Bokeelia ~ Pine Island

Another trip was made to the SW coast,

This time to check out Cape Coral...

C.C. is located on the E side of Charlotte Harbor...

What we saw we did not care for,

But we mosied on over to Pine Island

(The largest island on the W coast of FL)...

Bokeelia is on the N tip of the island,

At the mouth of Charlotte Harbor...

It is one of five communities on the island...

There are two piers; this one has a locked gate...

The other pier, you can walk out on part way...

At its gate you have to pay $8 to enter...

While we ate a seafood lunch at the rustic restaurant

Across the street from the piers,

Ru saw a fin out in the water between the piers...

We finished our lunch and went to watch

A porpoise! It was hunting,

And I couldn't get any photos besides of the fin...

...and the splash as it caught a fish,

After zipping at warp speed towards shore...

We did see the fish flip up into the air...

Nearby, and further back down the road, there are two huge osprey nests...

I was able to get photos of the osprey at the nest by the piers...

I did see an osprey in the nest, being fed by the one I photographed...

The osprey flew around nearby then landed on a nearby post...

...And another nearby post...

Here's a perspective shot of the nest...

A brown pelican between the piers.

The porpoise sighting was my first ! Very cool.

*  *  *  *  *  *

A special thanks to Caroline for ID'ing the "duck" in my previous post (Feb. 21) as an Egyptian goose! I KNEW it was a legit bird, not a hybrid, but the memory was too hazy to roll off the tip of my tongue, and it wasn't in either of my two bird guides (where on earth did I see it then?)

Another aside...we have made the tough decision not to buy a home in Port Charlotte/No. Port,

Due to the communities mostly being on well/septic water, something we're both uncomfortable with.

I'm pretty disappointed, but we will push on and have another area to check out on the NE coast...

I soooo wanted to live on the SW coast but the water and Chinese drywall issues are putting the kabosh on that....

Parking for Feathers

Now that we have bicycles, (Mine's a bright orange w/ white-wall tires :o) )

Ru and I  have been putting around the 'hood here and there...

Two nearby parks could be deemed

A birding junkie's emergency "fix"...

The sports park, where the monk parakeets hang out,

Did have the monks "chanting" at the top of the field net recently...

Not good lighting but hey, proof of the parakeets

(Also called quaker parrots)...

At the other park, I followed a tri-colored heron as it fished...

Or tried to...

This pair of awesomely colored ducks was cruising about...

I was hoping it was a legitimate breed

But looks like they're a hybrid...?

Nothing in N American bird guides anyway...

* * * * *

An aside...the house we made an offer on, didn't pan out; we had to drop the bid...

We were disappointed but deep down knew that house wasn't really for us

Despite how much I looooved being so close to Ollie Pond....

Good news is, we're making an offer on another house, still in Charlotte Co.,

So everyone cross your fingers, your toes, and your eyes for us! Happy Thoughts!

A Laughing Lifer

We made it back to Ft. Lauderdale Beach today...

We both could swear we'd seen a sign

ID'ing it as Dania Beach but

That was probably the area just south of

The parking lot we'd used last time

And this time...

Anyway, I put the camera in a small backpack

And we hoofed it S on the beach again,

But not one skimmer peeked out

Among the terns....sigh...

But the skimmer is supposed to be found

On all of Florida's coastline,

Year-round......

In the meantime, I did realize the other day

That I needed to pay closer attention to the gulls....

Above is a laughing gull in winter plumage...

I'm pretty sure I "saw" them during the last beach visit,

But my eyes didn't connect to my brain,

So this is untechnically a lifer...(right?)

This laughing gull is morphing from winter to summer....

The legs and bill have just a faint tinge of red to them as yet...

But the head is obviously solid black.

I sat for two hours in the sun, one hour in the shade of a palm...

Got a lovely sunburn to prove it;

Don't ask why I didn't put the 'screen on, I had it....

Fortunately my face didn't fry...

I wear a $35 light-weight baseball cap

I love the cute floppy summer hats

Many stores sell for women

BUT...my ginormous head won't fit in any of 'em...

Anyway, among the many adult ring-billed gulls

Was this imm. one

That looked to be on steroids.

On Ollie's Pond ~ Four Lifers

While on the SW coast last week,

we discovered, by sheer chance,

Ollie's Pond in Port Charlotte...

The pond covers 40 acres

And is only a few miles from PC Harbor...

There's a path around the pond,

And I eagerly took a stroll along one side...

Several little blue herons were feeding...

At some distance, towards the center of the pond,

Greater yellowlegs were also feeding...

(A lifer! I've seen lesser yellowlegs)

There were several Ibises,

This one posing as a statue...

White ibises and glossy ibises were feeding together,

While a pack of hooded mergansers (lifers!) cruised by...

I couldn't quite get a good photo...

Probably 'cause I was all nerves I was so excited ;o)

I was standing in shadow in a line of small trees,

Along side two Brits...

As I went back to the trail and walked a few feet,

Something red zipped by at eye level.....

! ! !

The No. Cardinal was at the top of my lifer wish list,

And I was close to tears I was so overcome...

But did manage to calm down and take photos.

The English couple joined me...

Mr. C posed for at least 10 min. ...

Also flitting in the trees along the path was this yellow-rumped warbler...

