Squirrel!!!

A garden is an oasis – a place of serenity and, often, of stillness. A place of contemplation and the emergence of insight – SQUIRREL!   The garden is also a jungle and a playing field for many critters. The Armchair Gardener was looking out the window while avoiding work, expecting to see leaves moving in the breeze, only to become the unwitting attendee to squirrels having an altercation – or maybe a date.  Gardens are replete with garden snakes, hunting cats, baby raccoons, opossums, local and migrating birds, ducks, and all manner of living creatures – great and small. Want to see turtles, manatees, and alligators?

Come to any of Wilton Manors’ parks that are on the water, watch carefully, and you might just see these animals as well. Or go fishing, the waters are brackish, and with the tide change, fish come and go.  Think mangroves prevent erosion? No, they are the nurseries of the sea. The Gardener went snorkeling amongst the mangroves in the Keys. Baby mangrove snappers, tiny shrimp, and inch-long smiling barracudas were among the sea creatures, eating and growing in an environment protected from the big fish, waiting for their turn to play with the big kids in the coral reefs. 

The City of Wilton Manors Parks provides an endless nature show to delight and educate, and provides an audience to those noisy orioles fighting for that last luscious flower.