The Ragged Edge The Keys Islamorada, Florida

I'm sure by now everyone is tired of hearing about my vacation to Florida. So this is my last post about it, I promise. While in Florida, we managed to get down to The Keys. We only went as far as Islamorada, but we had a wonderful time. Erika found this great place called the Ragged Edge on the Atlantic side of Islamorada. If you ever get to The Keys, I highly recommend this place. It's so Keys-ee (i.e. in the spirt of The Keys)

The view of the Atlantic Ocean from the dock of The Ragged Edge.
Looking back from the dock to the Ragged Edge.
2 of the units @ the Ragged Edge. Very clean and lots of room.

Sunset in The Keys.

If you look close , there is an eel in the center of this picture. This was taken from the dock.
The Ragged Edge has plenty of room to dock your boat.

3 foot Nurse shark cruising the flats in front of the dock @ The Ragged Edge. We saw 4 of these guys as well as tarpon, black-tip reef sharks, barracudas all cruising the flats out in front The Ragged Edge.
School of Mangrove Snappers and Pin Fish also taken from the dock of the Ragged Edge

Mangrove Snapper - see the tooth hanging out of it's mouth.

I caught quite a few of these baby barracuda's from the dock. I hooked a couple 3-4 footers, but with no wire leader they broke me off as soon as I set the hook.

There was a really nice pool. The kids loved it!

If you make it to The Keys you gotta go hand feed the tarpon! The coolest $5.00 you'll ever spend. These guys get up to 6-7 feet long!!! Lay down on the dock and hold the fish near the water. Up comes the biggest mouth you ever saw and take the fish. These guys are wild. They come back everyday to get fed. Unbelievable!! :D

My pictures really don't do it justice. If you've never been to The Keys, please, put it on your must do list. One of my all time favorite vacation spots! You have to see it in person.

Next week look for some pics of The Tattered House. I stopped by this weekend and the shop looks Fantastic, but I didn't have the camera. So, I will make a point of swinging by this weekend and getting those pics to share with all of you.

Until next week, be safe.

TVH

Birds of Florida

Well we're back from Florida. Man, what a great time we had! Like every vacation, this one was too short. I definately wanna go back to the Keys again and spend some more time.

For my first post back I wanna share the birds we saw while there. The best part was alot of these photos were taken while sitting on my Mom's back patio.

Wild Monk Parakeets these guys are really noisy and hard to miss when their around.


Brewers Blackbird Female


Brewers Blackbird Female feeding her baby

Double crested commorant

Great Blue Heron (White Morph )

Great Egret
This guy hung around the place we stayed in the Keys looking for handouts!
This momma Green Heron was very busy
Looking for dinner at low tide on the sea wall.
Green Heron perched on the boat
If you look close you can see the 2 baby Green Herons on their nest. This was right across the water from Mom's patio. I took this 2 days after we got there.
The same 2 Green Heron babies 2weeks later, right before we left.
Laughing Gull
Magnificant Frigate Bird (Male)

This osprey managed to get himself some lunch out of the Gulf of Mexico!

Juvenile Osprey waiting for momma to come back.
Brown Pelican.

Brown Pelican nursery amongst the mangroves in Tarpon Bay.

Red Bellied Woodpecker

Royal Tern

Looking rather far away this small Least Tern was another difficult shot to get

Snowy Egret

Parrots. I took this at the Under the Sea park in Islamorada.

White Ibis. Juvenile (brown) and an adult in the neighbors yard.

White Ibis in flight.

White Ibis in Ft Meyers Beach

Yellow Crowned Night Heron walking the sea wall across from Mom's.

My only shot of an Ahingha. This bird swims underwater and spears fish with it's bill

Not as many birds as I had hoped, but it is summer. I had hoped to see some Flamingo's and some Spoonbills over at the Ding Darling park in Sanibel, but no luck. Well there is always next time!

I'll try and put up another post soon.

Have a good one!! :0)

TVH

Florida