Jonathan Dickinson State Park, Hobe Sound, Florida (Jupiter)
How can you believe if you accept praise from one another, yet make no effort to obtain the praise that comes from the only God? ~ John 5:44
Strong winds last night kept us up a lot, so there was a great deal of feet-dragging and moaning as we tried to get up and out the door for today’s adventure. Maybe we should become coffee drinkers? Once we managed to get out the door – at 9:30 – we were fine.
Today’s excursion took us to Riverbend Park, a Tropical 666-acre park split by the Loxahatchee River, with hiking & horse trails, plus picnicking. They forgot to mention kayaking. That’s what we’re here for, and it was a bit challenging in places, but marvelously beautiful!
We were blessed to see two or three small gators – just their eyes and snouts, a host of turtles, a few fish, a river otter’s face up close as he studied us from behind a log for just a few seconds, and . . . .
A cat in a canoe! You’ll just have to trust me. I wasn’t going to snap a picture. It was an orange-striped tabby and it was wearing a pink harness and a leash. And yes, the couple had been canoeing with it in their boat. Just when you thought you’d seen it all . . .
We also encountered a few birds, including what we now know are Swallow-tailed Kites. These birds are beautiful as they soar overhead, dipping and swerving much like swallows.
Here’s what I was able to find out about them from allaboutbirds.com:
- The kite’s aerial acrobatics while on the hunt are something to see. It continually flicks and rotates its tail, switching from a straight course to a tight turn in an instant as it scans for prey. Sometimes it rolls and dives backward to catch an insect behind it. Adults swallow their food while flying, rarely perching during the day.
- Though adult Swallow-tailed Kites eat mostly flying insects, they feed their young with many types of small vertebrates – including tree frogs, lizards, nestling birds, and snakes. They snatch these animals from trees and other plants while in flight, and carry them in their feet.
- Swallow-tailed Kites eat many stinging insects including wasps and fire ants. In Florida, the kites often return to their nests with whole wasp nests, eat the larvae, and add the insect’s nest into their own nest. Their stomachs are thicker and spongier than the average raptor stomach.
Once again proving how great our God is!
After kayaking was a stop at WalMart where we spent an hour walking around pretty much like zombies, then home and much needed rest for the night.