There’s a lot of water here

[Sue Ann (Suna) Kendall]

Since it’s Monday, I had to work. But since it’s Eastern Time, I didn’t have to work until late morning. So I took the opportunity to head over to Tomoka State Park, which is quite close to where I’m staying in Ormond Beach, Florida.

Statue of Chief Tomokie

The park is surrounded by two rivers, the Halifax, which is also part of the Intracoastal Waterway, and the Tomoka, which joins the Halifax here. As you can imagine, there are beautiful views, many without any signs of humanity. My kind of place.

There are lots of kayak trails and camping areas. The nature trail and the trail around the point were what I focused on today, though I have plans to return and either go on a boat tour or hike another path.

Oddly, I didn’t hear many birds, just a very persistent Osprey and a Belted Kingfisher were loud. Blue Jays, Cardinals, and Carolina Wrens rounded out the songbirds, and I spotted an Anhinga, some Ruddy Turnstones, and a Great Blue Heron. Nothing too exotic.

Anhinga drying off

There were plenty of very interesting plants to distract me from the lack of birds, however. The scenery was lush and verdant, with some new plants, like a hog plum (Ximenia americana), also known as a sea lemon. Apparently they’re common on the Florida coast, but I don’t remember them.

Hog plum

Take the tour of the nature trail with me! It’s fun.

Starting on the beach

Park road – the drive to the park is so lush

Huge live oak

Picnic table marooned by tides

Bye from the gopher tortoise

There was lots of turtle and tortoise evidence here. I saw a nest that had recently hatched and found a beautiful gopher in its hole. I sure enjoyed gopher tortoises as a child!

Hello!

Here’s more on the Gopherus polyphemus.

The best!

Okay, I’ll just share a few more interesting plants and insects I saw.

Palamedes swallowtail

West Indian Mangrove Buckeye

Short-striped hanging thief – look at the green eyes!

Barb-fruit mallow

Shrubby indigo Indigofera suffruticosa

Tall ironweed

Shoestring fern Vittaria lineata

Shiny-leaved wild coffee Psychotria nervosa

Strange moss

Butterfly pea

It is cicada season in Florida. One buzzed me! They are annoying.

Any lion lairs

Megachile albitarsis (bee)

Hairypod cowpea

Seaside dragonlet Erythrodiplax Berenice

Also seaside dragonlet. They can breed in salt water.

After exhausting my eyeballs from all this, I headed back to work and tried not to let the pelicans distract me as the majestically sailed by. The ocean was very blue.

After working I took a short walk on the beach to enjoy the sea birds and the shifting sands. This is a great place to come in summer after school starts. It’s warm but quiet. There are so many beautiful colors to enjoy.

Tern coming in for a landing

I just love the Royal Terns

Poetic Pigeon

Shiny sand

Pelican time

Osprey on roof

And finally, I got to hang out with Vicki, whose headache was over, thankfully. We ate at a fun place in a non-touristy area with a great ocean view. After an amazing grilled cheese sandwich and much conversation about taboo topics like politics and religion (where we disagree less now than at other points in our lives), we went to a quiet beach park and watched pelicans dive as the sun set. A fine day with much water!

The cordoned off areas are turtle nests.

Sleepy time!