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Listening to the weather report for Florida on Sunday was getting me discouraged. A cold front was predicted to come through the state Monday afternoon and evening bringing rain, thunder storms and possible severe weather. I had not been back to the Peace River for a week and was thinking if the rain hits hard it will be another week before the river is back at a level for easy hunting. What to do? A look at the hourly forecast for the areas of Wachula and Bowling Green, FL showed a 5% chance of rain at 8 am Monday, 20% at noon and 40% by 2 pm. With that forecast I decided an early arrival at the river with a departure by 2 pm would be doable. I was out of the house by 6:30 am and on the river paddling by 8 am. It was overcast and breezy but no sign of rain. The river was still nice and low and slow moving. I decided to take some pictures on the way to my hunting grounds to compare with ones I took back in Oct/Dec when this fossil season started. Here they are for a side by side type comparison. First up a tree that partially blocks the river north of Payne Creek: Dec 31, 2019 - Same tree as seen today- Next an area I refer to as the rapids as seen Dec 31, 2019 - Same area pictured today - Last is a palm tree that fell into the river. I apologize for the blurry photos here, but the kayak was making it hard to steady the shot- Oct 11, 2019 - Same tree today - So, you may be wondering how the fossil hunting went. Very good I would say. I think I am going to have to start calling the area I was in today the "Bone Yard". Came up with two partial Proboscidian carpal bones, a nice chunk of mammoth tooth, a chip of mastodon tooth, turtle leg spur, some eagle ray pavement teeth, a fairly nice meg, several other misc shark teeth and several unidentified large bone fragments. My plan to stay until 2 pm didn't quite work out. The wind really started blowing hard by 10:30 am. A short time later the water flow seemed to be picking up. Just as I found the meg in the sifter a small section of the nearby bank fell into the river. I was starting to think I would leave by noon just to be safe. Over the next hour I kept noticing the water flow increasing and more small areas of sand falling from the bank into the river. That convinced me to leave before I became just another old fossil in the bone yard. I made it back to the parking area as the wind continued to pick up and the water got a little rough. Home is south and west of the river and I made the hour drive home before the downpours started. All in all a good day! The best finds are below: First carpal bone - Second carpal - in pretty bad shape: There were several additional bones found that I don't think will be able to be identified. I am planning on posting the largest in the ID section once I can get some good pictures. Looking forward to getting back out there at the end of the week!
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