Thursday October 15th 2020

Today I walked the marsh trail in the Ten Thousand Island National Wildlife Refuge. The high water level was in play once again. The marsh looked more like shallow lakes than a marsh.

The area was interesting. An observation tower in the middle of the marsh affords a great view. If the water level was lower, I’m sure more birds and a few gators would be visible. Today I saw a few ducks a few bigger birds overflying the area and one brave Great Blue Heron walking belly deep through the water. I don’t think Herons swim and I not sure it could take off it had to fly. Eventually, it climbed into a bush to get out of the water. It flew out of the bush a few minutes later.

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I might have walked deeper into the marsh on the trail, but the darn flies were a major annoyance. They didn’t bite, but every fly and its siblings had to land on me to verify I wasn’t a food source before continuing on their swarming way. Strangely if I stood still they didn’t bother me. It was only as I walked through there hovering area that they became royal pests.

When I got back to the state park this afternoon I found many of my neighbors had moved on. The place was emptier than it has been since I arrived on Sunday. I wondered, just for a moment, if I’d missed an evacuation order. A couple of new arrivals came in later in the afternoon, but I imagine a lot more will arrived tomorrow for the weekend.

I didn’t get a chance to visit the alligator in the Backwater River just before sunset tonight. I finished supper and was getting ready to go when a big dark cloud magically developed to the east. A quick check of the weather radar on my phone showed a storm approaching. A very loud and wet storm hovered overhead for about an hour. Consequently, I didn’t get any pictures of the sunset tonight.