Florida, Day 4

 Monday, February 7

We went to the Audubon Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary. Because of the pandemic, reservation were required. Jane got us tickets for 11:00. The Sanctuary closed at 3:00; the last tickets available each day were at 1:00. We had plenty of time to do the 2 ¼-mile boardwalk loop.

Two years ago, Corkscrew was jammed with people, and the swamp was filled with water. There were fewer people this year, of course. The decreased revenue must be wreaking havoc on their budget. I inferred that the area was in the middle of a drought. The water everywhere was low. The “lettuce” in the Lettuce Lakes, which had previously covered the entire surface to such an extent that a gallinule could walk right over the water on it, was restricted to one small area.

Thus, it was not a great day for birding at Corkscrew. Nevertheless, we saw blooming bromeliads,

A bromeliad  in bloom

Lush fern growth beneath the trees,

Ferns

And stately cedars surrounding a pond with alligator flag emerging from it..

Cedars around a pond. The bundle of bright green in the center is alligator flag.

There was a rain shelter and platform at a former camping area first for bird hunters and then for bird protectors. The Great Egret, a sign informed us, almost went extinct in the Victorian era because its plumes were in such demand for women’s hats. Not just the plumes either—some hats had the entire bird. Good heavens! That would make a statement, although I’m not sure what that statement would be. “I like to walk around with dead birds on my head”? Anyway, there was a long, long grabber hanging by the side of the shelter. A visitor from another group made a comment about snakes, and I could well imagine that snakes would like to sun on the boardwalk on a cool morning. Later on, though, Jan suggested that the grabber might be to help people retrieve hats or binoculars that had been dropped over the railing. I liked thinking about that rather than removing giant snakes

Long grabber by the rain shelter--snake removal or hat retrieval?

There certainly were giant snakes in the sanctuary. Jane spotted this banded water snake lounging on a log with a huge bulge in its belly. I expected it would be there for a good long while. It had to have been a good 4 feet long. Thank God it was far off the trail.

Banded water snake with lump in its belly

Here is a picture of a strangler fig hugging another tree.

A fig hug

We saw a pileated woodpecker. I got a great picture of the tree branches in front of it, but you can still see its body and red topknot.

Pileated woodpecker

On our last visit, we saw an alligator on a log in the Lettuce Lakes. When I looked carefully at my pictures later, I saw that there were baby alligators around her as well. This year, there was an alligator on that same log, but no babies.

Alligator on a log. Look at the size of that foot!

We were looking at a Great Egret in the lettuce-less Lettuce Lakes…

Great Egret

When a huge alligator head emerged from the water.

Giant alligator head

That was followed by a huge alligator back,

Giant alligator back

And a long, long body. A man behind me estimated it at ten to fifteen feet long. It cruised by, ignoring us completely (whew!) and went off into the duckweed.

The whole alligator

An anhinga plopped into the water and swam right in front of us, spreading its tail like a fan.

Anhinga underwater

Nearby, another anhinga dried its wings. I could see that it had webbed feet, which looked strange wrapped around a branch.

Anhinga with webbed feet wrapped around a branch

I mentioned the ubiquitous ibis in my last post. We saw them so often on the ground that it seemed odd to see them perched in the trees, sometimes in groups.

One ibis in a tree

Three ibis (ibi?) in a tree

I noticed these lovely magenta berries long the path. No idea what they are.

Lovely magenta berries

We saw one Great Blue Heron.

Great Blue Heron

Toward the end of our walk, two osprey started raising an awful ruckus. They landed on a limb just about our heads and mated, right there. There’s not much to bird mating. Blink, and you’ll miss it. They sat together on the branch for awhile afterwards, grooming as if trying to act casual. I imagined them saying, “Was it good for you too?”

Two osprey in the afterglow

Just as we were leaving the boardwalk, a red-shouldered hawk flew by

Red-shouldered hawk in flight

And landed in a pine tree.

Red-shouldered hawk in a pine

It was just after 1:00 when we got back. I went to the restroom while Jane and Jan went to the gift shop. When I returned, I found the door locked. I tried calling Jane to let me in, but the call didn’t go through. So I waited outside. A group of people came up to the door and were quite put out that they could not get in. “If they’re open until three, they should be open until three,” one grumbled. It was clear that they didn’t have advanced reservation anyway. Some people.

We had a very late lunch by the water on our way home, and that was pretty much everything that was worth mentioning about the day.

 

Florida, Day 3

 Sunday, February 6

We went to the Fort Myers Art Fair. It was a pleasant day, and we were not the only people who decided it was a good day for the Art Fair. After waiting in line for next to eternity to get into the parking garage, we found a handicapped parking spot on the first floor! Our lucky day!

The Art Fair was not as good as it had been pre-pandemic. There were fewer artists and less variety in media. The bulk of the booths featured either paintings or photographs.

