Out There: Manatee Viewing Center Reopens Sunday. The Manatees Want 68 Degrees.

The clocks go back an hour at 2 a.m. Sunday, the same day the rain shows up. So the weekend has one good outdoor day in it, and it's Saturday. Use the morning.

First, the weather

The National Weather Service forecast for Sarasota has it laid out plainly:

• Saturday: partly sunny, high near 85, east-northeast wind gusting to 24 mph. A 30% chance of showers after 4 p.m.
• Sunday: widespread showers and thunderstorms, 80% chance, high near 82. Same odds Sunday night.
• Monday: showers tapering, 40%, then mostly sunny. Tuesday is mostly sunny with a 20% chance.

The Tampa Bay forecast discussion says a disturbance crosses the peninsula late Sunday into Monday, with numerous showers and a few thunderstorms, then clearing skies early next week. It also says temperatures keep running several degrees above normal and dew points stay in the 60s to around 70. November, as promised.

On the water, the coastal waters forecast for Englewood to Tarpon Springs has east wind 15 to 20 knots with gusts to 25 on Saturday and Sunday, seas 2 to 3 feet, and the bays choppy. Farther out, 20 to 60 miles, it's "small craft exercise caution," and Saturday night builds to 20 to 25 knots with seas occasionally 6 feet. No advisory, unlike last week. Just a steady breeze from the side of Florida that isn't ours.

The beach forecast for Siesta, Longboat and Bradenton Beach has surf a foot or less, a low rip current risk today and Saturday, and water in the mid 70s. An east wind flattens the Gulf near shore. It also pushes anything that floats away from shore, so paddlers stay close and come back early.

The weekend pick: the Manatee Viewing Center reopens Sunday

Tampa Electric's Manatee Viewing Center in Apollo Beach opens for the season Sunday, Nov. 1. It's open every day through April 15, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., with the trails closing at 4. Parking and admission are free, and pets stay home. Service animals are welcome.

The idea is simple. Big Bend Power Station sends clean, warm water back into Tampa Bay, and in winter the manatees leave colder water to sit in it. The center's own page says when the water drops below 68 degrees, "you're likely to see many manatees."

The Port Manatee gauge read 75.6 degrees at 7 a.m. today. So, honestly, opening day is for the boardwalks. There's a 900-foot tidal walk that's part of the Great Florida Birding Trail, a habitat trail of about eight-tenths of a mile, a 50-foot observation tower, and a cownose ray touch tank where the rays graze your fingertips. The rays don't need a cold front.

Two practical notes. Sunday is the rainy day, and the center is open daily, so Monday afternoon or Tuesday is the better trip. And the center keeps two live webcams above its gardens and boardwalks during the season, which means on the first truly cold morning you can check for manatees before you get on I-75 for them.

What's biting, and what's legal

The fall run is on in lower Tampa Bay. Skyway Bait & Tackle's Oct. 26 report has kingfish and bonito slashing bait along the deep edges, pompano staging on the sandy drop-offs, and the first wave of sheepshead showing up on the barnacled pilings with the mangrove snapper. Their Oct. 27 nearshore report says the northeast wind has pinned the threadfins and pilchards against the shipping lanes, reefs and ledges, with kings, Spanish mackerel and little tunny blitzing the bait pods and mangrove snapper and cobia on structure in 35 to 65 feet. The east wind this weekend keeps that pattern going and keeps small boats close.

The FWC notes for what's showing up:

• Gulf red snapper: this is the last three-day weekend, Friday through Sunday, Oct. 30 to Nov. 1. After that the season goes to weekends only: Nov. 7-8, 14-15 and 21-22, then Thanksgiving weekend Nov. 26-29, weekends in December, and Jan. 1-4. Private recreational boats, State Reef Fish Survey required.
• Sheepshead: 12 inches total length, 8 per person, open year-round.
• King mackerel: 24 inches fork length, 3 per harvester in Gulf state waters. Spanish mackerel: 12 inches fork length, 15 per harvester.
• Gray (mangrove) snapper: 10 inches in Gulf state waters, 12 in federal, 5 per person within the 10-snapper aggregate.

Red tide: FWC's Oct. 23 statewide report listed only background concentrations offshore of Lee County for all of Southwest Florida. The next report comes out this afternoon. Our red tide page has the links.

Tides at Big Sarasota Pass

NOAA predictions for the Siesta Key, Big Sarasota Pass station, in feet above mean lower low water. Times from Sunday on are standard time.

