My Florida Destiny

[bigbendmarine]

Start with few habitat updates... first, really happy with performance of small durano clover plot I planted this past fall. Did really well in Florida heat through late June, in large part due to fair amount of rain. Smothering heat and dry conditions finally have it looking a bit withered, but still have lots of does and fawns visiting it daily. Pic was taken late June.



Also on habitat note, put a couple of TSC 15 gallon rubber tubs in the ground this past weekend in spots I hope work well for the deer.

One is in an area close to where I know a number of does are bedding / hanging around with fawns on the east side of my property. Yellow star marks the spot I put the tub.

 

[bigbendmarine]

Also put a tub on the west side of my property at the corner of one of my food plots (weed plots right now though still jumping does out of it every time I'm in the area).



Spot is actually within a foot or two of where I harvested the 10 point I named "Bo" last year as he was entering the food plot from the smaller durano clover plot just on the other side of the tree line to the right.

 

[bigbendmarine]

Just for general updates, hope folks don't mind me sharing some general pics and a video.

Shared the video under the drone thread, but for folks who may have missed it I used a drone to get some aerial footage of the place and pond. Had started with intent to fly over fields / woods for land tour but parents are selling their home in the Carolinas so I turned it more into a "real-estate" type video so they could see what a drone could do. That said, we've poured so much blood, sweat and tears into fixing it up I have NO intent to sale it anytime soon, Good Lord willing! Find time, may still try to put more of a land tour one together.

On the pond note, since buying the place I've traded a good bit of saltwater time for freshwater pond fishing since it's easier to steal an hour or two than make full day saltwater trips. Few weeks ago my parents were down visiting and my 89 year old dad said he would love to have a few brim and blackberry cobbler. Blessed to still have him around, and loving the outdoors, that was a request I GLADLY and quickly made happen!

Had really good luck finding some big blue gills.





This one was the biggest... bull gill had lips tough as the mouth of a big bass and looked almost dinosaur-like he was so big / old looking.



Also used the time to cull some catfish out of the pond, giving them to a friend who said he could really use them.

 

[bigbendmarine]

As for the blackberry pie, had no problems getting blackberries as the area where the pond dock runs into land has a thick patch about 60' long by 30' deep. Used the pie to line up a special visit... invited a man who works for the neighboring property owners, is 87 years old, and has worked the area land since a boy. His father actually worked the land before he did and was part of the crew that cut down trees in what he called a "sweetgum bog" before damming up / creating the pond. Well worth the effort gathering blackberries to hear stories about the area history from him!

 

[bigbendmarine]

Finally, some of the summertime pictures captured so far this year.

Not sure how widely distributed they are / how familiar those on the forum will be with them, but a fair portion of my fields are covered in passion fruit / maypops each year. Love the flowers, the gulf fritillary butterflies that grow by eating the leaves, and have occasionally seen deer browse on the fruit.





A fruit the local deer absolutely treat like candy are wild black cherries. One of the few foods that brings deer out throughout the day right up to our backyard fence. They absolutely vacuum any that have fallen up.

 

[bigbendmarine]

Jumping back to late spring, will add crimson clover brings them out in the open as well... don't think I shared these pics earlier (apologies if did) but captured a pretty good doe fight pic when the crimson was flowering!







Number of weeks ago I also unfortunately spooked a turkey hen off her nest while cutting the fields before fawns arrived. Left a donut of brush around it and watched a few days to see if she'd brave sitting on it but she wouldn't. Wish I could say what happened to those eggs (but don't think I will).

 

[bigbendmarine]

May post edited video later, but awoke one recent morning to a doe lying yards from the house (guessing she was actually using the proximity to the house as protection from predators) spending her first moments with newborn twins. It was an awesome experience I felt truly blessed to witness.

 

[Merle Hawggard]

Wonderful pics Bigbend!

Sent from my SM-S903VL using Tapatalk

 

[bigbendmarine]

And finally, just some random summertime outdoor captures.

Who knew mosquitoes could pierce turtle skin? I sure didn't until I saw it happening to this yellow bellied slider.



Not sure what to say about this one... maybe just that the lady seemed to be growing a bit weary of the neck pinch.



Actually had this owl dive bomb a topwater frog on the pond and blessedly it didn't get hooked.



Love pileated woodpeckers and finally had one pose a second or two for me this summer.

 

[bigbendmarine]

Really happy to hear and see a few of these in the fields this year. Got this ones picture from the tractor as it sat still and let me drive by.



Another set of eyes that watched me going by, though it gave me a very different feeling...



Started posting with coastal storm blowing over, but with sun back out best get to work!

 

[Big Snow Man]

Cool gator pictures. Do you get a permit to hunt them ?

 

[TreeDaddy]

Awesome pictures!!

Thanks for posting

bill

 

[Eggman]

Awesome pics and awesome place!

 

[bigbendmarine]

Cool gator pictures. Do you get a permit to hunt them ?

Though FL does have a season, I haven't applied yet. Cost is around $300 and application is via a lottery season with selections made over 3 time phases, and though you don't get charged until selected I just haven't made the time to apply.

