Sanibel Day 3

Made it! To Blind Pass. I've been over thinking it all these years.  Basically, its a straight shot. Ignore channel markers veering off the main channel.  Ignore, "Guide to Sea Kayaking in Southern Florida", Nigel Foster, 1999, which has you turning left, then right.

Look for this Prairie School house, and these pines.

Good Sunday morning. Just finished my breakfast. Salad.  No, I'm not on a health kick.  Ate at Jerry's last night. Not roaming the aisles looking for samples.  There is a restaurant.  I never ate there before.  Comparing prices, its are by far the lowest on the Island.   Dinner includes a trip to the salad bar.  I brought most of my salad home. Augmented with the last of the leftover steak from Friday's dinner and green pepper.  

Here is yesterday's breakfast.

Chuck steak, potato, red onion, green pepper, spicy cheese.  Off to the Ding  Darling National Wildlife Refuge.

This is the first of the two designated launch sites along Wildlife Drive.  I've never launched here.  It was not marked until recently.  No wildlife photos, it was raining.  For the first time ever, I was the only car on the Drive. The rain stopped when I launched at 8 am.

Time to pack, and go back to Ding Darling.  See you tonight.
Three hours of my life gone.  Photos and insightful commemtary, gone.  Here we go again. Pictures only.  Mostly.

Manatee at 11 o'clock.

Dolphins, and a manatee in the Wulfert Channel.

Same sign, and pelican, as seen earlier.  I was followig a trio of dolphins, then came back.

Yellow crowned night heron

After going in at least two wrong chanels, I was ready to give up.  My foutth attempt to reach Blind Pass, a failure.  But then, a kayak angler's line bent.  "Looks like the same bonnet head you had last night", his buddy called out.  I've read about sharks in and near Blind Pass.  Paddled around a bend, and there it was.

This is where I was composing when I lost the Tale.

Blind Pass is subject to currents, tides, and hurricanes.  In my 20 plus years visiting Sanibel, the width and shape of the Pass has fluctuated greatly.  In 2004, Hurricane Charley completely closed it.  A dredging project in 2009 reopened it.  The machiney there today is to make sure it stays open.

I landed, something I could not have done just a few weeks ago when the dredging was more active.

There were many great egrets along the Pass.  This is not one of them.   The flow was too powerful to put the paddle down to take a picture.  The above egret is past the landmark house and pines shown at the beginning of this Tale.

Brown pelican zone

Pileated woodpecker

Part of the commentary lost with my losing the Tale was I saw manatees four times dutrng the paddle.

Here are photos of the fifth encounter.

I paddled to the Wulfert Keys.

One of the manatee pods I saw were near the power lines.  On the return paddle, they were still there, and much more active.

I saw by far, more manatees today than I have ever seen at Sanibel Island.

Through the mangroves to the launch site. Landed at 1:30.

After a 2 hour break, I went for a bike ride.

The bike path along Periwinkle crosses two canals on the way to the fishing pier and lighthouse.

In honor of London, 2012, a couple birds.

Black crowned night heron. I've never seen one on a beach before.  A guy on the pier had never seen one.  He said he boats a lot in the area.  Must not be very observant.  But then, neither was I.  Nor was a Sanibel police officer, who asked the gentleman if he was fishing.  "Fish and Wildlife" he answered.  I then noticed his cap and lanyard with "Florida Fish and Wildlife"   It was not until later that I saw the nametag and his shirt.  This was later, when he came up and asked me to tell him the name of the bird again.  I did, and he said he had seen another bird, at  a friends house, not at Sanibel.  "Flying high, long tail"  I told him it probably was a swallow tail kite, and was on his shirt  He looked down, and said, "That's it"

The night heron went to where they are usually found.

Three dolphins

Click the photo to expand, you may see them.

Willet

Whatsit. Thanks to the allaboutbirds site I now know it is a male  black bellied plover in breeding plumage.   On the site, the pictures of the females were taken on Sanibel. I'm in good company.

Back on the bike.

Made a few stops along the way.

I've seen alligators in these holes, none today.

Back to the bike path

No gators in the wilds of Gulfside Park, but one in is natural habitat.

A golf course

Back to the Anchor Inn as rain began to far.  My ride, beach walk, ride took around an hour and twenty minutes.  It poured when I was inside.

It let up, and I made the most important decision of the day. Where to have dinner.  As mentioned at the start of the Tale, I went to Jerry's. 24 years of going to Sanibel,  and I had never ate there.

Dinner includes two warm rolls, with plenty real butter.  A visit to the salad bar.

Next time, I'll save the salad bar for last.  Ask for a to go box, and bring most of it to the room.  As my entree came while I had most of the salad left. My salad had romaine, some other leafy thing, cucumber, tomato, red pepper, egg, cheddar cheese, blue cheese, parmesan cheese, and French dressing.  And whatever those nutty seedy things are.  Items are no labled. And, you only get one visit.

The entree. Scallops. Bill, with beer, tax and tip, $24.19.  Other places on the Island, that will be the price for the entree alone.

I was keeping an eye on the clocks, about 5 above the counter, as I wanted to make it to Bowman Beach for sunset.

Missed it.  But, as some people walking back from the beach said,  some of the best views are after it has gone down.

These were taken from the bridge over the lagoon on the way to the beach.

And so ends another day on Sanibel.  I hurried back to the car. Had problems with the meter. Parking is 2 bucks an hour (ripoff).  The machine took four quarters.  It wasn't taking my bills.  It then said I had not paid anything. Bleep it, I put two bucks on the dash and headed to the beach. I hurried back as I saw a park vehicle on the way to the beach.  Fortunately, I did not have to argue a 50 dollar ticket.

On the bright side, at Jerry's I had just paid my bill, when the busser came up, and handed me my camera.  So, dinner, was 25.19, not 24.19.