When I proposed to my friend that we make a stop at Myakka River State Park while we were in the general area the other day, I had Roseate Spoonbills on my mind. I knew from other photographers’ pictures that they are sometimes found at that park, and I hoped to take a fabulous picture like the ones I’ve seen online. When we arrived the Ranger asked if we were looking for alligators, I told him no, we were hoping to see Spoonbills. He directed us to an area called the Weir, and we made that our first stop, but didn’t have any luck. We continued the drive through the park, and I also walked out onto the bird walk, hoping to see them there. I didn’t. We completed the drive but the north gate was closed so we headed back out the way we came in. The Weir was only a little out of the way so we made another stop, and as we were driving to turn around in the parking lot one flew into view and landed at the shoreline. This guy was quite cooperative, walking along the shore dipping his ‘spoon’ into the water and swinging his head back and forth. Their bill serves as a sieve to capture their lunch. And when he was nearly out of sight he turned around and came back. I wasn’t able to get the picture that I hoped to get, the one I imagined, but I felt lucky to have seen this guy at all. Sometimes you make a plan for a day and all the pieces fall into place. It was that kind of day.
While I can take pictures of egrets just a couple of minutes from home, it’s impossible to resist taking pictures of them no matter where you find them.
Another photographer called this a ”bottlenose turtle”, so I took a close up. Now that’s a face only a mother could love.
I have a time of it when I see a black water bird. Are they cormorants or anhingas? I said this out loud and was told the cormorants have a hook on their beak, and anhinga’s beaks are straight. So that’s settled. Those three young cormorants on their nest were making quite the racket. They looked big enough to fend for themselves to me!
A woman with very impressive photo equipment and an Audubon tee shirt on said that the bird flying over was a northern harrier, so I started shooting. Not the greatest picture but it’s the best one I got. Something new to me.
While Limpkins aren’t new to me they aren’t all the easy to spot. And I wonder if this one had dredged up his favorite dinner, an apple snail? Can’t say for sure.
But the last, and most unexpected, photo of the day is this last one. I was on a boardwalk when some kids started talking about the wild pig they were seeing across the water. And sure enough there he was. 
There are still a lot of photos to go through, but it seems that time at home will be there order of the day from now on, so that’s really a good thing. Hope everyone has things to keep them busy, and to keep them calm and happy while we watch events unfold.
Some of where we hiked yesterday had been underwater when they had been there before. The area is spring fed and there is water just off the road in a lot of the area. Water and the creatures who live there, such as an alligator they dubbed Nestor, who they thought was a male until she had 16 babies last year. As we hiked I had to wonder where she and her babies might be lurking as we took pictures.
I, for one, would not want to be lost on these trails. Once we got back to the car we did something we don’t usually do, we sat and talked at a picnic table, deciding where to go next. We were aware of a woman who was waiting for her 84 year old friend and his Jack Russel terrier to return to his car. She was calling his cell phone, but she suspected that he’d left his phone in the car. He had been gone quite a while, she said, and it was now 4 PM and with only a couple of hours of daylight left we offered to drive the roads to see if we could find him while she waited by the car in case he came back. We drove a long way, I was afraid that if he had fallen we may have driven right by him, and we all suspected that surely a man his age wouldn’t have walked that far. But Linda said that something told her not to turn around, to keep going, because this road was not traveled by many visitors who might come across him to help. And the story has a happy ending because sure enough, we found him. He was fine and still walking, but boy was he happy to see us. He had gotten lost, and the trail he was on would eventually loop back to the parking area, but not for another five or so miles. Don’t you just love a happy ending. I do…
