2011 Trip to Florida

Winter Trip 2011

Day 1 Sunday, February 13, 2011
We left home at 7:00 AM in our almost-new Toyota Rav4. It was cold, and we were dressed in winter clothes. There was still a lot of snow on the ground at home. Bob was so happy when the snow finally disappeared when we got to southern Maryland. We stopped a few times along the way for food, gas and bathroom, and arrived at Jerry Cochran’s house in Salisbury, North Carolina around 2:30 PM. We sat around in his kitchen over glasses of wine, and then went to dinner at Outback. We all had prime rib. Very good. Night at Jerry’s.

Day 2 Monday, February 14, 2011
We left Jerry’s around 8:00 AM and set out for Decatur, Georgia. Again, we made several stops along the way to stretch our legs. We arrived around 3:00 PM, after getting the northern salt off our car at a carwash. After greeting Rafe and Ilze, we had some tea while watching the Eastern Screech Owl peek out of one of their owl boxes. Their yard is amazing: two screech owls in residence, Pine and Myrtle Warblers, Brown-headed and White-breasted Nuthatches, Downy Woodpecker, Purple Finches, Eastern Bluebirds, Northern Cardinals, Brown Thrasher, Cedar Waxwing, White-throated Sparrows, Carolina Chickadees, Tufted Titmouse, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Red-shouldered Hawk. We took a walk around the neighborhood with Rafe, and found out all about local goings-on.
We had tuna and noodles for dinner, and settled in for the night.

Day 3 Tuesday, February 15, 2011
In the morning, we all took a walk at the Clyde Shepherd Refuge. There weren’t a whole lot of birds there. Many, many American Robins, but not much else except for one Golden-crowned Kinglet. We went back to the house for lunch. In need of some exercise, I asked about a local walking trail. As it turned out, a rather large recreational area is being developed nearby. So Rafe, Bob and I drove over there. Actually, we could have walked. It’s less than a mile away from their house. At any rate, we parked the car and set out. The boardwalk is partially completed and we walked it for a mile or so. We took a detour to Mason’s Mill, a defunct water works, covered with elaborate graffiti. It was a very interesting walk, and we’ll be sure to do it again next time we visit.
We enjoyed “sandwich night” after watching their two screech owls leave their boxes to go out and hunt for the night.

Day 4 Wednesday, February 16, 2011
We left Rafe and Ilze’s at 7:00 AM. We followed “Fred’s” (reliable GPS) directions, and basically took I-75 all the way to Venice, Florida. It’s a 500 mile-long, pretty easy drive. There was very little traffic. We arrived around 4:00 PM. at Ann and Mac Scott’s very nice, quite large rental house on one of the lakes. Debbie and Lewis Barrett were also staying there. We had snacks and drinks, and then dinner around 8:00 PM. To bed at 10:45.

Day 5 Thursday, February 17, 2011
We were all up at 7:00 AM. We had breakfast at the house, and then headed for the Celery Farm near Sarasota. We saw a Limpkin land in a tree close to us shortly after we arrived, and thus ended the “Limpkin Curse” for this trip. (We saw several of them after that.) We saw several waders, an assortment of ducks, one Sandhill Crane, and a Savannah Sparrow, which we struggled to identify. It was skulking in the grass, rather unusual behavior for that species. We took a break at the local library, a very nice structure, and each bought some books from their $1.00 used book shelves. We had lunch at Chick-Fil-A, and then headed for Myakka River State Park. We walked several of the trails, but there wasn’t much bird activity at that time of day. It’s a great place. We’d been there once before a few years ago. We came back to the house for a while, and then went to the beach for the sunset. Ann made dinner for all of us again. Debbie and Lewis got ready to leave early the next morning.

Day 6 February 18, 2011
We said goodbye to Debbie and Lewis at 8:00 AM, and afterwards took a nice walk along the Myakka River. We found a group of assorted warblers – Black-and white, Palm, Pine, and also Blue-headed and White-eyed Vireos at one spot. We had sandwiches at the house, played a couple of games of Chicken Foot, which we’d brought for them, and took off for Naples and the Cushes. We got to their house around 3:30 PM. We watched some golf, had dinner, watched the original “True Grit” with John Wayne, and went to bed around 11:00 PM. It was good to see Tom and Mary, Biz’s in-laws, again. When they lived in Dresher, PA we used to do stuff with them all the time.

Day 7 February 19, 2011
Bob and I left around 9:30 AM for Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary. We had two gorgeous male Painted Buntings at the feeder first thing. We did not see the females at all this time. There were lots of Red-shouldered Hawks with us all the way round, perched, flying overhead, and calling. No Swallow-tailed Kite this time. They had not turned up yet, though they’re “supposed to” on February 18. No Barred Owl, and no Wood Storks either. In one spot we had a number of warblers: Pine, Black-and-white, Parula, Yellow-throated, “Baypoll”, Common Yellowthroat. Also White-eyed and Blue-headed Vireos, Blue-gray Gnatcatchers, Baltimore Oriole. All the usual waders, Anhingas and Double-crested Cormorants. We walked around twice.
We watched “Endurance” about the Shackleton Antarctic Expedition after dinner. It’s an amazing film. It made me want to go to the Antarctic. Too bad it’s so hideously expensive.