Honestly, haven't felt the itching to kill any and find having them around kind of cool. That shared, have a lazy older Great Dane / Mastiff mix who stays in my 5 acre fenced inner yard and my daughter never goes down to the pond without me. For folks that take their dogs around water, I completely understand their dilemma and have had a couple of area FL old-timers talk about how "heat lightning" somehow killing gators in their ponds. Wife was with me during one such conversation and I had to laugh out loud when she later asked me how bizarre I found it that heat lightning had killed area alligators?!

 

[bigbendmarine]

Related funny story, the ONLY trouble I've ever had with a Wildlife Officer was when I tried SAVING a gator at my previous home.

During a particularly dry year, I got quite a shock finding a 5' gator crossing our dry yard as it was on a trek to find a new home (guessing where ever it came from had dried up). I would have been ok with leaving it be on its trek but the Mrs. and visiting M.I.L. freaked out over the perceived risk to 3 young cousins also visiting who honestly were so crazy scared of the gator they weren't about to put themselves in harms way.

Tried calling the FL nuisance gator hotline but it was after hours and didn't meet emergency criteria (actively attacking, in carport area, etc). Sooooo.... with perfect river home 5 miles from the house I decided to play Crocodile Dundee and capture it. Called my neighbor and asked for his assistance. At first he was really big on the idea of shooting it in the head but slowly warmed to the idea of getting a laugh or two watching me try to wrangle it. My plan was to use a root bar to pin the head down and then wrap it up. It had moved at crawling speed the entire time I watched it... until the first attempt at pinning it with the root bar.

Dadgum sucker did multiple 180 spins and lunges at lightning fast speeds. Ultimately though we got him pinned down, I taped him up, and put him in my truck for a trip to release him at the local river.

Rarely had seen wildlife officers at this particular river, but as fate would have it there are 3 officers parked at the mouth doing some sort of sting operation as I pull into the dirt parking area. Versus driving away and still having the darn gator to deal with, I pull up directly to one of the officers, roll down my window, and explain that I'm there to release an alligator to a wonderful home. Officer just shakes his head for about 5 seconds, and then proceeds to tell me that transport is illegal, and had I been caught with it in transit no one ever would have believed my intent to release it alive. Says he'll take it from there, but not to test my luck again.

100% true story. :emoji_joy:

 

[bueller]

Clover lots excellent. And those pics, great quality wildlife shots!

 

[pointer]

Great work and pics! Those are some most impressive bluegill!! My favorite fish to catch and eat. Well done!

 

[bigbendmarine]

With a post titled "My Florida Destiny" hurricane updates are just par for the course, so will share some pics from Irma. Blessedly we didn't take nearly as hard of hit as we could have had the storm not been weakened by Cuba and then been further weakened by about 400 miles of the run up the middle of the FL peninsula. Still... lots of big limbs down, some big trees in some spots, and we were out of power for 4 days.

Some smaller storms come in on the heels of actually pretty weather but due to Irma's size that wasn't the case. She sent out "something wicked this way cometh" bands over a full day before the center reached us / just as she was leaving Cuba.



Worst thing about one as big as she was is the darn watchful waiting for about a week as you follow constant changes east / west / back east / no back west trying to decide to stay or go. To keep from going crazy, after I did all the prep work I could I tried making lemonade out of lemons and went to see if the pond bite might be hot in advance of the storm. Caught a few nice ones.



My better half did her best not to focus on the storm too much either, though her efforts were admittedly more useful / productive than my fishing.



Before moving on to sharing pics of the storm damage itself, I'll share a pic I found while reading up on past monster storms. Got a real kick out of this one... sure a few forum members (including myself) would agree with this fellow's sense of priorities in life!

 

[bigbendmarine]

Irma did very similar damage to our direct hit from Hermine last year, though I don't think her winds were quite as bad. We briefly got winds of around 80mph from Hermine but it was more of a compact storm and seemed like it passed by us in about half the time. Irma gave us really gusty conditions from about 2am until 10am, with peak winds I'm guessing were about 65mph to 70mph at sunrise.

From the house what we could see was mainly limb damage.





Drive in the mule around our place led to the discovery of a number of trees down.



Picture doesn't do justice to the size of the pine. Can put on top of it helps show the scale.

 

[bigbendmarine]

Got quite a few swamp chestnut white oak trees growing in the woods near my pond but was sad to see the top lost out of one of the ones in the woods at a point closest to the house. Had tons of green acorns on it when the top fell.



At the pond edge I could clearly see where the wind path had pushed down the reed growth in a single direction.



At the wood edge just past the reed growth I found another pretty big oak down.



As fate would have it the top of it fell on an ancient HUGE pine "lighter" heartwood log that I chopped a few big chunks off to get my limb burning fire going. Making it a somewhat poetic tale of 3 storms, the oldest heartwood pine log lay parallel just a few feet from a big oak toppled by Hermine a year ago. Have to look close but can see maul in big lighter log. Don't think I'll ever be short on lighter while I own the place.