Another lifer in the trees, a red-bellied woodpecker!

A bit frustrating not to be able to get a better shot....

Snowy egrets enjoy the pond too...

Trees around the pond have long strands of Spanish moss...

A view of Ollie's Pond....

Not far from Ollie's Pond,

we found a cute little "welcome" frog....

On the front side of a house...

Not just ANY house, mind you...

But OUR soon-to-be new home!

We love, love the Port Charlotte area

And can't wait to be living there.

Caspersen Beach

Caspersen Beach is just south of Venice Beach,

in SW Florida,

and is #14 on the South section of

The Great Birding Trail...

Ru and I visited this week

While scouting houses and 'hoods in the area...

C. Beach has some rocky spots

And a narrow shoreline,

But it's a nice beach...

A snowy egret had taken it upon itself

To oversee one fisherman's endeavors...

Deciding, it seemed, that the one bitty fish gift wasn't enough,

Snowy E. did a little fishing of its own...

For a few moments it appeared to of

Grabbed up more than it could swallow...

...Hmmm.......

...Ok, here we go, down the hatch......

Relaxing back on a rock, after the snack......

There were also 2-3 of this bird floating about offshore....

Turns out it's a common loon! A lifer....

Too bad it's winter plumage....

A ring-billed gull and ruddy turnstone

Grappled over a dead fish....

Neither got far with it, but....

Eventually the turnstone strutted off in search of easier fare...

Also floating offshore, like the loons,

Were a couple brown pelicans.

Before reaching Caspersen Beach,

We took a quick look around at

Shamrock Park & Nature Ctr. nearby,

Didn't see anything...it's #13

On the South part of the Great Birding Trail.

We plan to get back there

And ride our bikes on the trail.

Polly Wanna Parrot...but...

Mr. Ru came home from a bicycle ride yesterday,

And announced he'd seen a flock of the "green parrots"

That we see almost daily flying over the house...

I don't have a bicycle yet,

So we packed a lunch and picnicked at a nearby park,

Then we drove into the other nearby park

Where he'd seen the green birds...

Nothing...

But we'll keep checking/trying,

Later in the day...

I did get to warm up the camera a little bit,

After several days w/o using it...

Above is a male boat-tailed grackle,

On the rail of a bridge over a canal...

The male grackles...

Aren't as pretty as the female grackles...

A few species of birds were getting drinks

While we watched from the bridge...

Including some white ibises.....

A Florida red-bellied "cooter" was also basking on a rock near the bridge.

An aside...We went to Dania Beach a couple days ago...got lost on the way to Ft. Lauderdale Beach

Actually, but we found the really nice Dania Beach further south as a result...I didn't take my

Camera...so I should've known we'd see two black skimmers ~ a lifer ~ on the sand...amid hordes of terns! We also saw an osprey soaring over the shoreline...

Am anxious to go back w/ the camera now..... 

Key West and the Great Seafood Gluttony

Seafood, seafood, key lime pie, and more seafood...

This is how I expect to spend a day in Key West,

And I was not disappointed Sat., when we attended

The 7th Annual Florida Keys Seafood Festival

In Key West....

First, we slurped down conch chowder

And conch fritters....appetizers really...

Then we went back to the line of food booths

And grabbed a grilled lobster plate to share...

After eating and checking out the arts and crafts booths,

We drove to Fort Zachary Taylor State Park...

America's southernmost state park.

(And a part of the Great Birding Trail.)

Before visiting the fort, we watched what I believe was some part

of the Ft. Lauderdale to Key West Regatta...

I found this lone sandwich tern on the small beach in the park...

While visiting Ft. Z. Taylor,

Ru discovered an odd couple

When he looked out the cannon portals....

The iguana was quite large,

And so was the "great egret"....

When I see this photo,

I keep thinking of

The Owl and the Pussycat!

I remembered seeing the white morph photo

Of a great blue heron in the Stokes Field Guide,

So I was anxious to get back home and see....

I'm pretty sure this is indeed a great blue heron

With the white morph going on...!

...Looking down the row of cannons...

This fort contains the largest cache

Of Civil War-era seacoast cannons

In the United States...

Also puttering around the "semi moat" below the fort

Was a female ring-necked duck...

And what I thought was a common merganser...

But it's a female red-breasted merganser, a lifer...

I only saw the one merganser paddling around with

Several blue-winged teals...and coots...

This male/female teal pair are under mangrove roots...

Back on the road, we went to Conch Republic Seafood Co.,

For more seafood...I had fish and chips...

...That is, after we ate slices of key lime pie

From Kermit's...we ate at both places

Six years ago during my first visit to Florida...

We also strolled the boardwalk outside the restaurant

(And other restaurants)...

Several brown pelicans were floating

in the marina...

This one is an immature... 

Key West is known for the free-roaming roosters

On the island....

This is a quad of black-breasted reds...

That's hubby w/ a large stuffed frog named Jingles,

A Christmas gift from our daughter...

Ru decided we were going to use it

For our travel photo mascot...

So here he is at the southernmost point in the US...

Key West is well-known for its gorgeous sunsets...

We were on the road heading home when the sun went down,

But stopped along Seven Mile Bridge

To take not-so-great photos, but...

It was a beautiful sunset!

A great ending to a really nice day.