It has been a bit difficult to keep up with the blog over the last few days, a lot had been going on and, believe it or not, a bit of stress has occurred. The Volcanic eruption has affected us and to cut a long story short, we are now stranded in "paradise" until May 2nd. 

So, to get back to the real things in hand……….. my wildlife watching and recording. My Osprey observations have been good and I have had some good experiences with them over the last few days.

This one was seen out, deep in the backwaters Everglades near to  Ckokoloskee. A wonderful wild experience through "hardly navigable" waterways in to a massive wilderness area where Ospreys were the most noticeable avian residents. 

My nephew Geoff and our good friend Zac were my partners for the day. Both are expert anglers with a real passion for the outdoors. Their quarry was "catch and release" Snook. There was a lot of excitement as we stalked our quarry. In spite of being a lifelong angler, I know have some real reservations about fishing but this wilderness experience seemed OK as so much care was taken with the odd fish that were caught and quickly released. People who have a passion for angling DO care about the environment and are real custodians of the waters around here. So, yes I have no concerns about people like Geoff and Zac connecting with the environment through the medium of fishing. It certainly was an amazing experience to see, very close and first hand, this amazing predator………… a truly wild fish, not stocked or seen before by anyone, living and existing in a truly wild place and reaching a weight and length which was truly impressive.

Anyway, here are more Ospreys taken as we travelled along the Tamiami Trail.

A really interesting observation was on the beach at Dania where one of the regularly seen Osprey had his fishing trip interrupted by two annoying Laughing Gulls who just would not leave him alone. They mobbed him until he eventually had enough and turned the tables on them.