Day	Lows	Highs
Fri., Oct. 30	10:12 a.m. (-0.2)	1:31 a.m. (2.7)
Sat., Oct. 31	11:22 a.m. (-0.1)	2:26 a.m. (2.6)
Sun., Nov. 1	11:30 a.m. (0.0)	2:36 a.m. (2.4)
Mon., Nov. 2	12:29 p.m. (0.2)	4:17 a.m. (2.1), 7:45 p.m. (1.6)
Tue., Nov. 3	12:24 a.m. (1.3), 1:16 p.m. (0.4)	6:13 a.m. (1.9), 8:03 p.m. (1.8)
Wed., Nov. 4	1:51 a.m. (1.0), 1:54 p.m. (0.6)	7:53 a.m. (1.7), 8:24 p.m. (2.0)
Thu., Nov. 5	2:53 a.m. (0.7), 2:25 p.m. (0.9)	9:14 a.m. (1.6), 8:45 p.m. (2.1)

Through Sunday the pass gets one high and one low a day, and Saturday's low lands at 11:22 a.m., below zero, on Halloween morning. That's a late-morning walk on flats that are usually underwater, with the wading birds already working the edges. By Tuesday the tide goes back to two of each, and the lows stop being interesting.

Sunrise and sunset, before and after

From the U.S. Naval Observatory for Sarasota:

• Saturday: sunrise 7:40 a.m., sunset 6:47 p.m.
• Sunday, after the change: sunrise 6:41 a.m., sunset 5:47 p.m. First light is 6:17.
• Thursday, Nov. 5: 6:43 a.m. and 5:44 p.m.

Saturday is the last sunset after 6 p.m. this year. USNO has it at 5:35 on Dec. 1 and 5:47 on New Year's Eve. If your after-work walk landed near dark this week, next week it lands in it. The Sunset Bingo card still works at 5:47. It just works an hour sooner.

Wildlife

Manatee season starts on the calendar before it starts in the water. FWC's list of cold-weather speed zone changes has two close to home that begin Nov. 15:

• Hillsborough County, Nov. 15 to March 31: no entry in portions of the TECO discharge canal in Apollo Beach, and idle speed in the general vicinity of the plant. That's the canal the viewing center looks over.
• Sarasota County, Nov. 15 to March 15: no entry in a portion of Salt Creek and Warm Mineral Springs north of U.S. 41.

The zones on FWC's county maps are the ones posted on the water, and the posted sign is the one that counts. Manatees are still out in the bays now, too. Idle in the shallows, wear polarized glasses, and give them room.

For the birds: starting Sunday, Sarasota Audubon puts a bird naturalist on duty at the Celery Fields boardwalks on Palmer Boulevard and Raymond Road every day from 8:30 to 10:30 a.m., through April 30. New this year, the Quads get a naturalist on Saturdays and Sundays at the same hours. Audubon says the bird count on the newly opened 11-acre Southeast Quad went from 43 species in pre-construction surveys to 83. Audubon's Jeanne Dubi also reports raccoon and bobcat tracks, and says she thinks there's an opossum living under the shed.

Park and trail notes

• Myakka River: the NWS gauge read 5.20 feet at 6 a.m. today, well down from the 7.22-foot crest on Oct. 14. The park still has no drinking water, so bring your own or pick up the free bottled water at the ranger station.
• Robinson Preserve Expansion paddle, Tuesday, Nov. 3: Big Waters Land Trust's Eat Local Week paddle starts with talks at the NEST, 840 99th St. NW in Bradenton, from 8:30 to 9:35 a.m., including Oyster River Ecology on the restoration and Mote Marine Laboratory on the fisheries research there. Then it's a guided kayak tour from 10 a.m. to noon. It's an intermediate paddle, not for beginners, life jackets with whistles provided, and no flip-flops. Your feet will get wet and sandy. They put that in writing.
• Bean Point bird walk, Wednesday, Nov. 4, 8 to 10 a.m.: Manatee Audubon walks Bayfront Park at the north tip of Anna Maria, 310 N. Bay Blvd., with Bill Pelletier and Kitty O'Neil. Herons, egrets, ospreys, pelicans, "and perhaps a surprise migrant species." Meet near the bathrooms, ready at 8.

One fun find: CapePhoto and the caracara

The photographer behind CapePhoto has been posting from Myakka River State Park lately, the kind of mornings most of us only hear about: two deer behind the cabin settling something on their hind legs, a red-shouldered hawk that picked its perch, and then this. A crested caracara on a live oak limb draped in Spanish moss on Oct. 20, after what they call years of near misses.

Years of near misses. Then on Oct 20 at Myakka River State Park, a crested caracara landed on a live oak and sat still, busy with lunch. 'Finally, the Caracara' is now a metal print.

— CapePhoto (@cape_photo) See it on X

It's a clean, sharp frame of a bird that usually leaves before you've found it in the binoculars. The print is called "Finally, the Caracara," which is exactly what I'd have named it. Follow @cape_photo for more Myakka, and the shop is at capephoto.us.

Planning the rest of the week? Sandy has the meetups and Coming This Week, and the Halloween Finder has Saturday night covered.

Go out Saturday morning. Bring a poncho Sunday, or don't go Sunday. The manatees are on their own schedule, and it involves a cold front.

— Brooke