By: Annie Cederberg | Interpretive Naturalist | Nature Guide
What a beautiful day for a dip net program with Around the Bend Nature and Discovery Tours! We were at Emerson Point on the Manatee River. When we arrived to set up for the field trip, we spent a few moments at the river’s edge. We saw a juvenile bald eagle fly nearby, and join a sky full of birds like turkey and black vultures, osprey and even a quartet of brown pelicans. And that was just the beginning of our wildlife adventures for the day as we soon spotted two dolphin in the middle of the river. And when the kids arrived, the fun really started.
The wildlife in the sea grass beds was so abundant today! Almost every time a child scooped up a net full from the bottom, it had shrimp in it. We saw three different types of shrimp today—arrow, snapping and grass… We saw arrow crabs and blue crabs, a file fish, an unknown fish, the biggest pipefish I had ever seen at about 6 inches long, seahorses that were tiny, a lizard fish, flounder and more. It was so abundant.
The wildlife in the sea grass beds was so abundant today! Almost every time a child scooped up a net full from the bottom, it had shrimp in it. We saw three different types of shrimp today—arrow, snapping and grass… We saw arrow crabs and blue crabs, a file fish, an unknown fish, the biggest pipefish I had ever seen at about 6 inches long, seahorses that were tiny, a lizard fish, flounder and more. It was so abundant.