2/25/19 Monday

It was partial sun and clouds today and a bit windy, but since the temps were in the mid 70's, no problem-o.  We took a lovely long walk at the Four Mile Ecological Preserve.  Although we didn't see much wildlife, the walk was great.  It was almost entirely on a boardwalk through a mangrove forest.  There were white, red and black mangroves - the white grow furthest from the water, then the red, with the black being at the water's edge.  The burls you see on the trees are caused by an insect that lays its eggs inside the tree.  It does not hurt the tree but it does cause those strange growths that you see.  The boardwalk meandered over small tidal rivers and ended up twice on the bay between Cape Coral and Fort Myers.  We did see a Muscovy duck and two red-bellied woodpeckers (they were too fast for me to get a pic).  We ended up at a Veteran's Memorial "park-ette".  The Iwo Jima memorial was made by the sculptor who made the larger one in Washington D.C.  We stopped at the store for a few lunch items and after lunch went next door to meet our neighbors (this is a duplex ranch).  He is a retired policeman from Minnesota.  He worked at the Minnesota/St. Paul airport for his entire career.  He is retired from that job and now is a guide to an iron mine in his area that is now a state park.  He takes folks down an elevator 850 feet and then they ride a train through tunnels to the last part of the mine when it was operational.  He is here for three

months with his mom and a springer spaniel puppy named Rosie.  I will have to hook him up with Russ next week as he is a marathoner.  Dave just got up from his nap and we are going for a walk soon as Mike (the neighbor) said there were burrowing owls in the area.