Day 13 Captiva

Today is another overcast day  but we decided to go to DDNWR for some birding.  The sun did break out for a short time on the drive. At the first feeding  area, we saw a couple of great blue herons that were posing for photos as well as an immature night heron. Water levels were lower today which allow the birds to be closer to the drive. The usual large gathering of white pelicans were at the second pool. At the dike, a wood stork was standing next to the road... .closest we have been to one. He was quite the crowd pleaser.  We also saw a group of roseate spoonbills sunning with a great blue heron.  Seem to be a lot of immaure night herons in the reserve but did not see any adults.



Great Blue Heron

 



Immature Night Heron






Woodstork

 

 After about 3 hours on the drive, it did rain and we went back to the house. Later, we had brunch at the Key Lime Bistro on Andy Rosse in "downtown" Captiva. Al ordered bistro style corned beef hash - sauteed with roasted red peppers, basil, onions.  I had quiche of the day with chicken,mushrooms, and roasted red peppers served with breakfast potatoes, fresh fruit & key lime hollandaise .  We had not eaten here before and were surprised at how good it was.

We took a walk along Andy Rosse after brunch and had a close up look at the houses that have been built in the last 10-15 years.This street used to house many local shops, small houses and one of our fave restaurants, Bellini's. Most of the street was torn down and now is lined with multi-million dollar houses, most are rentals and several for sale. Some of the charm of Captiva was lost with the change. ( Will show pictures of houses in another post.)

We then drove to Sanibel to buy some sunglasses for Al at the Island Pursuit....we were told on Tuesday that a shipment would be in including a style that Al wanted.  Too bad there was no sunshine for him to need to wear his new glasses.

Dinner tonight was not very good....first bad one....ate at the Pollack's diner but the steak was tough...no fault of the chef...just bad meat. But the sauteed mushrooms with shallots, pasta with homemade tomato/red peppers sauce and salad with homemade vinaigrette and Gorgonzola cheese
were good.