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This video shows photos of  February-March 2016 visits to Six Mile Slough, Fort Myers.  Click on the arrow below to view.

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Day 21 on Captiva

Today was a busy day with a planned trip to Fort Myers to see and do a lot.  After coffee, we began our drive at 8:15 with our first stop at Bunche Beach with the hope of seeing Skimmers and a Flamingo who has been spending a lot of time on this beach.  We did not see them but there were a lot of  birds and a lot of photographers here. 

 

 Al made some great shots of  the Fort Meyers skyline and the Causeway view seen from the beach.

 

A view of Sanibel shoreline:

Some of the birds we spotted:

 

 

 

 

 

And Al on the beach among the trees:

 

After about an hour of walking the beach we headed to Six Mile Slough.

Note: "The Six Mile Cypress Slough Preserve is over 3,500 acres of wetland ecosystem. The cypress slough catches and slowly filters rainwater on its way towards Estero Bay. A myriad of animals like otters, alligators, turtles, wading birds, and more live at the Slough year-round. "

 

The weather is almost perfect today and we saw a lot of wildlife on the boardwalk at the slough including snakes, alligators, turtles as well as birds.

The snakes included:

Cottonmouth

Black Snake

Alligators we saw:

 

Sunning Turtles:

And the birds:

 

 

 

 We enjoyed a packed lunch in the picnic spot near the butterfly garden in the parking area.

 

We then made our next stop at Tanger Outlet Center and purchased some belts, shoes and Polo cologne.

And then a stop at Publix which was across the road from the outlet:

Being that was the last stop of the day, we drove back to the house and had dinner at home.  Too tired to cook, we had a frozen Bertolli Dinner of shrimp and pasta,
 

Day 20 on Captiva

Friday morning began with early coffee and toast. We left at 8:30 to drive to Ft. Myers to go to Six Mile Slough for birding. The Six Mile Cypress Slough is a 2,500 acre wetland in Fort Myers, Florida, that measures approximately 9 miles long and 1/3 mile wide. This linear ecosystem is home to a diverse population of plants and animals, including a few considered to be endangered. The Slough also serves as a corridor for wildlife by providing a safe route of travel.
We did not see as many birds as usual but did hear a Barred Owl "Hooting" through the trees as we walked the boardwalk. We spotted a couple of wild pigs rooting through the roots for food. They are a noisy lot! Many turtles were sunning on logs. The birds that we did see included anhingas, cormorants, herons, one wood stork, and several ibis feeding.

 

After  more than two hours of birding, we had a picnic lunch that I packed before we left.

 We then drove to downtown Ft. Myers area to check out the Franklin Shops, a store on the corner of First and Broadway that is owned by our friends and owners of our rental home.  The Franklin Shops has  a department store style, with as many as 40 or 50 retailers and a central checkout counter.  The new shopping center fits into plans the city  to bring more retail shopping to the office-heavy government hub downtown.


 

   Margarethe in  her Tea and Wine Store

We made a quick stop at Publix's for dinner before heading back to the islands.  Dinner in tonight after a fun filled day.  We prepared Porterhouse steak with  mushroom sauce and asparagus.

Day 21 Captiva

We were up early and packed a picnic lunch and headed to Ft Meyers. We stopped at the Tangers Outlet mall and checked out the stores. Then we headed to Six Mile Slough to do some birding. Ate lunch at the picnic area at the entrance. We have been here many times and our visit is always different. At the beginning at the walk is a lake where they have platforms in the water....on one of the platform was an alligator sunning and on the other were several turtles. Under the deck where we were standing was a baby alligator swimming.

 On the boardwalk we spotted a Palm Warbler, a blue heron and a great egret landed on the railing nearby. We also saw ibis, yellow crown night herons, anhingas, and ospreys.

 Our best sighting was a black crowned night heron out in the open on roots of the cypress trees. He was a very large bird and this heron is not often seen in the open,but mostly tucked away in the shurbs.

After more than 2 hours in the slough, we headed to Publix to shop. We must have been hungry because we bought a lot. Stopped at Wings, store in Sanibel, to find croakies for Al's new sunglasses. Arrived back at the house about 5:00 both tired from the day.

Made an easy dinner of fresh made sushi-salmon and tuna sushi and salmon rolls- purchased at Publix and a PF Chang dinner of Shanghai style beef with red peppers and green beans served with rice. These frozen dinners are very good and only take a few minutes to prepare. We enjoyed dessert of Italian Wedding cake from Publix bakery....very good!