3-6-2025 Myakka River State Park

Hand and foot was another disaster for the girls last night!  We play one game and lost and started another, but we were getting our asses whooped so conceded.  Tonight we might play cut-throat for a while to get back into some kind of rhythm.  

We were on our way to Myakka this morning, but Russ pulled off the road as he spotted a pair of sand hill cranes in the grass at the side of the road.  As a bonus there was also a very fuzzy cute baby almost hidden in the grass!  So cute!!  We got to the park and found they had had quite a bit of damage from the last hurricane.  The boardwalk which we usually use as the bird walk was quite wonky so we walked down near the water on a small path.  We took a number of pictures there and then headed over to the main area where we found a few more birds and gators.  It was very windy and chilly today so I was glad that I had brought my jacket in the car.  We came back for lunch.  Russ and I sat by the pool in the lee of the clubhouse and read for a bit.  Cathie decided to stay in to read.  We are going to grill steak tips we picked up at the farmer's market yesterday and have roasted potatoes, leftover green beans and salad with them.

So on our bird list today we have sand hill crane, turkey, palm warbler, crow. morning dove, avocet, big blue and little blue heron, unknown gull, osprey, black vulture, black necked stilt, limpkin, lesser yellow legs sandpiper, grackle, common egret and cattle egret.  And of course, we saw a number of alligators - big and small.