July 25th, Our first day in Alaska!

I love flying across the country. I've only been lucky enough to experience it a few times, but it's always awesome. Once I even saw the Grand Canyon. This time was even more exciting because we were on our way to ALASKA! That meant that I flew over Washington State for the first time ever as well. In fact, after our first 6 hr flight, we connected in Seattle. We like to take photos out the window. :) Here's one of Mt. Rainier.

It was about 3.5 hrs to Anchorage from there. Unfortunately there was a lot of cloud cover, so we only caught glimpses of the Chugach mountains and muddy sections of Turnagain Arm at low tide. What we managed to see was breathtaking though.

My Aunt, Uncle and cousins picked us up at the airport. What a treat! After a brief
stop at their lovely Anchorage home, we headed to Potter Marsh for some waterfowl viewing. Yay! What gorgeous scenery.

We saw a beautiful female greater scaup with her little fuzzy ducklings, a northern shoveler female, tons of black ducks and a couple of red necked grebes! I took photos with my big camera, but messed up the film. :( bummer. We also saw some of those famous Alaska salmon! We were so lucky to see two sockeye in the midst of spawning! The female was hovering over a particular spot and every now and then would turn on her side to furiously brush it with her tail. My uncle explained that she was trying to clear her nest spot to lay her eggs. The male was hovering near, aggressively defending against some investigating pink salmon. (At least I think they were pinks. Am I right Uncle Andy?)

My Uncle also indicated that the the salmon only develop the red color, hump and beak-like mouth when they come in to spawn. The extremely dark red of the male was a sign that he was nearing the end of his life. As soon as he fertilized the eggs, he would die. To come the whole way into the marsh from the ocean without eating only to spawn and die... amazing.
On the left is the male sockeye. The female is on the right.

I know this is a wildlife blog, but I have to discuss food as well. I just can't help myself. Back at the house, the Aunt and Uncle cooked up a scrumptious meal of fish like I've never had. There was cedar smoked sockeye salmon with black pepper, halibut in an asiago cheese mixture and some yummy veggies and rice. I have never had salmon that I've loved. Now I know that's because I've only had salmon in the "lower 48." There is no way it ever compares with fresh caught Alaskan Salmon. It was dark red with a light cedar flavor and came off in tasty chunks. The halibut was so rich and full that it was almost a dessert! Yum. Ron was so sad that he was too stuffed to eat more. Thanks for the awesome food guys! Tomorrow - the incomparable drive to Denali National Park.

We're Back!

Hi all! We're back from Alaska! It was gloriously, amazingly, awesome and beautiful! How's that for a glowing endorsement? Sorry I couldn't update there, but now I'll just catch up. :) Our flight back started at 1:15am Alaska time, which was 5:15am EST. We just got home at 5pm EST. We are just a bit spent, and I think Ron got sick. Thanks to those of you who answered the animal question! It was fun for me.
;-) Dad, I don't know the Star Trek answer. Too long ago!

Anyway, I'll probably start my posts tomorrow! I'll start with our first day there which was spent flying into beautiful Anchorage and exploring the area with my Aunt, Uncle and cousins!

Wekiwa or Wekiva?

We've been to Wekiwa Springs many times since our first visit, and I'll tell you a little about some of the subsequent visits. But before I do that, I want to challenge you all to find the difference between the words Wekiwa and Wekiva and what they mean. (You Floridians should have an advantage! Any takers?)

Now.. back to our trips. :) A co-worker taught me how to kayak (props Kevin!), and one trip was on the Wekiva. It was gorgeous, with swallow tailed kites skimming the water, baby 'gators, immature white little blue herons randomly splashed with their adult blue color, and even a limpkin! Since I loved it so much, I wanted to share it with Ron. (of course!)

Ron and I went in the spring and saw all kinds of turtles and many baby alligators. Have you ever seen them? They are adorable with their little baby grunts. Ron even got to hear that, though we were cautious of watchful mama nearby.

Where the river opens up into still water and wide grasslands, we spotted the elegantly gorgeous swallow-tailed kite soaring overhead. Wekiva must be a big breeding ground for little blues because we saw the juvenilesagain as well. The competitive croaking of the bullfrogs even cracked us up.

