6 February 2024 Myakka State Park

We made an early stop to revisit the rookery from the day before. It was an awesome stop with a different bird variety before the sun reached higher.

Nanday Parakeets are escapees from South America. We saw many on this visit.

Your never from from an alligator, or many alligators at Myakka.

8 February 2020 Altered Plans

We had set the day aside to visit Picayune Strand State Forest.  We had unfound caches deeper in the forest and hoped for a long, last day in Florida for this vacation.  When we reached the road leading to the forest, we soon realized this was going to be a different day.  There was a lot of traffic on the road which is usually quiet.  By the time we reached parking there were cars and people everywhere.  There was a large public gathering to introduce people to Picayune.

Somehow we were lucky to spot a place to park.  I decided to walk around a bit to see what was at the event.

We walked around the event area and found some very tasty light honey gathered from bees near Picayune.

We made our way back to the trails.  It was grey, but promised to be a happy time on the trails.

Oops!

This is a lot more water than we had planned to navigate on foot.  We might have splashed along and laughed at the adventure if we weren't flying the next morning.  This appeared to quickly move to knee deep which meant waist high or higher elsewhere.  This is the reason why these caches have high terrain ratings.  For part of the year a kayak would be usefull for navigation.  It was time for the unknown Plan B.

Ali said Caracara Preserve and Cypress Dome.  She also said there were many puzzles there and miles of hiking.  She didn't have the puzzles solved, but was confident of solving them at the park.  It didn't take long for the first puzzles to be solved as we stopped for a short water break.  It was time to hit the trail

Soon the ammo cans were being found,

and a few were not ammo cans.

These gates added to keep the cows in designated areas are great unless the wire fencing is missing on one side.

I am glad those horns are on the other side of a fence.  One bovine encounter this week was enough.

Insect Hotel

I never tire of seeing a gopher tortoise while we are on the trail.

This red-shouldered hawk was staying lower than normal to hunt.  It's payoff came quickly after this image.

It was time to close another week of enjoying the sights and sounds of wildlife in southwestern Florida.

7 February 2020 Birds Everywhere

We had such a great time at Harns Marsh the evening before that we returned for more bird watching and a few geocaches.  We ran into a Canadian couple also out geocaching and enjoyed a couple finds with them.  The birds were amazing.

Wood storks have a unique look.  At best we see a few flying over or resting in a tree during a visit.  This one actually on the ground was a treat.

Sandhill cranes were abdundant and active today.

We planned a return visit to the Big Cypress in Fakahatchee Preserve.  The preserve includes a long boardwalk with a wonderful birding area at the end of the boardwalk.  The birds did not disappoint this evening.

Our final stop of the evening was a return visit to the 10,000 Islands Wildlife Refuge.  The bird activity was awesome.  We were aware of COVID and struggled with the crowd on the viewing platforms.  There are always opportunities for great bird spotting at 10,000 Islands, but when sunset approaches the real show is the massive arrivals of birds roosting for the night.

The day was done.  We had a long drive back to the hotel and a hope to find a good place for dinner.