Day 8 February 20, 2011
We spent all day with Tom and Mary. We drove to Marco Island to see Burrowing Owls, and did see one peeking out of its hole. We walked around a small craft show before having lunch at Pelican Larry’s. We all had oysters, some raw, some fried. All good. We played Chicken Foot all afternoon. Fun. We had a spaghetti dinner at the house, and watched part of “Born Yesterday” with Judy Holliday, and part of “My Fair Lady”, both on TCM, before going to bed.

Day 9 February 21, 2011
We left Tom and Mary’s at 8:30 AM and headed east on Route 41 to Shark Valley. We hadn’t brought bikes on this trip, since we thought there wouldn’t be enough opportunities to ride this time. Also we hadn’t had a chance to try out the new bike rack on the Rav4. It has to be mounted oddly because of the spare tire. The parking lot was already full, so we parked on the street. We walked a couple of miles down the trail, and took a few pictures. There was nothing spectacular or unusual, but we had some nice views of Purple Gallinule, the usual waders, and lots of alligators. We saw distant Snail Kites across the road after we’d gone back to the car. We left there around noon, and ate lunch under a tree (it was getting hot by then) in the big Indian casino parking lot. There were lots of RVs in the lot. We headed for Brian Piccolo Park, a “sure spot” for Burrowing Owls, and learned that the county parks would be closed till 5:00 PM Wednesday for Presidents Day weekend! What a silly idea. I guess they’re strapped for funds, too. We drove to Markham Park for snail kites, but that one was closed, too.
We got to the Sleep Inn at Dania Beach around 4:00 PM. I had a message from Marco in Panama that something was up regarding the Darien extension to our trip. He requested that I call him, because of a “sensitive” issue relating to the extension. I finally got through to him, and found out that the Cana part of the trip has been cancelled due to poor conditions at the Cana air strip. At this point, our itinerary will have to be adjusted to eliminate the Cana portion, and a new itinerary is to be proposed.
Alvin and Marie picked us up at the Sleep Inn and took us to a nice fish restaurant. Parking the car in the crowded lot was a circus, but Alvin managed with the help of the parking lot assistant. We had a very good dinner. We sat at a table next to a nice, young black couple, who were very interested in Alvin and Marie’s long history, including Alvin’s service in WW II. They bought us dessert.

Day 10 February 22, 2011
We checked out of the Sleep Inn in Hollywood and got sandwiches and stuff at the local Publix, just like old times. Our first stop, heading north, was Green Cay. It’s a wonderful place, but it was a little disappointing. We’d heard such great things about it. Lots and lots of people use it for walking exercise. It’s a rather new waste water treatment facility, about 6 years old. The visitors center is quite elaborate. We went from there to Wakodahatchee, where we’d been many times before. There were lots of nesting birds on the islands, as usual. We had a nice look at a Sora, and got some decent pictures of it. We ate our sandwiches in the car, and headed to Grassy Waters to look for Snail Kites. We found the place all right, and walked the very nice new boardwalk, but the only bird there was a Great Egret. We asked some folks about the kites – they had easels set up and were painting – and they had no idea what we were talking about. One guy said the kites are not here this time of year. Nice try.
We headed north towards Fort Pierce. We’d been invited to spend the night at Sam Freed’s place, but we decided to soldier on to the Viera Wetlands (Bob calls them “Viagra Wetlands”) and come back to Sam’s. It took longer than we’d thought to get to Viera, so we booked a room at “America’s Best Value Inn” motel (pretty sleazy) in Melbourne and drove on after calling Sam to say we wouldn’t be staying this time. Nearly all the motels around there were booked up, even before we left for the trip – combination of Daytona and the shuttle launch. Viera Wetlands is wonderful. I wish we’d had more time there. We did see a Sora and an American Bittern, and lots and lots of coots and moorhens. I’m sorry that we didn’t get to see Sam’s house. Oh, well.

Day 11 February 23, 2011
We were out of the sleazy motel by 7:30 AM. It was actually clean enough, just shoddy. Everybody else staying there was either black or latino, and in the construction business, or so it seemed at breakfast. We made another trip around Viera Wetlands. It was very foggy. The only “new” bird for us there was a perched Peregrine Falcon. We headed north from there, and made a detour at Merritt Island NWR Black Water Drive. The whole refuge was very dry, and bird life was minimal except for hundreds of Dunlin and a few yellowlegs. A volunteer at an eagle watch said there has been a severe drought and they do the best they can to get water from one area to another. We got on the road for real at 10:30, after stops at Publix and Walgreens. We made a couple of stops, and got to the Fairfield in Florence, SC around 6:00 PM to find that they had no record of our reservation. Fortunately they had a room, and then I had to figure out what happened to our reservation. We had a terrible dinner at the Outback. The meat was old and dry, and we complained. We weren’t charged for it. We were back in our room at 9:00 PM.

Day 12 February 24

Florence to home. Long drive, lots of traffic. We were home around 4:00 PM.