta believe those rangers!!)

And in our screen house, we had a special visitor for a whole day. We had to find our resident "butterfly/moth" expert lady to identify this one, known as a Black Witch Moth, the largest moth in the continental US.  This one is a male (they are the darker of the two sexes) and registered almost six inches across the wings.

My mother gave Latona this "fun" pair of sandals and I will use this image to close out for today.  (We will try to add a new post weekly.  Please forgive any misspelling and grammatical errors.  I am still working on learning how to format and I know I have made errors.)

As always, whether in sandals or hiking boots, we wish you "Happy Trails".