On the way back though is where the trip got the most exciting for me. We heard people jibbering excitedly as we pulled up to an area known for otter sightings. But I saw no otters. Then, just as I was about to give up, a sleek brown head popped out of the water and disappeared again. I saw them a few more times before continuing on to the beginning of the river. It was just so cool to see a whole family of otters swimming around our kayaks. I had never seen that before and haven't since. I think Ron's favorite part though was the silly turtle we watched flailing his legs wildly before he plunked gracelessly into the water.

Here are some photos from when we took my parents, sister and her boyfriend and my nephew Cole to Wekiwa. That boy is just a baby after my own heart. He loved seeign the birds, plants, lizards and even insects. And he's only one year old!

Cole pointing out the birds and trees on the Wekiwa forest walk.


I have no idea what this is, but I'm just so darn proud of the photo. Any entomologists out there?

A question for you all....

If you could get up close and personal with any one animal (without fear of mauling for stomping ;-), which one would it be and why?

Just leave your answers in the comments section! My current answer is a whale shark because they are just too darn cool! But it changes all the time. :)

Alaska is coming up soon!! We leave Tuesday morning! HURRAY! I don't know how many computers I'm going to have access to in wild Alaska, so I may not post for the week we're gone. I have two more catch up posts until then, and then I'll be up to date! YAY! Wish us much fun and lots of cool animal sights! I really need this vacation...

Canaveral National Seashore

This seashore is... You guessed it! Next to Cape Canaveral. Thank goodness for the space program. It's part of the reason why this section of gorgeous coastline has remained unspoiled. It's developed just enough for sunbathers. We came on the second trip to Merritt Island and visited Playalinda Beach. The road on the way in was lined by yet more gorgeous wetlands. We got to see the white pelicans that only visit here in the winter. (thanks for the tip Grandfather!) They mainly feed by swimming along and searching the water, unlike the brown pelican's plunging dive. They're also larger. Very cool! Note also the ever present black mob of coots.

The beach is part of a barrier island backed by mosquito lagoon. The dunes are lush and full, and the beach is soft with an inviting surf.
Beautiful dunes full of sea grape.


Different types of terns along with a few gull species.


Another cool thing is that you can see the NASA launch pad from the access road. I got a photo, but it's too grainy. :( All in all, from the Atlantic beaches I've seen, this is by far my favorite.

A little side note...

Since the photos on here don't always come out as clear as the originals, a little hint is to click your mouse on a photo that you want to see more clearly. It will come up larger in a separate window, and you can see more detail. For example, if you click on the roseate spoonbill photo, you can see some duck butts (blue winged teals) in the air behind the roseates. :) Pretty cute stuff. They were eating so much we hardly got to see their heads. There is also a huge grouping (or should I say swarm?) of coots off to the back left... Happy viewing!

More Merritt Island photos!

On my second trip, I went with friends later in the winter. We saw a much greater variety, but fewer numbers of ducks. The only raptor we saw was an osprey. (I've seen these guys catching fish. They're amazing!) However, we saw much greater numbers of wading birds and rails. Many of these were well hidden, and seen only due to the great spotting techniques of my co-worker. I think the delicately sculpted black necked stilt was my favorite discovery. My second favorite was probably all the tricolored herons in breeding plumage. Note the little white shock of feathers coming from its head. They are just lovely.

We also saw a sora, tons of greater yellowlegs and killdeer, lots of different types of plovers and sandpipers and all the ducks I'd seen before along with green winged teals and possibly redheads and ruddys (cute little things). We saw a few lesser scaups on the drive home. Roseates were flying overhead quite often, so they must have been ready to be on the move. We saw none on the ground, but they are beautiful in flight.


The Osprey we saw.


A little snapping turtle, just a little larger than my hand, was in the roadway. We very carefully moved him to the side so he wouldn't get squished. How cute huh? We saw a lot more large 'gators this time too... along with a lot more silly people trying to feed them marshmallows and poke them with sticks. sigh.

Merritt Island here we come!

This is the first of 2 Merritt Island posts because I loved it so much I've been there twice! I had been told that I was very likely to see roseate spoonbills here in the winter along with glossy ibises and reddish egrets... more of the birds on my list of "birds to see."

Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge is situated on Florida's Atlantic Coast near the NASA launch site. In fact, the whole refuge is closed on the day of a shuttle launch. It's a 140,000 acre wetlands preserve that serves as a very important breeding ground for many wintering birds and as a home for various other reptiles, amphibians and mammals. Ron and I decided to go in January as part of "operation enjoy our remaining weekends together."

