There are five new photographs on the Photo page starting from number one. The first photograph is from Anjela with a long writeup. After just getting back from Fish and Chips at Minehead Harbour, it will save me from writing a Diary.
This picture was taken by me, at Ding Darling Wildlife reserve in Sanibel Island, Florida. It is a lone crocodile. Crocodiles were once seen as far north as Sarasota County, those populations are almost completely gone — with the exception of the lone female on Sanibel Island and the occasional crocodile that travels north in the summer.
Jeff Combs, a park ranger at Ding Darling Wildlife Refuge, believes the crocodile was born on Pine Island, where she was first found in 1980, and has never left the area.
“Females stay in their spot for their lives,” Combs said “This is home to her.”
Once abundant in Florida, crocodiles were hunted for their hide and much of their habitat was destroyed before they were put on the endangered species list in 1975. Much of their habitat was lost to a combination of urban development and the conversion of wetlands to agriculture.
“Crocodiles aren’t really found up north much,” Klett said. “On the Atlantic side, all possible habitat has been developed.”
The saltwater creatures tend to nest in areas where there is more brackish and freshwater, because it takes hatchlings some time to adapt to their saltwater environments.
Today they are rarely seen outside of the protected areas of the Everglades, Key Largo and around the canals at Turkey Point Nuclear Power plant near Biscayne National Park.
Florida Power and Light has developed a crocodile management plan to promote and protect the species there. The man-made area around the nuclear power plant is considered to have the fastest-growing population of crocodiles.
The federal government began buying land for Crocodile Lake National Wildlife Refuge in 1980 and today it provides 5,000 acres of nesting and nursery habitat for the American crocodile. The refuge, which also provides habitat to five other endangered species, is closed to all but researchers partly because female crocodiles are known to abandon their nests after even one disturbance. Also the above crocodile has been taken back twice to the Everglades but amazingly has found her way home to Sanibel. Anjela.
2. Sunset from our balcony in Toronto.
3. Our balcony facing North in Troonto
4. Winter from our balcony facing North in Toronto
5. Balcony facing North in the summer
Rosie’s Mum in Toronto.