I awoke late this morning after a late night singing session Friday night at a neat house with a sky deck on the very top of it. I also had a medical procedure which came out okay I think and I was a bit worn out in the morning. The phone rang all morning which was nice but I didn't leave until one pm and I got in the game traffic. Yikes! that was a mistake. Anyway, I wanted to see some areas around the Chipola River. It is definitely woodpecker territory! I reasoned that if ivory billed woodpeckers are by the Choctawhatchee, they might also be near the Chipola, which is only a score of miles further east. There are lots of tupelo, cypress, sweet gum and pines around this area, which was flooded by the Chipola Dam. So off I went to Dead Lakes which is about eighty miles from me, in Gulf county.
There were woodpecker holes everywhere I looked and I saw various birds, including white ibis, a red shouldered hawk, great blue herons, and otters. The otters were fun and we played hide and seek all along the bank near sundown. I heard many woodpecker sounds but I only heard a faint double knock once. The cypress and tupelo trees are everywhere and the shapes are intriguing. I think they filmed "Ulee's Gold" in Wewahitchka, which is down the road from the state park.
An elderly man in North Carolina had owned a large farm for several years. He had a large pond in the back, fixed up nice; picnic tables, horseshoe courts, and some apple and peach trees. The pond was properly shaped and fixed up for swimming when it was built. One evening the old farmer decided to go down to the pond, as he hadn't been there for a while, and look it over. He grabbed a five-gallon bucket to bring back some fruit. As he neared the pond, he heard voices shouting and laughing with glee. As he came closer , he saw it was a bunch of young women skinny-dipping in his pond. He made the women aware of his presence and they all went to the deep end.One of the women shouted to him, "We're not coming out until you leave!" The old man frowned and replied, "I didn't come down here to watch you ladies swim naked or make you get out of the pond naked." Holding the bucket up he said, "I'm here to feed the alligator." (joke brought to you by Bruce Murdoch)
Tilley Landing is a launch on the west side of the Choctawhatchee. It is s gravel road about two miles long that ends at a landing. The landing has a shelter and a portapotty. I think the canal goes out into an owbow lake but I was alone and it is remote so I did not go alone. Here are some photographs. The Auburn University search team says this area is a good one for searching. I did hear a double knock while sitting quietly at the landing and listening. I did not see any kind of woodpeckers. I heard woodpecker sounds all day actually, and another double knock on the River above Morrisons spring. I did not hear any calls.
I'm off for a look see along the Choctawhatchee. Wish me luck. No go see?
Yesterday was Bethany's birthday celebration. The company was enjoyable, some of my favorite people.
Marjorie Rawling's life is very inspiring to me. She was an independent woman, who carved out a life for herself in the scrub of southern Alachua county. She grew vegetables, kept chickens, tended her orange groves, and hunted and fished in addition to her writing. Her home is not so remote anymore. In fact, it is on county road 325, which connects with 26, which goes into Gainesville and there is a fair amount of traffic on it now. There are also homes and trailers all around her homestead. It retains old Florida charm however,and Orange Lake is still wild with abundant wildlife. I kayaked Orange Lake, putting in from what was once her dock and is now a public boat launch. I imagined what she must have seen and felt in that wild, swampy lake.
Cross Creek is a just north of her home and it connects Orange Lake with Lochloosa
Lake.
