Briggs Boardwalk and the Southwest Florida Conservancy

On Wednesday we started out early with the best of intentions of trying to hit either Koreshan or to head to the Naples Nature Conservancy. But the fridge guy called just as we were finishing breakfast and debating the relative merits of the two and trying to figure out the timing of each.  Our desperation at getting the fridge fixed before we left Naples, of course, over rode all educational and entertainment concerns. Fridge Guy ( we’ll call him Scott because that’s his name ) was going to arrive between 1pm and 3pm and he had the part that we needed.  This limited our choices pretty heavily and so we shifted towards something we could do quickly without a long drive.

The Briggs Boardwalk is part of the Southwest Nature Conservancy. The conservancy is focused on the protection of the ecological systems related to the sheets of water that flow west out of the everglades.  The Briggs Boardwalk is only about a mile as the wood stork flies across the estuary and only a simple few miles of driving.

The boardwalk is only about half a mile long ( we’ll say a kilometre for my friends outside the U.S. — my ability to use the metric system is slipping with each passing day. ) and passes through several different ecosystems Oak Scrub, Pine Flatlands, Fringe Marsh, Everglades Hammock, Mangrove Wetlands and overlooks a pond before running back through each ecosystem in turn.  We were really lucky to see a Scrub Jay early on — these are threatened inhabitants of the Oak Scrub and we were lucky to see it.  It was being mocked by mockingbird that was using the typical Jay call and the Scrub Jay came up to the mockingbird perched on a large Slash Pine in the ecotone between the Scrub and the Pine Flatlands.  Ecotone is a surprising new word that is especially important here in Florida where there are so many very different ecosystems crammed up next to each other in rapid succession and means the space between the two systems where the tone changes. These ecotones provide specific subhabitats themselves. Overall this is why the species diversity in Florida is so much higher than the rest of North America put together.  They’ve got everything that exists ( or they did) almost everywhere else in North America but then multiplied by a factor of 2 or 3.  So Red Maples that exist on my property in Quebec very nicely also exist here alongside several types of Live Oak trees each specific to it’s own ecosystem or ecotone.

The boardwalk climbs to an observation post over the “pond” or estuary and back north towards our campsite.  We looked for an Alligator that had been seen earlier in the morning but had to settle for a flying Anhinga and a Wood Stork. The Anhinga was too distant to photograph but I did well with the Wood Stork — these are ungainly, alien looking creatures on the ground but in flight they are magnificent.  I also got a few nice shots of a Yellow Shafted Flicker — in the summer these are a favourite exotic bird of the North Woods but in March, here in Florida they seem quite common.  This is another reason the Florida Conservancies are so important.  Without preservation in Florida we will lose so many of our birds back home.  Habitat preservation in Ontario is a complete waste of time if Southern Wetlands, Forests and Praries aren’t conserved.  The birds that make our ecosystems work aren’t casual tourists seeking shelter from the Snow and cheap buffets.  They need these spaces to breed in the winter and habitat loss here is a major reason why our bird populations in Ontario have plummeted in my lifetime.   Every ecological disaster here is one at home as well.

The half-mile walk managed to take us two hours — there is just so much to see.  Predicatably, we arrived home at 1pm and the technician was closer to 3pm.  Fortunately, he had the right part and the prior diagnoses was correct.  I spent a while picking the guy’s brain while he did the work and we waited to ensure that the fridge was actually cooling.  I’d been told to contact these guys because they were a big corporate outfit. In actuality they are just two guys who were friends in high school and actually grew up in Naples.  They mostly work on boats but in the winter they get dragged into the trailer business.  Clearly there are a lot of shady fly by night characters and equipment companies without the heft to get proper servicing done. These aren’t Static house appliances. The fridge is dual mode propane and electric with 12volt controls and AC for the refrigeration. The appliances need to stand up to the shaking, bumping and aggravations of being towed on the U.S. Interstates ( high speeds, big bumps).   In a place like Naples it also means a tonne of work on RV’s in the winter time and nothing in the summer — so Cody and Scott work mostly on the boats — they do air conditioning, and heaters, and fridges for these things.  They had a really nice truck so they must be doing well.  I only had to pay for the call out $125.  So my warranty repair on my $1200 dollar US fridge has cost me $350 — but it is working and we can store stuff now.

Scott left and Lorraine and I ran quickly over to Walmart to buy a few groceries and other necessaries.  Walmart really seems to understand their demographic in their local markets well. You never really know what to expect as a traveller.  I’ve seen Walmarts with almost no fresh meat and produce but this one was pretty good. Wine selection was decent enough as well.  We found a. Very nice Cowboy Ribeye steak and nice baking potatoes to grill outside for dinner; I would serve the steak with a very special ancient truffled cheddar we had been saving since Christmas for just this purpose; yum.

I spent an hour then in the pool chatting with a man from Massachusetts and New Hampshire who spends months down here every winter.  He’s a semi-retired general contractor who is now a landlord — he buys up crap properties, upgrades them and rents them out and only really works when he wants too.  We spoke of work, and hunting and fishing until it was time for me to go make dinner. After dinner I finished the first draft of a one act play based on the ballad of Frankie and Johnny that is this week’s homework assignment; I was happy with the outcome and it was bedtime.