Day 14 Captiva 2019

Saturday, Feb 16
Today we are having our Valentine celebration exchanging cards throughout the day...with our morning coffee, lunch, afternoon cocktails, and dinner.

We left about 8:30am for an hour drive through Ding Darling Wildlife Reserve.  Photos below of birds we saw …..my favorite of all is the little Green Heron.

 One of the best sights were  several Great Egrets and Snowy Egrets sunning at the tippy top of trees.

We enjoyed our drive and seeing so many beautiful birds. Back at the cottage, we had lunch of egg, cheese and sausage wraps with tomato salsa.

For our special Valentine dinner,  Al grilled delicious steaks and I prepared roasted  Rosemary garlic potatoes and arugula salad with my own vinaigrette dressing .  We enjoyed dinner with glasses of wine.

Day 12 on Captiva Post 2

Pam and Mike, our friends and neighbors,  drove up from their "winter home" in Naples for a visit.  Mike has visited us here before but it was Pam's first visit.   After coffee and catching up with things,  we drove to Ding Darling for some birding about 11:45.  We spotted a lot of white pelicans, small blues, egrets, a few roseate spoonbills to name a few.  The white pelicans really put on a aerial show as more pelicans gracefully glided in and gathered on the sand bar.    The best sighting was a beautiful green heron on the shoreline near the drive.   We also saw 2 alligators sunning along the drive.

After our birding adventures we had lunch at Doc Ford's in Captiva.  Mike and Pam enjoyed tomato with basil soup and clam chowder and Fish Fingers.  Al had Fish Sandwich and we both had clam chowder.

After lunch we took a drive through Captiva pointing out places of interest .   Pam and Mike remembered the Bubble Room from a visit years ago .....seems like this is one of the places that time has not changed.

 

We took a walk on the beach and checked out the shells and birds.   It is still a bit windy and cool, and some, but not many, people are walking the gulf.   There were terns, both royal terns and what I believe to be sandwich terns, along with the laughing gulls and sanderlings.

 

 

 

We then headed back to the bay side dock to check out what was happening.   I was very surprised and delighted to find a great many White Pelicans hanging out on the sand bar.   We have never seen but 8 or 10 White Pelicans at the bayside and there must have 50-60 pelicans here today.

 

 

 

 We all agreed that this was an immature eagle on a sand bar in the bay.

 

 A Great Blue Heron landed near by at a neighboring dock.

 

Pam and Mike's visit ended much too soon and we look forward getting together for some more Florida Fun.  Pam left with a bag full of shells and hopefully a day of memories.

 

For dinner, Al and I went to our favorite dive, Lazy Flamingo,  for some oysters on the half shell and Blue Moon beer.  Al had the half  Caesars Salad with Blackened Shrimp (much better this time than the ones I had) and I had Grouper Cakes with fries.  The cakes are a new item on the menu and were very good.

 

Fresh Ice Cold Oysters

 

 

 

 

 

 

Day 4 on Captiva

Wed, Feb 5, 2014

We began our day early with coffee in order to be at Ding Darling Wildlife Drive around 8:00 to check out the birds.  It was not low tide so not many birds were feeding along the drive but we were happy to find some great photo moments.  At the first pool there was only one white pelican and a few shore birds.  At the next pool we saw more white pelicans, a  reddish egret, green heron, cormorants, mergansers, several shore birds. and a yellow crown night heron. There was also an alligator swimming here.

As we drove the drive, we saw a Great Egret and several Ibis up close on the side of the road.  At the Cross Dike there were several Wood Storks feeding along with the herons and egrets and one beautiful Roseate Spoonbill.  Beyond this point were a lot more White Pelicans and several shore birds including a lot of Willets and gulls.

After our drive, we went to Jerry's for breakfast/lunch and then shopped for some more groceries. We were going to the beach for the afternoon but it was a little overcast so we hung around the house instead.
I served shrimp cocktails with drinks made  by Al at 5:00.  Tonight, Al grilled a steak and I made a fresh portabello  mushroom and wine sauce.  We enjoyed this with a mixed green salad with red onions and tomatoes and baked potatoes loaded with butter and sour cream.

I hope who ever reads this blog enjoys being part of our Captiva stay.