Wednesday September 27th 2023

I woke up to the sound of a gentle rain on the roof of my RV home. There were light showers most of the morning before clearing to a partly cloudy day around the noon hour. The rainy start to the day along with the cloud cover kept the high temperature from reaching the nineties. It peaked in the high eighties.

My mission for the day was grocery shopping. I chose to go to one of the bigger Walmarts in the area which is quite a bit further away, but has the added advantage of being near the Gulf beaches. On my way I stopped for a few minutes at the North Jetty Beach in Naokomis. There was a strong breeze off the Gulf of Mexico and the tide was near high. The breeze combined with the fact that it was a weekday kept people away, but the seagulls were happy.

Back at Myakka River State Park in the afternoon, I continued my search for wildlife. I didn’t find as many birds willing to let me take their picture. It is really annoying when they don’t wait for me to get the camera ready. A turkey and a great blue heron decided escape was preferable to having their picture taken. On the other hand, a vulture practically posed for my camera.

I finally found an alligator out of the water this afternoon. At the Fisherman’s circle area of the park, I parked my car about ten feet from a young gator on the river bank. It was only as I was getting out of my car that I spotted the alligator. There was a log barrier around the parking area so I was safe enough, but it was a surprise to see the gator so nearby. On the other side of the parking lot the water was still out of the riverbank. A park bench was surrounded by a few inches of water. Just beyond the bench was another much bigger gator. I’m not going to consider the second gator as out of the water even though it was technically out of the river.

Later in the afternoon I walked over to the river from my RV home. I didn’t see any of the species I expected. There were no birds or gators visible, but there were a few deer. The first one I saw was along the road. I got a picture from far enough away that it didn’t spook. Later it walked into my path from another direction. Three deer spooked and turned their white tails toward me and ran away. This was another good day for deer sightings. Earlier in the day while driving along the park road I saw an additional group of deer and a solitary buck a few hundred yards down the road. The male deer had an impressive set of antlers.