Take a walk with us…

…Yes that’s right, a walk. For us, walking each day is “what the doctor ordered.” And there’s no better place to take this kind of ‘healthy exercise’ than in beautiful Florida (with it’s thousands of lakes and ponds).

Every where you look, there is a pond or lake of some type. In our housing complex, there is a 30 acre spring-fed lake called Lake Frederica, and 3 flood retention ponds with beautiful landscaping and lots of wildlife to enjoy. Let me share some of this beauty and wildlife with you.

Ventura pond view

This is one view on our walk along the pond. This shot is taken from the sidewalk that winds along the edge of the pond.

Fish have beds!

Our walk takes us along one of the larger retention ponds and Kelly has helped me learn how to spot the fish in that pond. We have shad (which are easy to spot because they jump out of the water a lot), and there are bottom feeders, a kind of catfish—Florida style, and there are tilapia (which is quickly becoming the fish of choice at the grocery stores and at many restaurants).

Did you know fish have beds? Every spring, when its time to spawn they build these bowl shaped beds by swishing their tails back and forth in the sediment. Then, they lay their eggs in the bed and stand by to guard them from predators.

The beds also serve as a nest for the growing fry, which also have to be guarded. If we walk up too fast, the adult fish will pull back off the nest, hoping you won’t take notice.

fish bed

Look real close and you’ll see the light brown bed just below the water’s surface. These beds are all along the shore line, and when the water level drops really low, the beds can be fully exposed.

fish sitting on the bed

Now look closely and see if you can spot the tilapia fish, sitting on the bed. Kelly put his Polaroid sunglasses over the camera lens to make the fish show up in the photo. If you know Kelly and his love of fishing, you can imagine how this stimulates his sportsman’s instincts. Watching for these fish on our walks makes the whole exercise thing a lot more interesting!

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