The visitor center did not disappoint, just like all the Florida visitor centers we're seen so far. There was a boardwalk with a few trails behind it where we could see an active Osprey nesting platform up close. The ospreys didn't seem to care that we were gawking at them. The main attraction was Blackpoint Wildlife Drive - a meandering 6 miles of scenic beauty.

At the beginning of the drive we saw the teeny pied-billed grebes. They aren't flashy, but SO cute! Each pull off point was labeled with a number that corresponded to our little guide map. One of the points indicated that it was popular spot for bald eagles. Ron had never seen them, so we stopped to try to find the nesting tree that the guide indicated. We never needed to though, because directly above us, 3 of them were wheeling. Even from the ground, they are so impressive. We've since seen more near our home, but we were excited for Ron's first sighting!

Farther on in the drive, the land really opened up into sweeping areas of grassy wetlands and ponds. Here is where we started seeing 100's of ducks and coots! No, there were probably thousands! They were mostly far off, so we couldn't identify all of them with the binoculars, but we definitely saw blue winged teals, northern pintails and northern shovelers. (more ducks for you Heather!)

I was really enjoying the ducks, but was wondering if I'd get to see any of the birds I had been told were here in abundance when we almost passed a reddish egret! it just looked "funny" in shape compared to the other herons and egrets I'd seen, and I happened to catch it out of the corner of my eye in time to yell, "Ron. Stop!" This was less dramatic than you'd expect since we were only going about 5mph. It was sitting quietly in a clump of grass. They hang out mainly near the shores, so I've still only seen this one.

I was beginning to despair of ever seeing my roseate spoonbills, when we turned the corner and bam!

I again yelled to Ron to stop the car. That vivid pink, so beautiful during breeding/nesting season, caught my eye yet again. We watched them for about 15 minutes. It was hard to get a good shot of them because they barely lifted their heads from the water. They were sweeping their bills back and forth through the water, searching for food, moving and stirring up the sediment with their feet as they went. You can see a few of the ducks in front of them in the above shot as well. It was funny because we watched the first set for so long because I was afraid I wouldn't see them again, but then we came up on probably 50 more as we wound through the park.

I even got to see the glossy ibis! They are another bird seen more at the shorelines. So while I've seen so many of the white ibises that they seem like pigeons, I've never seen their darker cousin. There were quite a few of them feeding as well.

We also saw raptors all through the area. I'm sure ducks were a big draw for them. A
red shouldered hawk can easily catch a small teal. There were also red tailed hawks and northern harriers! I saw one in the sky with its characteristic slim, bent-tipped wings and white striped rump and just knew it was a male harrier. We saw the female a few minutes later.
(Yes, I know I look silly in the photo, but that wind was cooold!)


After the drive, we couldn't go to the National Seashore because a Saturn 5 rocket was set to launch, and it was closed. So, we gawked at a few juvenile alligators and left with the refreshing sight of a non-roadkill 9 banded armadillo.

A morning hike

Our next outdoor trip was a very quick and simple one. Sometimes it's good to just take a walk and save some money. :) So we headed to the Tibet- Butler Nature Preserve on the Butler chain of Lakes in Windermere, FL. There are certainly no shortage of lakes here!

It's a smaller, 438 preserve surrounded by parks and homes on many sides. Thank goodness it's there! It's hard to find much of the natural world around Orlando anymore. The Vera Carter Environmental Center at the beginning of the walk was lovely. There was a little garden outside complete with native turtles and engraved plaques describing the plants. I'm still trying very hard to learn more about Fla plants! The inside was small, but full of intrepretive and interactive exhibits. Outside the building, there were a myriad of trails snaking through the park. We took the Osprey Landing Trail since it ended in an overlook. It was nice to take a simple walk in the woods again. We saw mostly bugs, but near the end, we heard a great commotion and squeaking. Suddenly a black racer (snake) darted at full speed across the path, followed closely by an angrily squeaking wood rat. It was kinda cool. ;-)

We came to a boardwalk at the end of the trail. It started in the pine forest, but when we turned the corner, we were suddenly in the midst of a gorgeous cypress hamock. The trees were so straight, tall and smooth and draped in spanish moss. The reflection in the water beneath them made it all the more perfect. I wish I could find the photos we took, but they are nowhere to be found! Sometimes digital pictures aren't a good thing.

