Temp: 27°c

On our last day in Florida, we head over to Lovers Quay where we will hopefully see a Manatee (Time 7:43 am).

We arrived at the public car park, gathering near a small visitor centre and informed by the lecturers that we could go off and wander, meeting back at the area just over a bridge at a set time, before heading to the beach.

On crossing the bridge to the main part of the Quay, we stopped and observed at least three Manatee swimming around minding their own business. Christian was happy that we’d seen them as he could finally prove to Prof’ that they could be sighted in Lovers Quay.

For a short while the group stuck close together, then separating into mini groups. The first exciting find was a sleeping screech owl. Everyone was snapping photos and I don’t blame them as it was really cute looking.  Christian was looking at seed pods for a certain form of seed (I think he planned on germinating some back in Bangor). While looking for the seeds he came across an old wasps nest inside a pod.

As the day progressed we began to divide into even smaller groups, Laura and myself went off the beaten track finding some butterflies and creepy looking insects. I even startled a gator that was basking on the edge of the bank, its movement scared me a little as I wasn’t aware of how close I was to it.

I spent a good chunk of the day in search of the elusive Green Anole but had no luck, only finding the common brown Cuban ones. The highlight of the day was getting very close to an Osprey perched on a tree top – it looked very regal and proud.

On the return loop of the walk I caught up with Christian and Tim who were chatting and looking at every rustle in the leaves for the hopeful sign of a Green Anole. Christian was also constantly looking into the water for Manatee. I joined them and after a short while observed both a Pipe fish and a Blue-Gray Gnatcatcher.

We ventured along the trail chatting about various things coming across a swamp area which apparently contained alligators. We all commented on the foul smell and the lack of alligators at this point but then I saw a suspicious looking log. Using my camera I looked closer and realised it was a very well camouflaged alligator, then noticing a further two. We were glad that we’d decided against splashing the water to see if we could make one in the distance move.

We made our way back to the meeting place where I purchased an ice cream and a silly present for Christian – a bottle opener in the shape of a Manatee as he’d not stopped mentioning about Manatees the whole day. (We’d noticed the lecturer’s night time antics as a beer bottle had been left in the van!)’

Once all the students had assembled again we left on the shuttle bus train to the beach. We were informed not to pick up any urchins dead or alive and only shells if we could be sure they had nothing living inside. On arriving at the beach we went off on our own, most people just sunbathed whereas Sam and I decided to make the most of it and go for a wander as wanted to get the last few birds for his 100 bird total list and myself and I wanted to explore and find “cool” things. After a good long walk up the beach, we came across all sorts of shells, a brittle star which American Oyster Catchers were feeding on.

The find of the day was definitely found on our return to the pick-up point. We walked along the water’s edge and Sam thought he saw a horse shoe crab but proved to be a leaf. We talked about the chances of actually finding one and to add insult to injury what did I see but a Carapace half buried in the sand. It turned out not only to be the front but the tail also. I picked it up and shook it out it to find it was almost complete. I was definitely not going to leave this behind so I smuggled it from the beach in my towel.

After a short shuttle ride we arrived back at our buses and returned to Vesta and had a debrief of the day’s events and learning the reason Lovers Quay was called Lovers Quay – this is because once upon a time it was an island were ‘lovers’ went.

We then held a small quiz about the day’s events followed by the photo and species index competition, the results of which that everyone entering their species list won, as we had all done them in different ways making it impossible to choose.