Masking is optional in Florida. I didn’t try to estimate the proportion of mask wearers, but it was not uncommon. I didn’t feel conspicuous wearing mine.

We stopped at the Art Fair merchandise to look at the t-shirts. There was a long-sleeved t-shirt in white, but I didn’t like the slippery feel of the fabric. Jane and I got regular t-shirts. Jan bought a long-sleeved, hooded t-shirt in black to use as a cover up at the pool. Here I am at the merchandise booth. Note the dog in the background. Everyone in Florida has a dog.

Me at the Art Fair Merchandise tent

The Art Fair had a display of garbage art, as they had when we were here 2 years ago. This sculpture is called Flotsam by Donald Gialanella of Florida. The sign reads, “Flotsam, a fish made from discarded materials, swims in an “ocean” of cans and bottles. We often throw things away without thinking where they end up. Flotsam encourages you to consider how you can reuse items in your life before throwing them away.”

Flotsam

This one is Globus, by the same artist. This sign says, “His earth-shaped body slowly filling with trash symbolizes how our planet is being inundated with materials that could otherwise be recycled. It’s an interactive community participation sculpture that focuses attention on the importance of recycling using a humorous visual analogy.” I liked the gaping mouth, wild eyes, and tiny waving arms. I could almost hear him saying, "Nom, nom, nom!" as he gobbled plastic bottles

Globus

We had tacos from one of the food vendors for lunch, sitting at a little table by a temporary stage showcasing students of an interpretive dance studio.

We looked at all the artist booths after lunch. It didn’t take long. On our way back to the condo, we stopped at Trico Seafood Market for shrimp. It is located on a back street on Fort Myers Beach. If you didn’t know where it was, I don’t know how you could find it. Jane called in the order ahead so we could have it shelled and deveined. I don’t normally mind doing the work, but we didn’t have a sharp knife in the kitchen. A sharp knife is essential. I have to give Florida credit—it is a rare treat to buy shrimp from a market with a view of the shrimp boats in the harbor.

A beautiful, huge flower bloomed on a shrub outside the market. I have no idea what it is.

Unknown flowering shrub outside the seafood market

We had happy hour on the lanai and watch the sunset. It was one of the better ones we’d seen.

Sunset

I made shrimp and linguini with lemon/wine/garlic/butter sauce. I don’t make it often at home and apparently don’t have the amount of lemon juice correctly filed in my memory. It was pretty tart. But Jane and Jan soldiered through without complaint, possibly remembering the old adage that the best food is food made by someone else.

Florida, Day 2

 Saturday, February 5

After a leisurely morning of grab-your-own breakfast (in my case, yogurt and a granola bar) and lingering over second cups of coffee/tea, we set out for Sanibel Island. Our journey began as it always does in Florida, sitting in a huge traffic jam to get off the island.

We started at Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge. The Refuge is a salt marsh on the north side of Sanibel Island. Like most tourists, we drove through the park, stopping occasionally to take pictures or short hikes off the road where there are spots of dry land.

We saw an adult ibis with a juvenile. Ibis are so common that they are locally known as “Florida chickens.” We often saw them in yards and parking lots.

Adult ibis (white), juvenile (mottled)

There were many, many pelicans. Here is a picture of a brown pelican and a white pelican together.

White and brown pelicans

We saw a tricolored heron,

Tricolored heron

A yellow-crowned night-heron,

Yellow-crowned night-heron (during the day)

And another heron that might have been a juvenile little blue heron. It looked like a little blue except for that pesky white patch. The juveniles start out all white, so my guess is that it just hadn’t finished its molt to adult plumage. I’m sure it must have been embarrassing if all the other kids had lost all their white feathers.

Juvenile little blue heron?

On one of the short hikes, a docent was pointing out mangrove tree crabs. “Once you know what to  look for,” he said, “you will see them everywhere.” He was right. Although the tree in this picture did not have dark spots at the bases of its branches, most of the trees did. The crabs were nearly impossible to spot until you had your nose right on them.

Mango tree crabs

Way, way out on a sandbar, we could just make out two roseate spoonbills. There was a third one at some distance from them. Spoonbills are so cool!

Two roseate spoonbills

We didn’t see any alligators at Ding Darling this year. Jane and Jan said that the birding had been better.

We got a sandwich at a deli and went to Pond Apple retention ponds. I always wanted to call this “Apple Pond” because it seemed to make more sense, but I learned on this trip that Pond Apple is a fruit-bearing, salt tolerant, wetland tree. Got it!

We found a bench where we could sit to eat our sandwiches. The undergrowth was alive with anoles, some of them so tiny they were barely visible. Anoles come in green and brown. This is a brown one.

Brown anole

Pond Apple was absolutely lousy with wood storks that had no fear of humans. This one was walking on the path two steps away from me.

Fearless wood stork 

Ibis were, as usual, everywhere.

