Day 28 Captiva 2019

Saturday, Mar 2

 I walked to the beach at 9:30 this morning after coffee and pastries.

 Lots of activity...boats, birds, people. It was a beautiful morning.  

To view video if you open this in an email go to blog with link below and then click on arrow.

Good morning for birds on the beach

Lots of boats

 Jet Skis

Woodpecker that I saw as I walked back to the cottage.

Joined  Al back at the cottage for breakfast of poached eggs, bagel, toast, sausage, and tomato slices. We went to the pool about 12:00 until 3......housecleaning team came at 1.

Early to dinner at Timbers at 5. Good timing ...no wait.  We shared Gulf Oysters on the half shell.  Al ordered lobster scampi with salad, sweet potato, and served with broccoli. I had shrimp scampi with calm chowder, rice pilaf, and broccoli. Pilaf was too salty so waitress brought me a baked potato.  We had a very filling and delicious dinner.  On the way out we bought scallops for tomorrow's dinner at the seafood market.

Day 13 Captiva 2019

Friday, February 15
Today was the first day I took a morning walk to the beach after coffee and pastries. Not much activity other than one gull and one boat while I was there about an hour at 10:00 am.

Passed this Great Heron on the street coming back from the beach.

After lunch, we spent some time at the pool  late afternoon relaxing and watchin the Eagle Nest.

A camera /camcorder has been attached to the tree over the nest since we were here last year.

I prepared dinner tonight-Breaded Chicken Tenders (from freezer) with baked potatoes and green salad.  We had a nice day with beautiful weather. Not missing the cold snow and winds back home.

Day 16 on Captiva

Monday began with the sighting of a lot of birds from the porch as we enjoyed our early morning coffee.  This was the most birds we have seen at the cottage since we arrived.  There were several cardinals, red-bellied woodpeckers, doves and a gnatcatcher.  I manage to capture a few photos through the screens which I will share even though they were not that great.

Video of Cardinal:

 

We had lunch under the gazebo at the pool watching the eagles as we ate.  We enjoyed the afternoon swimming, napping and reading by the pool until it was time for drinks on the porch. I finished the book Maude and Al finished Sex, Lies, and New Money.

We walked over to the beach to watch the sunset around 6:00.  It was a beautiful sunny day and ended with a beautiful sunset.

 

 

Taking a lazy way out, I prepared a frozen dinner of P.F. Chang Orange Chicken-White meat chicken is paired with carrots, water chestnuts and edamame glazed with a spicy orange sauce and served with rice and egg rolls(also frozen).  

 

Day 35 on Captiva

 

This morning we returned to The Shipley Trail at the Bailey Homestead and walked to the Pond Apple Trail to the retention pond area. We had another great birding event seeing many Great Blue Herons, Wood Storks, Blue Herons, Tri-colored Herons, Cormorants, Brown Pelicans, Ibis, Anhingas, as well as an immature Heron that I believe to be a Yellow-Crested Night Heron..  We have never seen as many Great Blues and Anhingas in one spot as we saw today. I lost count of the many Great Blues and most of them was busy feeding.   We  spotted the " Dairy Queen"Eagles in a far away Australian Pine and I managed to get a distant photo of one of their backs.   But the highlight of the walk was being able to photograph the Great White Heron and catching some shots of it feeding..    We also saw at least 3, if not more, alligators swimming in the ponds.

 

First to catch our attention were the many Anhingas:

Cormorants and Brown Pelicans are seen behind this Anhinga.

 Males, females, and immature Anhingas posed all around us.

 

The blue eyes and bright yellow bill  indicate mating season.

 

Next to get our attention were the Wood Storks.  

 Not as many Wood Storks as the last time we were here,

 but they were busy feeding and flying about:

 This trail is not just for people,

 

And now for the Great Blue Herons:

 

 

Video of Great Blue Heron on the Move:

 

One more Hungry Heron:

 

If the Wood Stork can use the trail, so can we.

But most of the Blue Herons  were going by air.

 

And now for the Great White Heron:

We saw the Great White Heron eating breakfast. 

 

 And then the heron flew away:

 

Other birds we saw:

 Cormorants and More

Pair of Tri-colored Herons

 Cormorants

Immature Night Heron

 Little Blue Heron

Eagle from A Distant

 

The Alligators were swimming in two of the ponds:

 

 

Back to the house for a lunch of sandwiches and then to the beach for the afternoon. Dinner tonight at the Pollack's Diner.  I prepared Orange Roasted Salmon served with Couscous and Green salad.