Welcome Home!

That’s how we were greeted at our timeshare in Cancun each year. That always felt good. I’m really looking forward to a return to “normal” here in Tangerine Woods. We have not had normal for over three and a half years, with Covid finally letting us return to normal then Ian followed and blew by. He left the same day he arrived, and like a bad party guest, we are still cleaning up his mess. That’s just the nature of life. Now we can try to re-create, and appreciate, the weekly routines we had back in 2019 that made living in TW the perfect place.

Speaking of nature, that’s what I’m supposed to be writing about here. I have continued to visit the Lateral almost daily, either to take Ben for his outing or see what’s there. Since Ian, alligators have been rare, we have one Great Blue Heron, one Great Egret, even turtles have been hard to find. Gars and Tilapia are usually seen in the shallow water if you can find it under the greenery on the surface. The Red Shouldered Hawks can be heard most days. But overall, the Lateral is nearly deserted. Hopefully, the county will give it some healthy maintenance sometime soon and the bountiful creatures will return.

The heat, humidity and trying to find my inner energy needed to catch up with all the stuff I need to get done has prevented my accessing the trail cameras and posting our wildlife in TW Neighbors as often as I would like. I missed doing the Gopher Tortoise survey usually done in June. Last year the population appeared to be increasing with over 50 active burrows. But that was before hurricane Ian.

You may have noticed Northern Curly Tail lizards running around in TW. They run away as soon as you see them. At a quick glance, they look like the common anole but noticeably larger. If the tail was uncurled, they would be about one foot long. They threaten not only the native green anole but also the invasive brown ones. They like food scraps, so take care not to inadvertently feed them, or any other wildlife. Doing so threatens their survival. The list of invasive lizards in Florida keeps growing. You can Google “invasive Florida reptiles” for a longer list. There are 500 different invasive animal species in Florida and 47 of them are lizards including the Green Iguana, Tokay Gecko, South American Brown Basilisk, Veiled Chameleon, and the Nile Monitor Lizard that grows to 7 feet long.

The Nature Preserve trail is presently clear and you can see nature absorbing Ian’s damage. This year, I am trying to extend the path to just past the second bench and terminate overlooking the lateral opposite the county’s easement gate. The path is about 1000 feet long with two benches. I hope you will visit and look around into the woods while getting a little exercise.

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