Outdoors

Last week 10-year-old Daniel Lamarche got to stay up late before school started on Tuesday, Jan. 6. He said he wanted to fish for redfish off the family dock. At about 10 p.m. he ran up stairs all excited, telling everyone about the big redfish that got away when he tried to lift it onto the dock. His father Danny went back down to stay with him and man the landing net if he got another one.

Sure enough, about midnight, this redfish bit and Little Daniel fought him to the dock where his father netted it. Little Daniel said the one that got away earlier was much bigger.

Betsy Smith, a local horticulturist will be the featured presenter for the Iris Garden Club’s January meeting. She will present a program featuring fruits and vegetables in the home landscape. Visitors and prospective members are invited to attend. Come and learn along with us on Tuesday, Jan. 20 at 1 p.m. at the Wakulla County Public Library in Medart. For more information, call Jeannie Brodhead at 926-2264.

Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) staff will host a sign-dedication event at the St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge at 1 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 17. During the past month, signs designating top birding sites along the Great Florida Birding Trail have been installed throughout the Panhandle. The FWC will mark the occasion with a special sign installation. From 9 a.m. to noon, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service volunteer will provide birding tours by vehicle throughout the refuge. After the sign installation, FWC staff will offer birding tours by vehicle as well.

Birds are a gift from God, an evolutionary miracle, or both. Whatever you believe, we all marvel at their songs, their ability to survive brutally cold winters and most of all, their amazing ability to fly. How many times have we all stood staring up at a bird soaring above us and contemplated how neat it would be to be able to fly.

And I’m sure like myself, you’ve all dreamed of flying. Plus in the last few decades, it has been pretty well established that they may actually be living dinosaurs, technically not all dinosaurs actually became extinct!