Peaceful Waters Sanctuary originally published on Food and Fond Memories on June 6, 2011 by sandyaxelrod 3 Comments (Edit)
Peaceful Waters Sanctuary
It truly is peaceful!
Me and Hershi at Peaceful Waters Sanctuary in Wellington, Florida
Yesterday was most definitely a lazy Sunday. After our usual Sunday breakfast at home consisting of freshly baked bagels from our local bagel shop topped with extra rich Plugra unsalted butter, ripe roma tomatoes and perfectly sliced American cheese accompanied by crisp cucumbers and Kalamata olives we just couldn’t muster up the energy to do much of anything. We have been catching up on this season’s episodes of Treme, New Orleans lovers that we are, so one option was to veg out in front of the TV. But instead we opted for a stroll through a local park here in Wellington with Hershi. Steve had discovered this gorgeous sanctuary with its lovely landscape, waterways and meandering boardwalk while he was on one of his exploration bicycle rides with his bike buddy Roger. He has been wanting to take me out there since. We parked the car just a short walk through a grassy field from the boardwalk and of course Hershi had to stop at each and every tree. At the beginning of the walkway there are educational signs explaining the history of the sanctuary and the wildlife you can expect to see there. For us it was like a walking tour of a bayou with all of the sights and sounds that you would anticipate. Chirping and squawking birds along with quacking and honking ducks and geese. There were patches of clear water but most of the water was so thick with algae that it looked like green velvet carpeting. There were cranes and storks and herons and some black bird with bright orange under the wings. The scenery was spectacular. We paused on our journey fascinated by a family of ducklings following their mother through the water. The little ones swam into the algae and put their whole heads underwater to get nourishment. They looked so cute as they lifted their little heads out of the algae. The ducklings looked like they were wearing green hats. I think Mama was trying to teach them that only their beaks had to go beneath the surface to capture food. She swam off a short way into very dense algae and showed them exactly what to do. They quickly scurried over to Mama to copy her technique. I could have watched them for hours at the aptly named Peaceful Waters Sanctuary. This is a true treasure hidden away at the western end of Wellington Village Park.
