Gator Watch 2010

If you hadn't already heard, I've had a crazy couple of weeks and I'm now spending a little time with Jan & Ron in Florida.  As an avid golfer and hater of cold weather (short sleeves come out at 68 degrees, shorts at 75), Ron has been wintering in Florida for several years now.  Last year Jan started heading south with him, and now they leave snowy Chicago behind right after New Year's and soak up the Florida sun until the first week of April.  The house they rented this year is in the same neighborhood as last year's, and it's really beautiful.

However, if you've read In Her Shoes by Jennifer Weiner (or seen the movie with Cameron Diaz) you should probably imagine me in the role of Maggie.

(These signs are all over the gated community and they entertain me to no end.)

The house looks over a cute little pond and I've discovered that apparently I sort of enjoy bird-watching.  Who knew?  I suppose if you have something other than robins to look at that makes it a bit more interesting.  Here's a view of the pond from the lenai:

Not bad, right?  Well apparently it attracts a lot of beautiful water birds like the Great Blue Heron:

(Thanks to Jan for the demonstration of how he walks.  I wish you all could have seen it.)

and the Great Egret:

and the Glossy Ibis and White Ibis (who are apparently camera-shy):

We also have a couple of Anhingas (which sit on the bank or in a tree with their wings outstretched to dry after fishing because they're too heavy to fly), some Limpkins, a Little Blue Heron, and a flock of Moorhens.

So every morning I wake up in this room:

which I obviously identified as my room as soon as I walked in, and then I pour a cup of coffee, grab the binoculars, and check the pond for activity.  Then throughout the day I'll wander out onto the lenai to see if anyone's out there, and if it's not raining I lobby for lunch in the sun so we can keep tabs on our feathered friends.

Now part of my fascination with the pond is the fact that before I got here there were reports of an alligator sighting.  The edge of the pond is about 10 feet from the lenai, so having lived most of my life in the Midwest, a  little alligator action is pretty exciting!  I've been obsessing over finding him, and you might be surprised to hear that a gator does not respond to calls of "Here gator, gator!  Come out come out wherever you are!"  At least not at first.  But if you do it often enough he just might show himself!  A couple of days ago we got all excited because we thought we saw him swimming across the pond, but something just didn't seem quite right.  Yesterday we discovered a turtle sitting on a concrete slab on the other side of the pond and realized that was what we had seen swimming.  (It's actually easier than you might think to confuse a turtle for an alligator.)  Hooray for a turtle sighting!  He would have been my favorite pond resident had I not gone out for a run a couple of days ago...

I decided to check out the other side of the pond, and guess who I found hanging out on the bank?  The gator!!  (It was probably my pretty smile and friendly personality that lured him out.  That or he thought maybe if he showed himself I would shut up.)  I was under strict instructions to call Jan if I saw him, so I did just that and she and Ron met me with the binoculars after I finished my run.  Whaddya think?  Pretty cool, eh?

So this is how I'm filling the gaps in my day.  It's only going to be 55 today (Not that I'm complaining.  It was -5 at home when I got up this morning!), but I think I'll head out for a run in a bit and see if my new gator friend is hanging out across the pond.  Even if he's not, at least I'll get to see more of this:

Wish you were here!