Sugar Birds at Warderick Wells

We're staying at the Exuma Land and Sea Park headquarters at Warderick Wells now. The mooring field is really neat - there is a very narrow channel that loops through the bay. The mooring balls are set in a line throughout. You can see from the pics out the layout looks with several boats here. While pulling into the mooring field, we were happy to see that Searcher was still here. Then, as soon as we began to tie up...the bananaquits came. They are also known as "sugar birds" and they're the only critter in the park you're allowed to feed. I had my bowl out and ready before we got here and oh they are cute!! They'll sit on your hand, come into the boat and check out the kitchen, bedroom... They're fearless little things! And when the sugar runs out in the bowl, they approach the doorway/hatch and tweet their heads off. It's not just my cats that have me trained it seems.

Monday, our arrival day, was another rainy gray day. We watched the birds, read, and of course - we're on line! In the evening we headed over to Searcher and had dinner with Jack and Barb. She's a great cook! It was a really nice evening.

Tuesday was a much better day weather-wise and we took advantage of it. We went up to the rangers station and checked in with Michelle, a volunteer who works every day checking in with boats entering the moorings throughout the park. Then we went on a hike to Boo Boo Hill and beach. Since we still had sun in the afternoon we headed out to Emerald Rock for some snorkeling. The coral heads are marked with mooring buoys which is nice, you can just tie up and jump in. We found a big grouper and a gorgeous trigger fish. The water there is really shallow so I wasn't afraid of sharks...

In the evening there was a bonfire on the beach. We had a good time hanging out with Jack & Barb, Jan and Bennet of Island Girl, and 3 men from the BDF (the Bahamian Defense Force). They are the Bahamian Navy. They were really nice guys and it was interesting to learn about the BDF. Here in the park, they help to enforce non-poaching laws and protect the park along with their regular duties. After a few rum punches we headed back to Lucky in the dark in our dinghy - all of 100 yards. Mart grounded us on a shallow sand bar but we were able to push off - doh! ;-)

Posters Note: another post by Steph that I've had to post.  For some reason as yet undiagnosed, my computer is better able to post to web sites (Blogger, Facebook) when we have a slow connection.  So this may continue for sometime.  It could be the external USB antennae we're using.  When we're with good connectivity and wi-fi (so I can try using the internal antenna as well, I'll be able to narrow things down a bit).  In the meantime, check for the "STEPH" label.