Spiders in the Mist

I woke up to the kind of day that I love!! It was foggy! The mist was so thick in the air that when I took a breath, the air felt heavy in my lungs. I made sure to get to work early so that I could beat everybody else and wander the misty park with my camera for a while. I did a quick loop around the park, but I didn't spend time opening the gate because I knew another worker would be in soon. When I got to the office, I didn't even go in. I headed straight to the cabin, unlocked it and quickly installed the fish tank filter cartridges that I had made at home. I checked out the view of the spring and then hurried down to the river. I have captured some of the same picturesque views during the fog over and over, so I focused on finding new things. I was drawn to the spider webs. I am always impressed by the way that each fine thread of the web is coated in tiny droplets of water. Its as though every spider web that is usually invisible is suddenly coated in sparkling diamonds... and they're everywhere! The first four photos are of various Orb Weaver Spiders and or their webs.




I couldn't resist photographing this view. It is one that I have taken pictures of many times before, but the rising sun was so cool to see through the dense fog. It was a unique version of the same view.

Here is a picture of the buoy line back in place, as I promised yesterday. Today I started working on getting quotes for completely new buoys that will be better all around. They will be cylindrical so that you can't walk on them or play on them. They won't be big, tempting lilly pads that kids and even some adults love to try to hop across. The old buoys are fun, but they are dangerous because of their ability to flip and the metal bars underneath with jagged edges. The new buoys will also require less maintenance because the cable will be out of the water and it won't have the stress of people trying to balance on it. The metal under the old buoys sawed away at the cable when people played on them.

When I finished up taking pictures by the river, I tried to talk myself into going to the office to get to work. When I turned around, I saw that our volunteer was on his way down the path. I stayed to admire the fog all over again with him before I finally did head to the office. I talked to both of the workers that would be in the park today and we made a plan for the day. Then I started into the daily and end of the week paperwork. I finished up pretty quickly and made a call to another park to serve as a reference for volunteers that I have worked with. I chatted with the other ranger and answered her questions. Once everything in the office was all wrapped up, I left to run my Monday errands.
At Ichetucknee, I dropped off my paperwork and sat down to talk with my Park Manager for a little while. We discussed several projects at the park and the steps necessary to complete those projects. Then I headed back to Troy around lunch time. At Troy, I checked in on the fish tank again to see if the filters I made were working. The water looked clear! The Catfish was hiding under the piece of wood instead of under the rock, where it usually hides. I wonder if he was afraid I would stick the gravel vacuum in there again. I dropped some food into the tank for it though, and I think it forgave me.

While I was there, and had my camera out, I took a picture of the display that I remade on Saturday. I talked about it on Saturday, but I never did take a photo. It was a quick display, but I think its better than what was there before. I used both sides of the Suwannee River Wilderness Trail brochure to show the full length of the river. I also printed some photos of structures at Adams Tract to show off the beautiful facility. I reused a little bit of signage that I had made for old displays.

The rest of my day was spent getting estimates on buoys, talking with employees, keeping an eye on a bird that was stunned for a long time after hitting a window at the cabin, and taking a photo of this cool spider, a Huntsman.