Friday April 30th 2021

The bright sunny day was prefect to return to the Merritt Island National Wildlife Reserve. My destination today was the seven mile Black Point Wildlife Drive. The drive is along gravel roads atop dikes between marshes. The marsh area is home to many varieties of birds, alligators and other wildlife. Today I didn’t see any gators and the bird population was limited. I blame the time of year. Most of the migratory birds have already headed north.

Many of the birds I did see were hard to identify. I suspect I was seeing some birds in mating plumage and others were older juveniles changing to their adult feathers. The wildlife drive wasn’t too busy. I only saw about three other cars while driving and a half dozen at the observation tower trail parking lot. It was easy to stop in the middle of the road when you spot something interesting.

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I did some more driving around checking out various sights before returning to the campground. The park is in full weekend mode. The campsites are a little too close together for all the people and activities on the weekend.