At the very end of the path was an overlook over the water. Despite lots of searching, the only thing I managed to get a glimpse of was my first green winged teal through our binoculars. I was glad though because most of our ducks are only here for the winter. This one was a very impressive male.. My cousin Heather would have loved this beautiful little duck. I can't even begin to describe it, so hopefully the photo does it enough justice.

Then it got hot, so we went home. The end. ;-)

backyard birds

I haven't heard our friend the Chuck Will's Widow lately. They're an evening birdwith a really interesting call. It took us a long time to figure out what it was since, being northerners, we'd never heard it before. We even wondered if it was a type of owl!! (silly people) We figured it out when I stumbled across a description that said they they call "incessantly" in 3 notes (chuck-wills-widow!). I thought, "Yup! That describes our little birdie friend to a T!" I highly recommend listening to this recording of their call.

Chuck will's widows are the largest of the nightjars. Since they tend to stay hidden at night though, I've only gotten one glimpse of one of the many around our complex. I have seen and heard their family relatives, the common nighthawk, many times though. I've seen them swooping for insects in floodlit areas, and heard them as they made their nasally little screech in the forest near our apartment.

We have a lot of owls around our place as well. A great horned owl hooted all night long for a few weeks, much to my friend Kathy's dismay when she visited. I saw the owl once perched on the apartment rooftops. I was so excited that I stood out there in the dark, with my groceries, for about 15 minutes looking around for anyone who was excited as I was. A barred owl made its prescence known very faintly around 6pm one day, and some species of owl screamed so loudly and angrily outside our window one night, that we bolted upright, hearts pounding, sure a murder was being committed. We'd like to think it was a barn owl, since they are harder to spot, but other owls are capable of screaming also.

Another bird I miss is the pileated woodpecker. We had quite a bold raucous pair every evening for a few months. I haven't seen or heard them in a while.

Watching birds (and the occasional racoon ;-) from our balcony has taught me a lot. I can now identify cardinals, pileated, downy and red-bellied woodpeckers, great crested flycatchers, the tiny northern parulas, catbirds, mockingbirds, red shouldered hawks and ruby throated hummingbirds by sight and sound. I never would have imagined bird watching would be so fun and relaxing. Does this mean I'm getting old? ;-}

Bermuda, Bahama, come on pretty mama to Key Largo...

...and Islamorada! If you can believe it, we drove in one day from South Beach (with its own unique brand of wildlife ;-) to the Everglades, and then, on the way back from the Everglades, we spotted a sign. It said, "Key Largo - 25 miles," or something to that effect. We thought, "What the heck! Let's give it a go!"

Neither one of us had ever been to the Keys, so we didn't quite know what to expect. First of all, it was difficult to tell when we crossed into Key Largo from the mainland. I expected some sort of huge bridge or demarcation, but the bridge was rather small. Key Largo itself looked much like the mainland of small town Florida. We'll have to visit John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park next time we're there. It's a State Park entirely under water to protect the fragile reef system. Since it was getting late though, we decided to venture farther on to Islamorada, the "sport fishing capital" of the Keys.

Once we hit Islamorada, things started to change. The second key is much smaller than Key Largo, so we could see a lot more of the ocean on all sides. The smell of sea air and the constant breezes were invigorating. We headed first to Robbie's Pier; a recommendation from our Frommer's Guide upon which we rely heavily. ;-) The pier was very hard to see, as it was surrounded by weather beaten wooden buildings scattered around a small gravel and dirt parking lot. The small building that led to the pier housed food to feed the tarpon along with hundreds of photos of beaming fishermen holding up massive fish.

We paid a small fee to walk out onto the surprisingly small pier where about 15 people were pointing and shrieking as the huge fish battled for any morsel of food dropped their way. To give you an idea, tarpon can weigh up to 200lbs and grow to approximately 4 feet in length. They are massive! It was almost scary to see at least 50 of these twisting silvery fish swarming the water. When people tried to hand feed them, they would even grab fingers! We didn't feed them, but enjoyed the show. Something I enjoyed seeing even more were the brown pelicans. There were about 20 of them waiting for any food the fish happened to miss. The really interesting thing was that we were able to get close enough to tell from the different feather colorations which ones were adults, chick breeding adult, juveniles etc. Many birds change feather coloration for breeding purposes, but brown pelicans change from juvenile, to subadult, to breeding, to non breeding, to chick feeding. The picture below illustrates it.


