6 February 2020 Revisiting Favorites

Today was set aside for visiting a few favorite places.  Our first stop was Lovers Key State Park.  When we were last here we were treated to a line of pelicans along and inlet and a perfect beach day for hunting shells.  Today was a good day to avoid the rough waves.  This was our first sign of people on the beach social distancing.  It was obvious that some visitors had already started taking caution to avoid potential exposure to COVID-19.

We spotted a gopher tortoise on our walk out and one on the way back.

A cloudless sulphur is much harder to spot when it is surrounded by yellow blossoms.

Our last stop was at Harns Marsh near Lehigh Acres.  We started our visit by looking for a few caches.  After a couple missed finds, we decided to head to the main attraction of the birds.

5 February 2020 Fakahatchee Journey

Today's journey was a hunt to the final stage of a multi we had sought for years.  We made the find of the cache, but more importantly enjoyed a long, peaceful journey in Fakahatchee Swamp.

That is a young alligator and not an oversized turtle.  The turtle seemed completely unconcerned to have an alligator so near.

From the moment you step off the tramway until the journey is over and you return to the tramway, you are in the water. Often it was knee high like this.  At its deepest, I was floating.

And we were back on the tramway.

4 February 2020 Otters, Eagles, and Manatees

We had two big visits planned for the day, Charlotte Harbor State Park and Manatee Park.  When we arrived at Charlotte Harbor, we were surprised to see the normally quiet parking area was full.  After passing our first parking area we were able to locate a spot in the bigger lot.  We were soon off on the trail.  Charlotte Harbor has always been a spot where we were able to see many young hawks. Often times they are alone and shrieking frequently.

This was a vacation filled with bated traps waiting for wild hogs.  It was also a vacation where we saw more the a few distant wild hogs.  At Charlotte Harbor, Ali was as close to a wild hog as we have ever been.  Thankfully it decided to move away from us.  While we were on the open trail we spotted large parks of them roaming the trails.

We were on a familiar trail passing over a bridge when we spotted river otters swimming.  One continued to the bridge and passed below.  It was a new experience for us.

Another park visitor we met along the trail (along with her very friendly dog) asked us if we had stopped to view the eagle's nest.  She sent us along the trail with a good description of where to look.  We spotted the nest in the distance.

The nest was empty when we stopped to look.

The trails at Charlotte Harbor can get really wet.  Today a considerable portion of the trails were underwater.  It made for a wet walk, but we're used to any conditions.

I wonder how many people ever thought eating on a trail with wild hogs and maybe alligators nearby was a great idea.

Young hawks were out in numbers today.  This pair seemed to be working out some dominance questions.

It was time to move on to Manatee Park.  The numbers of manatees seemed to be fewer this year, but we enjoyed a quiet, relaxing time watching them swim through the area.

There was concern about this young manatee who appeared to have been abandoned by its mother.  A small team of scientists from the manatee rescue group were on site evaluating the youngster.  Apparently all worked out as the young manatee started to swim and moved off on its own.

After visiting Manatee Park we made our way to Coconut Point in Estero for dinner.  There are little bits of Florida left behind after the development which are teeming with wildlife.  We learned about the area behind Coconut Point on our first visit.  If we return for dinner, we are certain to visit the little seen wild area behind to look for wildlife.