Great Day at the Nature Center

Today was a great day for us at the nature center. We went on a kayak with a nice, fun group. The weather was perfect and we all got to see dolphins fishing, Roseate spoonbills and other birds feeding (including a pied-billed grebe, the first one of the season that I've seen) and walked around a sandbar finding hermit crabs and other marine critters. We even rescued a pair of blue crabs that were stuck in an old crab trap. Not too easy with such a "crabby" critter with such large claws!

When we got back Christina was releasing a large female palmetto (two-striped) walkingstick. Amanda and I had never seen this type before. Can you see it's much smaller mate on her back?
And, for a touch of comical relief, Hokey Pokey the armadillo was running around sporting a beard (or would they be sideburns?). It was the result of getting into a yogurt container followed by poking around in the sand, causing it to stick to the fuzz on the side of her face.

Probably the best news of the day was that our rescued cat, Missy (see previous posts for her sad story) found a home! Tara Cochran's mother works at the conference center. As soon as Tara heard that Missy was part siamese, she had to look, so she came by and fell in love with our sweet girl. We will miss her but know that she will quickly become a special part of her new family!