From top to bottom, the first bird, almost out of frame, is a subadult. The next 4 are immature birds, then a chick feeding adult with the extensive brown framing on its neck and another immature. And the farthest one down in the frame is a non-breeding adult.

We decided to turn around after seeing Robbie's Pier since the keys are a 150 mile long chain of islands connected by a slow, mostly 2 lane Route 1. It would have taken too long. Someday we'll drive the 6 and a half hours from Orlando to Key West. I never imagined it was that far.

On this whole trip, there were a few birds I was really keeping my eye out for. Two of them were different color morphs of the Great Blue Heron. One is white and one has a mix of blue and white coloration and is called "Wurdemann's" heron. Both of these are found mainly in south Florida and in the Keys. It can be difficult from a distance to tell the great "white" heron from the great egret, which are both white and in the same genus (Ardea). However, the heron's head is shaped differently, it's much larger, and the most obvious sign is its light colored legs. The egret's are black.

I'm describing all this because on the way to Robbie's Pier, I thought I might have caught a glimpse of a large white bird out in the water. On the way back, I very much wanted to check it out, as I thought it could possibly be the white morph I wanted to see so badly! We pulled into a little oceanside restaurant, got out the binoculars, and sure enough, it was the lighter legged white morph great blue!! I took tons of photos, but even with my large camera, it was too far off, and my dubious photography skills didn't make it easier.

We played around a little more after that, but it was getting late, and we had to head back to our hotel in South Beach. I saw a few terns and gulls from a distance before I conked out and let Ron take control of the directions. Next trip to the Keys... it's Key West here we come!

Everglades - Our only subtropical wilderness

"There are no other Everglades in the world. They are, they have always been, one of the unique regions of the earth, remote, never wholly known. Nothing anywhere else is like them...." - Marjory Stoneham Douglas

Aaaahh the Everglades..and one big post. Back in January, Ron and I found out that we would no longer have weekends off together. Since we'd been hoping to get to Miami and other parts of South Florida, we decided to book a trip! We did South Beach the first day, and the Everglades and Keys the second.

The everglades is something I've always wanted to see. It was designated a National Park in 1947 due in no small part to reaction from Marjory Stoneham Douglas's book River of Grass. It was the first park to be created because of its biological rather than geological significance.

The park comprises 1.5 million acres or 2120 square miles. That's just under 20% of its original size. It's not a swamp. It's a 40 to 60 mile wide, shallow and slow moving river that serves as a haven for countless numbers of endangered animals and plants and serves as a natural filter for biological pollutants. For those reasons, I had been intrigued by the idea of visiting the park. And finally, I was going to get to see it!

We decided to enter the park at the Ernest F. Coe visitor center, south of the Shark Valley entrance. We'll visit that in another trip.

After miles of farmland, we finally came upon the beautiful visitor center. I could have just spent hours there!

The park beat the visitor's center hands down though. About 30 seconds after we entered the gates, I saw a flash of movement next to the car. A red-tailed hawk had landed directly beside the car to catch a smaller bird, and then flew off to our left. It was amazing! I wanted to get a photo, but it happened so fast that all I have is a small brown blip in the far left corner of the photo.

We went on to enjoy the wide stretching vistas and multiple views of wading birds, osprey and hawks until we reached Anhinga Trail. Anhinga Trail is one of the most popular walking trails in the park. Because of this, the animals tend to go about their daily routine as if humans were not there. Here we saw many many double crested cormorants along with anhingas, herons and egrets. The cormorants were so accustomed to people, I was able to get close enough to get a shot of their emerald green eyes. Aren't they gorgeous?

The alligators also had no fear of people, as you can see by how close Ron got to take this photo. Did you know that the southern tip of Florida is the only place where you will find alligators and crocodiles living together? We didn't see any crocs, much to my dismay. The areas where they are usually spotted were inaccessible to us due to hurricane Wilma. But I was happy to see our friends, the toothy 'gators. I had never seen large ones that close before.

