We got up very early this morning so as to beat the morning commuter traffic over the bridge. It was 76 degrees at 5:30 AM. We got to Audubon's Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary about 7:30 which was a perfect time to see the birds and some mammals. Our list consists of painted bunting, swallow-tailed kite, red-shouldered hawk, pileated woodpecker, red-bellied woodpecker, Carolina wren, catbird, little blue heron, white-eyed vireo, ruby-throated hummingbird, cardinal, anhinga, Florida stumper (I thought I spotted a green heron, but upon closer inspection, it was a stump in the water), LBBs (little brown birds),pig frog, otters, alligators, and raccoons. The Corkscrew is huge - 17 square miles and has the oldest Bald Cypress forest in North America. There were very few wading birds today as the water level in the swamp is quite high from all of the accumulated rain they have had in the area recently. The highlights for me were the painted bunting, which I had never seen before, baby alligators sunning on a log, and a pair of otters frolicking on a closed off area of the boardwalk. We walked for about 4 1/2 hours and it was great!
We drove back to Cape Coral and had a late lunch. Russ and Cathie went out for a bit to check out the shopping in the area and have just come back. It clouded up this afternoon and it has just begun to rain. I wouldn't be surprised if we had a thunderstorm tonight.
The photos today are of the painted bunting, a flowering bromeliad, alligator (very close to the boardwalk), flowering arrowroot, baby gators sunning on a log, raccoon (despite the rangers having just put up slippery pipes to prevent him from getting to the bird feeder, he was caught with handfuls of it - raccoon 9, rangers 0. white-eyed vireo, pileated woodpecker, otter, pig frog (they make a very loud noise that sounds like a pig grunting, and an unknown marsh plant.
No comments:
Post a Comment