Satuday April 15th 2023

The above normal temperature that has been the norm since the beginning of February is back. The temperature peaked just above ninety this afternoon. The humidity was also high leading to uncomfortable conditions. The current forecast calls for storms tomorrow night that should cool things off for a few days.

The state park is in weekend mode. Many of the campsites are occupied by more family holiday style of campers. This includes the unusual occurrence of a car roof top tent camper on a over sized site fit for a class A motorhome. Other campsites have simple RVs, but more than one car to supply it with people. In general the park is more active than during the week. The crowds at the usual wildlife viewing areas are also bigger. Finding places to park at the bridge over the Myakka River seemed to be a real challenge. It wasn’t the safest place of a pedestrian like me either.

I didn’t see a lot of alligators or birds today. The gators seemed to be keeping their temperature controlled in the water. I saw one little blue heron on my first walk of the day, but even the limpkins were missing today. On my sunset walk the gators were scarce and the birds totally missing. In their place were two families of wild hogs. One set was very close to the bridge complete with about eight piglets. The hogs are interesting and the piglets are cute, but I could do without seeing them if they are the reason other critters aren’t around. Basically, I’ve had my fill of wild hogs.