Kissimmee Days

Saturday January 5, 2013
Site 30 Kissimmee Prairie Preserve
Okeechobee, Florida

 

 

Another foggy morning on the prairie.

 

This morning begins again with fog and running.  As usual, about 11:00 everything clears up.  We’ve had breakfast and done a few things around the rig.  We pack lunches and at 1:45 we head over to try to get onto the afternoon Swamp Buggy ride in case anyone of the 8 people with reservations doesn’t show.  No luck, they all do.  So we sign up for tomorrow morning.

 

Outside the preserve office is a sad reminder.

 

This beautiful sculpture is rather hidden off to the side and under some trees at the preserve office but I am glad it is there and hope others will see it and think deeply about our responsibility to all of the creatures on the Earth.   Neither I, nor David, nor you, nor Carrie nor anyone ever again will get to see this beautiful bird.  And he will never get to live his life as a part of this interconnected web of being on such an amazing planet.  The last wild specimen was killed here in Okeechobee County in 1904 and the last zoo captive died in 1918.

 

 

The plaque on the statue reads:

Audubon’s sketch

 

 

Looks like we have a free afternoon.

With our afternoon free, we decide to hike the Prairie Loop Trail which interestingly begins in a hammock before coming out into the prairie

 

 

 

 

Just can’t resist these Live Oaks.

This one is so tall I can’t get even half of it in the picture and it is so big the two of us can’t get our arms around it.

 

 

 

They are clearly determined trees as well.  When we came upon this huge root mass, we thought the tree had been blown over.  And apparently it had.  However the roots now have bark on them and appear to be alive with roots of their own.   David is 5’10” that’s how tall the root mass was.

 

 

The tree had blown over but two branches had just turned themselves to the sky and become trees in their own right.  Nature is amazing!  I wonder if any of us is as tenacious as this Live Oak. Never give up, no matter what, seems to be the rule.

 

 

We leave the hammock and enter the prairie. 

 

The prairie reminds me to look at the BIG picture

 

And at the details.

 

 

including the tracks.

 

 

With the rain, the mist and the fog, we’re no longer sure what is wet and what is dry prairie.  

 

 

 

 

The meadowlark apparently is happy with prairies wet or dry.

 

 

 

 

 

What an interesting place this is.

Kissimmee Prairie is a very environmentally interesting place with  seven different habitats in its 53, 000 acres. (click the chart to enlarge it if you need to)

 

 

I guess skies don’t count as a habitat but they are amazing here.  360 degrees around.  Looks like we’ll have to return to see a sunrise without fog or a sunset without thick clouds covering it up.  But the huge blue dome with puffy white clouds during the day is a constant attraction.  I definitely don’t have the camera equipment to give you an honest account of how HUGE both it and the prairie are.   But how about these rays!!