Saturday April 8th 2023

Today’s temperature peaked in the mid eighties, but somehow it felt less comfortable than the higher temperature of the last couple of days. The humidity was a little higher, but most likely reason I felt warmer was my activity level. I got in more exercise walking today around the park in the direct sunlight.

My day began earlier than usual. I got up to make another reservation for next winter. There were no appropriate sights available at my first choices, but I was able to successfully book a reservation at one of my fall back Florida state park choices. These are bookings for next March, which is the height of Spring Break making competition high. In another two weeks I’ll try again at my one of my first choice parks.

Getting up early seemed to keep my energy level for the day low, but I still tried to get in a lot of exploring of the park. I started with a drive deeper into the park to Upper Myakka Lake. The low water level was very much apparent at the lake. The distance from the parking area to the water is about three times longer than normal and birds are walking in the water a long way from the shore. There is a good reason the nature excursion boat tours are suspended. I have stayed at this campground in December and in March/April. The water level in December is always much higher than the spring visit, but this is the lowest I’ve seen the water level. I found an article on the internet that reports the water flowing in the Myakka River is 33% of the normal flow. Mother nature must be leveling things out. The park was underwater for a long time after hurricane Ian at the end of September.

The damage from the hurricane is visible throughout the park. It is mostly in the form of downed trees, but there are other signs as well. All of the dead material that you usually see hanging on at the top of palm trees is on the ground. It looks like they floated around a lot in high water in some areas. In general there are many more open areas. As far as structural damage all five of the rental cabins are closed for major repairs after the storm.

I am still seeing most of the alligators in the water with their noses poking out, but I did find a few on shore today. The water birds also made an appearance near the lake. I saw a few Great Blue Herons, at least one Great Egret and many Limpkins. The Rosetta spoonbills that I’ve seen in December don’t see to be around at this time of year.