First up…nah, ya didna miss Day 6 Part 1…it was part of the Small World After All Post from about a week back.

We were hoping that now that it’s September the weather would start cooling off. The bad news is that it didn’t, the past week or so has been about the hottest and most humid of the summer with some rain most days but fortunately it’s pretty much been later in the day so Bike Day has been able to be conducted every other day as scheduled (well, except for today as a flat fire had him walking home after a mile of riding…). The good news is that the two potential tropical disturbances we’ve been watching the past week are no issue for us. One is in the Gulf almost to Texas and the other off the coast of the Carolinas and neither appears to be going to amount to much. But with all the rain our pond out back is about as full as it’s ever been.

Not much else is new outside of the hot weather (which really ain’t new either, it’s Florida in the summer)…Connie’e been hard at work doing Ladies of the Elks stuff for the convention coming up getting ready for the Memorial Service she’s in charge of. Neil…well, he’s pretty much not been doing anything.

Our Elks lodge has found another candidate for our new location…we have to be out of the existing one by the end of the year and the folks looking for a new place have had 5 or 6 potential locations of which 3 were seriously considered and we were ready to use them but the liquor folks wouldn’t approve either one as too close to schools. The new one we found out about this week is in a shopping center that already has a liquor store in it so that should not be a problem. The biggest problems with a new location have been (a) management doesn’t want to move north of the river because driving across the bridge is soooo hard; (b) they don’t want a kitchen because it’s a hassle…which is true but Neil and Connie have been in 50 or more lodges across the country and every successful one has a kitchen because food brings people in and then they spend money on cocktails which is where the lodge prospers; and (c) they have a champagne taste/beer budget problem in wanting to only be in a nice neighborhood which means that the rent is much higher. High enough in fact that a lodge of 200something members open 4 nights a week with nothing to eat most days simply can’t make enough to pay the rent. They’ve got money from when they sold their previous building (which actually had a kitchen so that’s why it was sold) but the new place will be negative cash flow every month.

On the good note…the Ladies moved Bingo from Sundays to 2nd and 4th Wednesday evenings which I working out a lot better for both numbers of players and no longer causes issues with symphony or Mastersingers concerts for us.

Ok, on to part 2 of the images for the day…part 3 will be coming later on and then I think there’s only 1 (or maybe 2) more day’s worth of images for Neil to finish (well, he’s gotta start first I guess) processing.

Bicolored Antbird

Capuchin Monkey

With baby

Butterfly

Spider Monkey

Another of Connie’s Jack Crevalle fish…they’re not edible but are good fighters so all 5 of them got tossed back. She also caught 3 Black Tipped Sharks between 2 and 3 feet long…didn’t bother taking any pictures of them in the water and her captain just cut the line. Neil pulled her Deadliest Catch hat out of the closet for her to wear on the trip as you can see.

White Faced Coati. They’re somewhat similar to raccoons and are primarily tree dwellers although they do forage on the ground in family groups quite a lot…and their tail is usually raised straight up when on the ground.

Our English participant in the workshop.

White Crowned Parrot

Squirrel Monkey with baby

Goan Day Gecko

Golden Silk Orb Weaver

Common Bird Snake. This one was about 3 feet long and was reported by Dennis as being about full size.

Howler Monkey baby

For those of you who remember the movie ET…I’m not sure whether this proves that ET was really a Howler Monkey or whether he was an alien designed by Hollywood too look that way…but anyway it appears the baby wants to phone home…or more properly he’s pointing towards mom.

Who he finally caught up to.

Most of the shots today were taken at the place…located on the far southeast tip of the Osa Peninsula…it’s an Eco-Resort where the minimum room rate is north of 500 bucks a night.

Here’s an iPhone pano shot of the outside bar where they were resting during the heat of the afternoon.

Off to the left side about a half frame width Neil noticed this Yellow Headed Caracara and got a nice takeoff sequence.

Once it was in flight…it passed through the open air bar and out to the left where it sat on a railing by the pool.

He didn’t notice the perfect position of the lady in the red suit behind the bird until he was processing the shots.

After the bird flew off they headed off through the grounds immediately around the resort to see what else was there…but that will wait until next. time.

Cyas.