The ubiquitous ibis

We saw a small green iguana in a shrub,

Green iguana with a long, long tail

And a southern black racer by the path—note how long its body is!

Southern black racer of considerable length

A great egret groomed itself, showing off the plumes that almost drove it to extinction when feathered hats were popular.

A great egret showing off its plumes

Double crested cormorants dried their wings.

Double crested cormorants

Anhingas posed for us.

Anhinga

This picture shows interesting foraging behavior in wood storks. The stork spread its wing out to shade the water, which makes it easier to see into the water. It then stuck its foot to the side and stamped the bottom, stirring up the mud. The picture shows the bubbles that were produced. Next, it repeated the process with the right wing and foot before moving down the shore.

Wood stork shades the water and stirs up the bottom

There was a huge morning glory that had completely taken over a shrub. It wasn't doing the shrub any favors, but the flowers were beautiful.

Morning glory

Pond Apple consists of four ponds, but visitors are only allowed on the periphery. The cross pieces, therefore, are safe places for birds and lizards to hang out. The alpha male green iguana, in his orange breeding colors, had staked a claim on one of the banks. I tried to get his bright orange dewlap while it was inflated, but only partially succeeded. He did some vigorous head bobbing as well, probably for the benefit of two females nearby.

Alpha male iguana with orange dewlap

And then we sat in a traffic jam to get off Sanibel Island and another to get onto Fort Myers Beach. That’s the trouble with these islands. One bridge, one road. On the way back to the condo, we took a side trip to see the eagle nest. The adults were gone, but we could see two chicks. They looked almost as big as adults. I hoped they would both put their heads up at once, but they did not feel that cooperative. This is the best I could do. The next day, they were gone, and I didn’t see them after that. We caught them the day before they fledged.

Two eaglets about to fledge. The head belongs to the one on the left. The lump at the right is the other one.

Florida, Day 1

 I flew to Florida to spend 10 days with Jane and Jan in a Fort Myers Beach condo. They are there for the whole month of February. I was lucky that the most recent winter storm missed both my house and the Rockford airport the day before. Many flights were cancelled at O’Hare, and my flight was packed to the gills, possibly with people rerouted from Chicago.

On my first full day, we frittered away most of the morning. I made bacon and eggs with mushrooms, onions, and tomatoes for brunch about 10:00. Jane and I went to the beach in front of the condo after that. I noticed numerous holes in the sand, but saw only one small crab.

Little crab on the beach

Later in the week, I discovered that if I stood still for not even a whole minute, the crabs would emerge from all over. One little vibration sent them scurrying back down. I also saw that these crabs were the kind where the male has one giant claw. Most of them seemed to be lefties. The claw is for waving to females (“Hey, baby! Hey, baby!”) and pounding on other males. It is useless for feeding. The crabs worked the sand for whatever it is they eat with their small claw.

There was a snowy egret in the lagoon between the condo and the beach. There are too many species of egrets, if you ask me. They are hard to tell apart. The snowy has black legs with yellow feet, a black bill, and yellow lores (tissue around the eye). The little egret also has a black bill, black legs and yellow feet, but has dark lores during the non-breeding season. It gets yellow lores during breeding. Both the little and snowy egret gets head and breast plumes during the breeding season, but the little egret’s tail plumes are straight while the snowy egret’s plumes are “lacy.” The great egret is larger (duh), has black legs and feet, and a yellow bill. The cattle egret is smaller than the snowy egret (therefore a lot smaller than the great egret), has black legs and feet, and a yellow bill. To make it even more confusion, the great blue heron, reddish egret, and little blue heron all have white forms. GAAA.

Snowy egret--see the yellow lores?

The lagoon had an abundance of minnows or fry. (Minnows are small species of fish; fry are baby fish). I didn’t see anything large. Could a snowy egret survive on tiny fish?

Wee fish

Jane sat on the beach while I walked south. Seeing nothing of interest, I turned back. Jane and I then walked north. Jane took a picture of me.

Me on the beach. I had to crop out my pasty white legs.

There were several shorebirds, such as these ruddy turnstones.

Ruddy turnstones

I think these are sanderlings. I thought they looked cute resting on the sand with their bills straight down.

Sanderlings at rest

Most exciting was a flock of royal terns.

Royal terns

I thought this was a herring gull, but when I looked closely at the picture, I saw that it was a ring-billed gull. I think this is the first time I've seen one (that I noticed).

Ring-billed gull

Some of the birds were bathing in the lagoon.

Bath time!

We didn’t stay out too long. It was hot in the sun, not that it wasn’t a pleasant change from Northern Illinois. We had our usual happy hour with the sunset followed by chicken tacos on the lanai. At dusk, a man came to the edge of the lagoon with a cast net, apparently trying to catch bait. He made throwing the net look easy. I wondered if it really was.