Sanibel

A cool start, 37 degrees in the pre dawn hours.  Could have been worse, 30 in Orlando.  Make your own waffles for breakfast, followed by left over gumbo in the room.  Glad Pat ordered a bowl.  Checked out of the Travelodge and headed to Sanibel.

 White pelicans and roseate spoonbills on Wildlife Drive

 Under way at 11:24

Through the "lake" into Pine Island Sound.

Osprey pair on one of the Wulfert Keys

 Is that an eagle on another key?

Yup

 Juvenile bald.

Another of the Wulfert Keys is a pelican roost. Popular one, judging from the poop.

 Pat, resting his bum.  The previous owner of the Pungo paddled it with a big blue seat cushion. Which I have.  The seat is hard.  By the way, if the previous owner is reading this, how are you?

 Landed at 1:38.  Got Pat's rental car in the Visitor Center lot, drove in the busy, but not as heavy as Saturday, Periwinkle Drive traffic to the SIBC

 

Where I had a smile on my face again

Cheese, crackers, summer sausage, beer, time for a beach walk

 

 Dolphins

 

 Pat had to catch a plane, I had to go kayaking, again.

 

Wildlife Drive

 On the water at 4:20

 

 Black crowned night heron

Ibis and spoonbill in the secret spoonbill spot

 High tide, so I was able to paddle into the mangroves and see a few more

 The area across from the original Observation Tower (to distinguish it from the new tower), which had been full of mud flats when Pat and I drove past in the morning, was now deep enough to paddle.  I went to investigate the birds on the islands. Lots of white in the distance

Snowy egrets

 A lone white pelican

Mostly snowy, and a great egret

 Ibis

 

Cormorants

 Brown pelican with ibis

 

 

 

White pelicans through the Olivia bridge.

  A name not found on any map, but pictures of my great niece here, in December.

She was on the bridge, not below.

 Yellow crowned night heron

 

 

 

Landed at 6

 

 

 

9:30, moonrise over I-4.  The biggest light.