Tuesday 2-15-2022 Red Bug Slough

 The girls won the card game last night so now the score is 5 to four in favor of the guys.  We will come back!

We were going to go back to Robinson's Preserve today, but changed our minds and went to a nearby neighborhood park called Red Bug Slough.  Many of the trees were covered in Spanish moss and we saw the Old Man of the Moss (Russ) on our walk.  We also saw three types of ducks: a wood duck pair, a hooded Merganser pair, and a few mallards.  For birds we saw a phoebe, a little blue heron, a snowy egret, a couple of anhingas, a wood stork, a blue-gray gnatcatcher, a bluejay, a cardinal, a roseate spoonbill, a mocking bird and both black and turkey vultures.  The most remarkable bird we saw was a little blue heron morph - pure white body with a blue bill.  We also saw a monarch butterfly and nine cooters (turtles).  We also came across something we had never seen before - a bucket of air potatoes.  Apparently it is an invasive species of yam originally from Asia and Africa.  They can be poisonous if ingested.  The vines can grow as much as 8 inches a day!

We came back to the unit for lunch.  Cathie and Russ have gone to the pool.  I elected to read on the balcony for a while and write the blog.  We will attempt to go out to dinner tonight if we can find outdoor dining, otherwise we will do take out.  Tomorrow promises to be warm and sunny so we plan on heading to the beach.

Monday 2-14-2022 Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary

 Happy Valentine's Day to all!  We got going early this morning to make the 2+ hour drive to Corkscrew.  Once off the highway, we saw some cattle egrets and a wood stork in a canal by the side of the road.  Once we got to the sanctuary, instead of seeing birds, our first sighting was of a raccoon.  It was quite chilly for Florida this morning so the bird sightings were few and far between at the beginning of the walk.  The nice thing about this place is that all of the walking is done on a series of boardwalks.  The entire main loop is 2 1/4 miles.  At the end of the loop we got in the car to warm up and eat our lunch and then took the shorter inner loop (1 mile in length) again, hoping for more activity.  Among the birds sighted were ibis, palm warbler, black and white warbler, both black and turkey vultures, a cardinal, an immature white ibis, a red shouldered hawk, anhinga, little blue heron, American egret, and three types of woodpeckers: downy, red-bellied, and pileated.  We also saw lots of epiphytes - both air plants and bromeliads, some very old cypress trees and their knees, a brown anole, a juvenile alligator and otters!  The otters were wonderful to watch they were playing and eating - three smaller ones (I assume females) and one huge one.  That was the highlight of the trip! We came back and Cathie and I made pasta for dinner.  Just put the pics up and realize there are doubles of some of them - sorry.

Sunday 2-13-2022 Siesta Key

Last night, the boys took the chicken and potato foil packages down to the grill behind the unit.  Cathie and I stayed to prepare the lemon sauce, green beans and slice some sour dough bread we purchased at the farmer's market.  We had a delicious meal with fresh pineapple and sliced strawberries for dessert - yum!  Cathie and I beat the pants off the boys last night so we are beginning our comeback.

It was raining this morning so I did laundry while Russ was running.  He cut short his 10 miles this morning as his shoes got soaked in the puddles.  The rain stopped around 10 so we drove down to Turtle Beach and then walked toward the point hoping to find some tortoises.  The closest we came was to find an active tortoise hole, but he was probably waiting for the sun to come out before showing himself.  We had a lovely walk on the beach and in the interior for a bit passing some blooming prickly pear cacti.  We  only turned around when we got to private property and a cute no trespassing sign (see pic).  We walked back and spotted several Nanday parakeets sitting on the phone wires in the parking lot and then came back to the unit for lunch.  Russ, Cathie and I went to sit poolside with our books, but the cloud cover made it quite chilly and then it started to rain again.  Russ and Cathie have gone out to fill the car for tomorrow and to poke around in some of the shops in the village.  We are having leftovers for dinner tonight - easy meal prep.

 

Saturday 2-12-2022 Sarasota

We walked across the street last night and had dinner at the Spearfish Grille.  It was open air seating and we went early so were not feeling hemmed in.  Dave had grouper, Russ had shrimp and grits, Cathie had coconut shrimp and I had conch fritters.  We came back and played cards - the closest game yet!  The boys won by 5 points: 9720 to 9715!  That makes three in a row for them.  Cathie and I have our work cut out for us.  Watched the crazy skeleton race on the Olympics - that sport is just nuts!  Who even thought that flying down the ice face first on a tiny sled would be a good idea?  Must have been invented by someone who had been in the bar too long.

This morning we went up to the Farmer's Market in Sarasota.  We picked up lots of fresh produce including some huge, delicious strawberries.  When we got back we walked over to the beach.  There were hundreds of sting rays swimming and feeding close to shore.  Quite cool!  I stayed for awhile, but got too hot so came back to the unit.  Russ and Cathie stayed a bit longer and actually saw a dolphin.  We will cook on the grill tonight.

Today's pics are all from the market.

Friday 2-11-2022

 Cathie and I have major work to do next time we play cards - the boys have won two in a row!  At least it happened in the fourth round last night.

We headed to Bradenton this morning after breakfast to hike the Robinson Preserve.  What a wonderful park - beautiful paths and tons of birds.  We saw lots of nesting osprey and flocks of white pelicans, all of the egrets and most of the herons.  We also saw a wood stork, ibises, a pied-billed grebe, hooded mergansers, coots, a merlin, a phoebe, sandpipers, palm warblers, mourning doves, a fish crow, killdeer, blue jay, black. and turkey vultures, anhingas and cormorants, blue-winged teals, and mallards.  The park had been planted with gaillardia and beach sunflowers - absolutely stunning.  We had a wonderful morning and vowed to come back again next week as we have more trails to explore.  On the way back we stopped for lunch at Wicked Cantina on the outskirts of Sarasota.  There was plenty of outside widespread seating and the food was very good.  Dave is napping and Cathie and I have just come back from reading by the pool.  Russ said he would be another half hour. 

Thursday 2-10-2022 Boca Grande

First things first - apparently I got the size wrong on yesterday's alligator.  The guys agreed that it was 12-13 feet long.  We walked over to the ice cream shop after dinner, but brought it back to enjoy as it was quite chilly out.  The card game was short last night as the guys crushed us in the third round.  We will look for revenge tonight.  Watched a bit of Olympics then got to bed.

We got going early this morning so Russ could meet his friends for golf in Englewood.  After dropping him off we headed to Lemon Creek Wildflower Preserve for a walk.  Unfortunately when we got there we realized it was a private preserve.  There were no trespassing signs all over the place.  We decided to go down the road to Cedar Point Environmental Park.  The trails were lovely and well groomed.  There wasn't a lot of bird life there though.  We saw two white pelicans and a couple of ruddy turnstones flipping over shells on the shore to look for food.  We then wandered over to Boca Grande and made our way to Gasparilla Island State Park.  We parked near the 1890 lighthouse and walked down to the shell covered beach.  We picked up a few of the prettier ones and then Cathie and Dave each found a sand dollar!  That was the highlight of the day.  We went into town and wandered a bit until we found a lovely restaurant with plenty of outside seating.  We chose a table way away from anyone else and had grouper finger baskets - delish.  Russ called as we were eating so when we finished we headed back to pick him up.  When we got back to Siesta Key three of us went out to read by the pool.  The weather today was lovely - 73 and sunny.  I am still having trouble with putting pics up.  Will do my best to fix the problem.

With Cathie's help we were able to fix the photo problem so here are the last couple of pics from yesterday and the few I took today.