CORKSCREW SWAMP SANCTUARY

 We continued on south to Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary operated by the Audubon Society.  We had purchased tickets online last night for the 1pm time slot.  They only allow so many people at a time on the boardwalk.  The boardwalk is a 2.25 mile loop through the swamp (a lot of which is dry this time of year) where you can see birds and animals in their natural habitats up close.

It was very warm and the sun was intense.

A lot of beautiful Bromeliad in the trees.

About a 4 ft brown snake

Egret

Alligator

a little alligator

And another alligator

I almost had Darrell convinced it wasn't real because it did not move or even blink.

A Turtle

It was amazing.

The Birds we saw:

Tri-colored Heron

Great Blue Heron

Little Blue Heron

Yellow-Crowned Heron

Green Heron

Night Heron

Egret

Great White Egret

White Ibis

Northern Parula

Yellow-rumped Warbler

Carolina Wren

Grey Catbird

Northern Cardinal

Grackle

Red-bellied Woodpecker

Black Vulture

Red-shouldered Hawk

Swallow-tailed Kite

Black and White Warbler

Northern Mockingbird

And Anhinga sitting on a nest of fluffy white chicks

I was able to identify a lot of these with my Merlin Bird ID by sound.

Afterwards we drove on south to Everglades City where we had dinner at the Diving Pelican Restaurant and spent the night at Everglades City Motel.

It was a great day.

CASPERSON BEACH

 We packed our things, said good-bye to Tampa and headed south.

First stop was recommended by some of Darrell's students.  They said to stop at Casperson Beach where you'll find millions-of-years-old shark's teeth that have been washed up onto the beach.  

It was a beautiful morning and a very pleasant beach.  However, as soon as we got out of the car I coughed, then Darrell coughed.  Must be something in the air.

We walked down to the beach where there were a dozen or so people searching the beach.  There were kids playing in the surf.

There was lots of dead fish on the beach, too.  That was probably because of the tides.  The tides that caused shells and teeth to be deposited here was also stranding fish here, too.

Soon I realized a lot of the people were coughing.  And there sure was a lot of dead fish on the beach.  But, since everyone seemed to be having a good time and some of them looked like they knew what they were doing with professional looking metal baskets for sifting through the sands in search of shells and shark's teeth we figured everything was normal.

We continued with the search, walking down the beach.  It was such a nice morning.

Darrell even found some teeth, and we collected shells.

As we were washing the sand off our shells, we talked to a local and asked him if he knew why we were coughing.  He said it was probably because of the Red Tide. We were startled. There were no signs on the beach warning of this. When that happens at home, it's on the news warning people not to go into the water and they post signs at the beaches.

We looked it up later - it's not a good thing.  It's very harmful to people and animals, and they should not go into the water.  That is why there were so many dead fish on the beach I guess (clue).  OMG.

FRIDAY IN TAMPA

 Darrell is having a problem with the cord for his headphones, which he'll need on the flight home.  So, I went in search of a replacement.  The google machine sent me out to Dunedin, north of Tampa Bay.  I arrived a bit early so I sat under a tree and sketched.  Much to my horror, little worms were falling off the tree onto me.  Yuck.  But, I stayed until my sketch was done.  Then freaked out thinking there were worms in my hair.

The nice man in the store didn't have what I was looking for, but did another google search and sent me to Best Buy.  They had something the young man there thought would work.  But, once home, we found that it wouldn't.  One more thing to return.

When Darrell got home from his class we went to dinner at Columbia, a restaurant that came highly recommended.  It was started in 1905 and occupies a beautiful building.  It is very popular.

DE SOTO NAT'L PARK

 Thursday, Darrell went off to teach and I headed south to DeSoto National Park.

It's a pretty small park, dedicated to a controversial person, Hernando de Soto from Spain, who landed here in 1539 with nine ships and abused the natives.  He went on to exploit and plunder heading north up the coast in his search of gold and glory.

But, it's a nice little park that I enjoyed very much.

That's a man standing out there fishing

There's a trail that goes out to the point and back around.

There are metal figures of natives and conquistadors scattered about on the trail.

And a few folks enjoying the beach

I sat down on a bench to sketch and was joined by a little lizard.  I later found out they are anole.

TAMPA FLORIDA

I left Tallahassee, headed south to Tampa where my husband, Darrell, is teaching a woodworking class for the week.  He has a nice Air BnB where they have put him up.

But, after a long day of driving I needed to get out and walk around a bit.  So, I stopped at Hudson Beach just north of Tampa Bay.

There was a nice walkway by the water and a nice cooling breeze.  After a while I found a shady spot in a shelter with tables and sat down to sketch.

There were lots of birds around - Laughing Gulls aplenty along with Grackles and Pelicans.  The gulls were particularly noisy.  But, it was a very pleasant hour sitting there looking at the people and the birds and the ocean.

I reunited with Darrell at where he was staying.  He took me out to dinner at a very nice Thai restaurant in Tampa - Si-am Restaurant.

 

TALLAHASSEE FLORIDA

 I left Plains and head south to Florida.  I wanted to see the capital building.  I got there around 3:30pm and I decided it was too late to go inside - and besides, finding a place to park proved difficult.

Darrell and I like to visit capital buildings when we can.  I felt a little guilty going by myself.  So I took a selfie and went in search of lodgings and a place for dinner.

Florida is noticably different from Georgia and that's all I'll say about that.

It was very hot.