ST. PETERSBURG, FLA. - "Now, this is strictly a kick-back-and-relax trip, right?"
"For sure! No roaming around some backcountry swamp looking for a story this time, honey."
"Hey, guess what? It says here the whooping cranes are coming in today from the Necedah Wildlife Refuge in Wisconsin. They're going to be flying over some park around here."
"That's nice."
"Well, don't ya' think we ought to check it out?" A menacing silence follows.
The weather has been great here in sunny southern Florida. The sunsets on the Gulf of Mexico are splendid and the beach offers powdery sand up close to our rented condo on Madeira Beach. Near the water's edge, however, the surf-hardened sand is perfect for walking or jogging.
At dawn, the only sounds come from foamy waves rolling gently up onto the beach and an occasional angry screech from a seagull protecting a chunk of rotting carrion. Like early mornings deep within a Wisconsin woodlot, this is the best time of day.
Area restaurants offer great breakfasts and a full menu of fresh fish taken from the Gulf and intra-coastal waterway. The names can be misleading, however. We soon learn from friends Ceil and Dave Breister that Dodo's offers a great breakfast menu. The Frog Pond is another great breakfast nook.
On another foraging mission, we stumble on to the Pickled Parrot, but decide to take a pass. A better choice, we resolve, is the more "upscale" Philthy Phil's on Treasure Island, another barrier island just to the south of us.
All of this is nice, but the urge to wander soon gets the better of me. We miss out on the flyover, but I arrange a meeting with a park biologist at the Chassahowitzka National Wildlife Refuge where the cranes will spend the winter (more on Operation Migration next week).
We travel down to the Everglades in hopes of seeing some alligators. In a well-rehearsed stunt, the airboat guide guns it in a few wild figure eights to give us the feel of a great adventure. In a more serious mood, he describes the alligator's habitat needs, notes that the Everglades is home to 44 kinds of orchids and that civilization has removed fire as a participant in the natural process of maintaining the ecosystem.
Alligator poaching is a problem. The corpse, minus its magnificent tail, will be found floating on its back at the spot where the poachers have carried out their evil deed. Another problem involves the release of large snakes - pythons and boa constrictors - that have outgrown their owners' ability to care for them. Enough of these exotic "pets" have been dumped that they are now reproducing in the Everglades.
We visit Ft. De Soto, where both Floridians and snowbirds enjoy great fishing on a pier extending several hundred feet out into the Gulf. I strike up a conversation with Gordon Mauer from Peoria, Ill. who is fishing for sheepshead - different from the fresh water sheepshead (drum) found in the Great Lakes area. The striped body of the salt-water species leads some to call it the "convict fish."
Mauer is using tubeworms as bait. The tubes containing the worms are collected from the seabed at low tide, he explains. The fisher completes the harvest by forcing the worm out the end. "It works," Mauer says.
Thanks to ESPN coverage, we watch Badger basketball. As usual, Marilyn misses nothing, noting that Keaton "Nankivik" has replaced Jon Leuer as the go to guy in the frontcourt.
Figuring out what is wrong with Travon Hughes takes time, however, as he bricks a couple of free throws. Finally, she's got it. "He needs to hesitate a little before he shoots, like the other guys."
As if on cue, Hughes pauses slightly on his next free throw before letting go. "That's it! Just like that," she whoops with anticipation. Like clockwork, the ball slurps through the net for a much-needed point. Now in a self-congratulatory frame of mind, my basketball buddy debates the pros and cons of sending an e-mail to Bo Ryan to make sure he is aware of the problem.
We also track the current political environment in Florida. Republican Governor Charlie Crist has decided to run for U.S. Senate, and it is not going well. In the past, Crist has ground every challenger into mincemeat. Since his vigorous support of TARP and the stimulus package, however, a fellow Republican has swept past him in the polls.
We watch President Obama's State of the Union speech, noting that he has now embarked on a more fiscally conservative direction. You would never know it the next day, however, as he traveled to nearby Tampa with a promise of $1.2 billion for a rapid transit system between that city and Orlando.
"This is only a down payment," the president says. "There will be more help coming your way." Meanwhile, across the peninsula, thousands of NASA employees face layoffs after the president canceled projects bringing billions of dollars to the state.
Time to go for a long walk on the beach.
- Lee Fahrney is the Monroe Times outdoors writer. He can be reached at (608) 967-2208 or at fiveoaks@mhtc.net.
