Day 20 Captiva

First Light at the Cottage

To view the video, click on the link at the bottom of the email to go to blog.Then click on the arrow.

Every morning we are awaken by the sounds of what we called the "Alarm Bird".  The video above was recorded at 6:45  just as the sun was rising at 6:57.  Listen for the bird.

  We took a morning beach walk about 10 am and it was very quiet.....no birds or people to speak of.   It was a beautiful morning with white puffy clouds in the sky and several boats in the water.

After breakfast we went to Sanibel and did some window shopping at Periwinkle Place and I bought a tank top at Fresh Produce.  We then bought some groceries at Bailey's and headed home to the pool.

While we away, Edguardo and Norma were here to houseclean.  

Took this picture of the 2 young eagles:

Tonight for dinner, Grill Master Al made his specialty grilled scallops. I added lemon butter sauce and  sides of couscous and salad.  The scallops from Bailey's were both fresh and delicious. Wish I had a picture to share. 

Day 19 captiva

Coffee with pastries from Bailey Bakery early this am.   I headed to the  beach around 8:30 and found a quiet picture of the gulf:

To view video if you open this in email,  go to blog by clicking link at bottom of email. 

Click on arrow:

Brown pelicans feeding at north end:

Thriller tour boat out early:

Sanderlings in the waves:

And then I spotted a group of seven female red-breasted mergansers swimming in the gulf: 

 

 They came as a group up to the shore line to feed, disappearing underneath the waves to fish.

And then they gathered back into formation and swam off in to the gulf.

To view video if you open this in email,  go to blog by clicking link at bottom of email. 

Click on arrow:

Al had his therapeutic massage at Tween Waters Spa at 10am.  I made him a grilled cheese with roasted red peppers sandwich and I had a ham sandwich.  The red peppers were from the ones that I bought at the Farmers Market and roasted.  I spent time blogging and Al, the laundry man, did some wash.   I took another walk on the beach about 4pm and captured these birds in photos:

Kestrel

 Willet

 Ibis

 Sanderlings

 Ruddy Turnstone

Checked in on the eagle's nest when was back at the cottage:

For dinner we steamed mussels in an Italian tomato wine sauce and served over linguini with arugula salad and ciabatta rolls.  Mussels from Timbers Seafood Market were large and delectable.  I always think of my sister, Cecilia, when we have mussels  because she likes them as much as we do!  Wish she was here instead of rainy Tennessee.

Day 18 Captiva

After early coffee with Al,  I headed to the beach for a walk around 9:30 and found several brown pelicans were still there along with hungry gulls.

Cormorant talking to the pelican: "You're a big bird!"

For breakfast we had poached eggs, bacon, biscuits and grapefruit. We spent from 11:30-2:30 at the pool and kept eye on the eagles' nest:

We went out to the beach but it was too hot to stay long.  We saw a small group of willets on the shore and mixed in were 4 Marbled Godwits:

The pelicans were still flying about.  Love when they soar across the sky in formation:

The Thriller tour boat passed by at 3:00:

Dinner tonight at the Timbers.....we called ahead when we left at 5:30....no wait for a table at this time of day.  We shared a dozen gulf oysters on the half shell.  Al ordered Florida Lobster tail with drawn butter, served with salad, sweet potato and asparagus.   I had Mango Snapper (one of the fresh fish of the day) served with lemon butter, clam chowder, rice pilaf and asparagus.  Great honey bread served with our great dinners! We bought fresh mussels at the fish market on the way out.... for tomorrow's dinner.

Day 17 Captiva Videos

This post includes videos made of the Brown Pelicans on the beach.  To view the videos you must go to my blog by clicking the link at bottom of this email.  When you go to the blog,  click on the arrow on each video to view.

Added after published:
The videos can be watched full screen by clicking in lower right corner of the playing video.
The first video caught a dolphin swimming by which I captured as a photo on the stopped video:

Day 17 Captiva Post 1

We woke to the sounds of rain this morning but it did not last long,   We had our usual coffee and pastries and the we both walked over to the beach and what a amazing sight we saw.....hundreds, yes hundreds of brown pelicans were feeding  at the shoreline stretching out as far as the eye could see.   We watched this sight for over an hour ...Al sitting in an abandoned chair on the beach and me snapping photos and recording several videos of the feeding frenzy.   I changed the banner on this blog seen above to one of the photos.

Stay tune....I will be posting videos of the pelicans later.

 After the thrilling time at the beach,  we returned to the cottage for French Toast bagel (from the farmers' market) and more coffee.  Later we had lunch of Tuna Fish sandwiches with Tomato.   We spent the cloudy afternoon on the porch.....I worked on notes for my blog and posted some entries and Al read the afternoon away.
Easy dinner tonight of PF Chang frozen dinner-