April 2020 - Campground Tales, Walks, Birds & Updates

April 2020

Wednesday April 1st, 2020

Due to the Coronavirus pandemic, the State of Florida placed a stay at home mandate, and it is now official that you can only go out for essential reasons, food shopping, doctor, pharmacy, and recommended that only one go at a time.  It's April Fools Day but this is no joke!!

You can walk as long as you are 6ft. away from people.  We have been doing this since March 14th anyway.

I wish the stay at home mandate had been made in Mid March as well.  I also wish it was a nationwide mandate, although I can understand that certain parts of the country are not as densely populated and not affected as badly.  

One thing about the States that baffles me is that each State has it's own rules and regulations.  Driving between States you have to be aware that traffic rules and laws may be different in the different States.  We are all one country, why can't we all have the same laws.  I'm sure there's a very good reason, I just have never known what it is!!!

Friday April 3rd, 2020

We decided to go for a walk around the campground and on the Nature Trail and take some pictures.

View from our site looking right

View from our site looking left toward bathroom/laundry block

Another angle of the upper campground

Lower Campground, heading to Nature Trail

Gazebo by river

Looking back toward the bathroom block from the gazebo

Site 9, nice site with view of river but it does flood when we have rain.

Here's the beginning of the Nature Trail.  Bryan is going to redo the letters on the sign as they have faded.       

Here we go!!!!  We love this trail.

Pine Cones & Needles balancing on the leaves

Fallen Tree

Iris

Manatees can be seen here at certain times of the year.  We haven't been fortunate enough to see any here but have seen them at other places in Florida.  Some of our campers have seen them though so they are here. They are fascinating to watch so hopefully we will spot one.

Sign explaining the wildlife and shrubs that can be found here.

This is the boardwalk that we clear with the blower.  It does get covered with leaves and twigs, especially after some of the winds that we have.  

Beautiful Wildflowers

Looking across the bay toward the marina

Marina on base

We spotted a Great Blue Heron nest up in a tree. Momma was protecting her babies.

We walked around the boardwalk more and got a view from a different angle of the nest. As we were watching, daddy came home to give momma a rest and they swopped covering the nest.

Here's a series of pictures showing them swopping.

It was fascinating to watch and we were there quite a while.

We started our walk back along the trail.

Looking for alligators or turtles

It was a lovely walk.

P3 either landing or taking off

Tuesday April 7th, 2020

The 'pink' moon is the largest supermoon of 2020.  Didn't appear very pink in our pictures.

Saturday April 11th, 2020

We're still feeding the birds.

Crow

Red Cardinal

Different flavours of bird food, so the birds can have a variety. 😂

Friday April 17th, 2020

We saw this shape outside the window.  Can you guess what it is?

I believe it's a Pileated Woodpecker.  It was knocking on the window, probably at it's reflection and stayed there long enough for Bryan to go outside and get this picture.

Pileated Woodpecker

How amazing was that!!!

Sunday April 19th, 2020

Of course the squirrels still come and steal the bird food.  We figured out that by letting them eat for a few minutes, they then leave when we shoo them away, and dont return until the next day usually.

I've fallen in love with this ice cream, which has become harder to get since the pandemic when I've needed it more, ha!!ha!!  Bryan came home with a tub and I was sooooo happy!!!!

Thursday April 23rd, 2020

We looked after Peace, Ryan & Christina's small dog, while Christina has movers packing up and then is staying at the hotel on base for a couple of nights. It was nice having her for a couple of days.  Even though when I took her for walks I would end up carrying her home as her poor little legs can't go far these days.

Friday April 24th, 2020

Bryan collected Ryan from the airport. We were so happy to see him back. They will be leaving tomorrow for Norfolk and his new duty station.

Saturday April 25th, 2020

Ryan, Christina,Trystan, Peace & Lilo left for Norfolk this morning as we waved goodbye.  I kept the social distancing 6 feet away from them, and blew kisses and threw hugs.  It was very hard not to hug them.

Coronavirus Update

As at:         Cases USA      Cases Florida       Deaths USA       Deaths Florida                      

April 1st         213,372                 7,773                4,757                      101

April 30th    1,068,696               33,690               62,906                   1,268                                                                                                                                                                         

April 20th, Non essential travel between USA, Canada & Mexico was restricted.

April 30th, it was announced that unemployment had risen to more than 30 million.