Phaedra coming to you from beautiful Sanibel!

Can you believe it?  January is almost gone and we are halfway finished with our “tour of duty” at J.N. Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge!  Zoe and I are really happy to be here with sunny skies and warm temperatures.  Today, I think it is going to be in the upper 70’s with blue skies, fair winds and following seas.  
 

So, you ask, “What have all y’all been doing down there for all this time?”  I’m so glad you asked.  Mostly staying in the camper.  However, there have been quite a few times when we have been able to go to the beach and run all over.  Lately, though, it’s been a tad too cold to do that so we just beg to get Papa to take us out and throw the ball.

On the other hand, Papa and Mama have been so busy that they are begging for the quiet solitude of a beach chair and a book.  There were actually several nights when Mama was so tired that she couldn’t read in bed after the 11:00 o’clock news.  That’s such a rarity, I can tell you!

They are really getting

into this kayaking job 

to remove monofilament from the mangroves so that the birds don’t get caught in it.  Both of them have a group of 4 kayaks that go off in various directions and scours the landscape for lures, lines, bobbers, and lead weights.  This happens every Friday morning.  Then in the afternoon, they go back out by themselves and put in at the places where it is more difficult to launch but much closer to the birds. 

This past Friday, both Mama and Papa were within 3 feet of Tricolor Egrets and about 5 feet from a large group of White Pelicans.  They love it.  Mama also had to climb out over the water on a mangrove branch in order to reach hooks and a line that as Jeff, the Invasive Species Ranger, said - only a fool could have made such a bad cast!  I think I’d rather fish with my mouth instead of using a pole.  I had a friend, Cody, who used to “patrol” the beach by his dock and every once in a while he’d plunge his head under water and come up with a big ole fish!  I didn’t ever see Cody swallow the fish whole like the birds do, though.  He practiced “Catch and Release” quite well.

Yesterday, the folks were gone all day. They went into Fort Myers to help out their friends, other Resident Volunteers, who were hosting an outreach kiosk at the Florida Science and Inventor’s Fair.  They were talking about the Junior Duck Stamp Program for kids in school.  It is an art contest that involves doing scientific research about waterfowl and then the kids draw, paint, or illustrate a bird that they choose.  The art competition is in every state in the U.S. and the national winner has a stamp made of her artwork.  

 Ding Darling is where this competition originally began, and it is a really big thing.  (Mama even had a student at Chapel Hill High School who was one of the state winners and had a reception with President Clinton the year that he won.)  It sure is a small world with all the connecting threads in life, isn’t it?   
 
I bet I can paint ducks, you know.  You must all remember Jackson Pollock and his “drip period”, right?  Anyway, I thought I could use my tail and paint a duck that way if he could throw paint onto a canvas and become famous.  What do you think?

Every day, we take a ride out to the refuge to see the different birds.  Mama is trying to figure out all the shore birds now.  


She has a several favorites, the Black Skimmer, the Royal Tern, and the Sandwich Tern.  Plus they both really like the little Sanderlings that are the wave chasers.  They’re so fast that Zoe couldn’t catch them even if the folks let her go after them.  They’re such sticks-in-the-mud, though.  They say we can’t harass or chase anyone.  I hope to get free one day and go with gusto!!!

Drinks at a beach bar!

The people here are too nice.  So far Papa and Mama have been invited to a dinner party, have gone out to dinner with someone else and then returned to their home to play bridge, went to see The King’s Speech with a group of people after one of their new friends had bid at a charity auction and won a day at the theater for herself and 59 of her closest friends. They have, also, met up with many friends of a long-time friend whom they knew in Germany.  
 
Their great friends, the Coopers and the Drezners are here, too.  They went on another cruise with Karen, Sherree, and Herb one late afternoon.  I wish I could have gone, too.  As you see, I don’t much care for all this social life because, guess what, we stay at home.  At least we are getting our beauty rest.  And boy do we look wonderful!

So, the discussion lately has gone something like this:  "My favorite is the older one."  Or, "I like the young one the best."  After a few times of hearing this, Zoe and I wondered if they were talking about us.  We always thought they liked us both equally, but we started to get worried.  Come to find out, they were talking about Juvenile and Adult Night Herons.  So, now that we aren't worried anymore, you can decided for yourselves.