Before we left anhinga trail, we got to see the orange barked gumbo limbo tree. Its smooth, coppery bark is really beautiful. We also had a little bit of humor when we observed a crow begging for food from some woman near her van. I had run to the restroom, and when I came out, Ron was urgently motioning toward the van. There a crow stood, on the pavement, making a strange, "aglurk glurk" noise. It was definitely not a sound in a crow's normal repertoire. Our only guess was that it was one of the sounds he had learned to mimic from somewhere, and that he was using it to gain attention and thus... food. He obviously had been rewarded for it in the past. Crows are part of the corvid family and can mimic sounds much the way parrots can. It was pretty darn funny, and the first time I was able to see it in action.

We were both pretty excited about Anhinga Trail, but two of the birds that I had really hoped to see were the roseate spoonbill and the purple gallinule. The roseate spoonbill is a beautiful blush pink with a long flattened, spoonlike bill, and the gallinule is a gorgeous deep purple. I just couldn't imagine seeing birds of those colors in the wild. So we trudged on, stopping at various amazing pull off points on the way until we made it to the tip of the Everglades...Flamingo. We were very excited about visiting that section because flamingo, being the point where fresh water meets salt, has an amazing array of animal life, and an unrestricted view out into the ocean on all sides. It's the tip of the continental United States. It was here that I had hoped to see the two birds I sought. However, as I mentioned before, hurricane Wilma damaged that end of the Everglades so badly that it wasn't safe for us to proceed past the parking lot. The lodge and marina there had been utterly destroyed. All the vegetation was wiped out and replaced with foul smelling mud and debris. And the gnats were so thick it was hard to breathe. We could only see a glittering tease of the ocean just beyond the horizon. We hope to go there again once nature has had time to recover so that we can see even more of that awesome place.

I couldn't possibly have mentioned this whole day in detail, so for those of you wondering what animals we saw, here is a list. And keep in mind, that most of these we saw very up close and personal. :) I think if we went again, we would see more, since our animal watching skills have improved.

boat tailed grackles
common grackles
cattle egrets
cardinals
red-tailed hawk (adult and juvenile)
snail kite
ospreys (nest building, fishing etc)
red shouldered hawks
kingfishers
American alligators
white ibises
great egrets
snowy egrets
little blue herons
green herons
great blue herons
wood storks
coots
double crested cormorants
American crow
anhingas
green anoles
Cuban anoles (invasive species - Haf, these are the ones mostly missing their tails at the Grandparents' house ;-) )

Our last shot... and the closest we got to seeing a real Florida panther. ;-)

cute baby moorhens

I've been seeing a pair of common moorhens hanging around my workplace for a while now. Today I noticed two tiny black chicks with red head spots stumbling around behind the parents. They look so funny with their too big feet. This site has some cute photos and talks a bit about what moorhens are:

Common Moorhens

Beautiful Wekiwa Springs - and BIG BUGS!

Soon after we moved to Florida, we started seeing signs all over for Wekiwa Springs State Park. I was eager to see some of "natural Florida" as Seminole County likes to advertise. Seminole County is the beginning of some of the northern Florida ecology. Northern Florida is more mixed forest and tends to be of higher elevation than central and southern Florida. In fact, the Everglades ecosystem used to extend almost to the middle of the state into Kissimmee where the higher lands then started. In any case, I'd seen those lush forests before, and was eager to experience them again.

The entrance to the state park was very unassuming. When we pulled into the parking lot though, we saw the attraction. The springs were right there at the base of a lush green hill surrounded by trees. A very large swimming area had been built up in the 1800's complete with steps leading into the warm, clear blue water. Bubbles erupted from the sandy bottom where the spring originates. The view beyond the swimming area is my favorite though. This photo was taken from the footbridge that divides the swimming area from the start of the Wekiva River.

Exploring more, we hoped to see fox squirrels, alligators and maybe a few birds. Instead, the
big highlight of our visit was a lubber. What is a lubber?? It is the largest grasshopper you have ever seen. We were completely astounded and spent many minutes dancing around it, taking photos and half afraid it would suddenly jump on us and make us squeal like little girls. At the time we didn't know what it was. Only later did I learn that Floridians know it well, and that it's no big deal to them. As Tricia told me, "It's just a lubber." I wish this photo did it justice. They're at least 3-4 times the size of the largest grasshopper I'm used to seeing. (6-8cm long)

Luckily, we've explored Wekiwa many times since then, and seen other things that I'll post here, but you'd be amazed at how excited we were to see that crazy grasshopper on our first wildlife excursion.