"For sure! No roaming around some backcountry swamp looking for a story this time, honey."
"Hey, guess what? It says here the whooping cranes are coming in today from the Necedah Wildlife Refuge in Wisconsin. They're going to be flying over some park around here."
"That's nice."
"Well, don't ya' think we ought to check it out?" A menacing silence follows.
The weather has been great here in sunny southern Florida. The sunsets on the Gulf of Mexico are splendid and the beach offers powdery sand up close to our rented condo on Madeira Beach. Near the water's edge, however, the surf-hardened sand is perfect for walking or jogging.
At dawn, the only sounds come from foamy waves rolling gently up onto the beach and an occasional angry screech from a seagull protecting a chunk of rotting carrion. Like early mornings deep within a Wisconsin woodlot, this is the best time of day.
Area restaurants offer great breakfasts and a full menu of fresh fish taken from the Gulf and intra-coastal waterway. The names can be misleading, however. We soon learn from friends Ceil and Dave Breister that Dodo's offers a great breakfast menu. The Frog Pond is another great breakfast nook.
On another foraging mission, we stumble on to the Pickled Parrot, but decide to take a pass. A better choice, we resolve, is the more "upscale" Philthy Phil's on Treasure Island, another barrier island just to the south of us.
All of this is nice, but the urge to wander soon gets the better of me. We miss out on the flyover, but I arrange a meeting with a park biologist at the Chassahowitzka National Wildlife Refuge where the cranes will spend the winter (more on Operation Migration next week).
We travel down to the Everglades in hopes of seeing some alligators. In a well-rehearsed stunt, the airboat guide guns it in a few wild figure eights to give us the feel of a great adventure. In a more serious mood, he describes the alligator's habitat needs, notes that the Everglades is home to 44 kinds of orchids and that civilization has removed fire as a participant in the natural process of maintaining the ecosystem.
Alligator poaching is a problem. The corpse, minus its magnificent tail, will be found floating on its back at the spot where the poachers have carried out their evil deed. Another problem involves the release of large snakes - pythons and boa constrictors - that have outgrown their owners' ability to care for them. Enough of these exotic "pets" have been dumped that they are now reproducing in the Everglades.
We visit Ft. De Soto, where both Floridians and snowbirds enjoy great fishing on a pier extending several hundred feet out into the Gulf. I strike up a conversation with Gordon Mauer from Peoria, Ill. who is fishing for sheepshead - different from the fresh water sheepshead (drum) found in the Great Lakes area. The striped body of the salt-water species leads some to call it the "convict fish."
Mauer is using tubeworms as bait. The tubes containing the worms are collected from the seabed at low tide, he explains. The fisher completes the harvest by forcing the worm out the end. "It works," Mauer says.
Thanks to ESPN coverage, we watch Badger basketball. As usual, Marilyn misses nothing, noting that Keaton "Nankivik" has replaced Jon Leuer as the go to guy in the frontcourt.
Figuring out what is wrong with Travon Hughes takes time, however, as he bricks a couple of free throws. Finally, she's got it. "He needs to hesitate a little before he shoots, like the other guys."
As if on cue, Hughes pauses slightly on his next free throw before letting go. "That's it! Just like that," she whoops with anticipation. Like clockwork, the ball slurps through the net for a much-needed point. Now in a self-congratulatory frame of mind, my basketball buddy debates the pros and cons of sending an e-mail to Bo Ryan to make sure he is aware of the problem.
We also track the current political environment in Florida. Republican Governor Charlie Crist has decided to run for U.S. Senate, and it is not going well. In the past, Crist has ground every challenger into mincemeat. Since his vigorous support of TARP and the stimulus package, however, a fellow Republican has swept past him in the polls.
We watch President Obama's State of the Union speech, noting that he has now embarked on a more fiscally conservative direction. You would never know it the next day, however, as he traveled to nearby Tampa with a promise of $1.2 billion for a rapid transit system between that city and Orlando.
"This is only a down payment," the president says. "There will be more help coming your way." Meanwhile, across the peninsula, thousands of NASA employees face layoffs after the president canceled projects bringing billions of dollars to the state.
Time to go for a long walk on the beach.
- Lee Fahrney is the Monroe Times outdoors writer. He can be reached at (608) 967-2208 or at fiveoaks@mhtc.net.
