Thursday April 4th 2024

The humidity and temperature were down and the wind was up out of the north. It was a beautiful post cold front day on the Florida Gulf Coast. Yesterday’s rain was in the past allowing the temperature to peak in the mid seventies under a bright sunny sky.

Today was my last day to visit the alligators and birds of Myakka River State Park. I am moving on tomorrow. The alligators had new places to climb out onto the river bank now that the water level is down almost a foot since arrived two weeks ago. I walked the trail at the front of the path along the river. There were a couple of gators on the bank on my side of the river. I haven’t seen that before, but I gave them plenty of distance. The birds seemed to be scarce during the middle of the day.

As sunset approached I walked up to the bridge over the river for the last time this visit. Only one alligator was out of the water, but plenty were in the river with their heads out watching. A few more birds were around, but mostly well in the distance.

I really enjoy this park. There is always wildlife to observe. You can count on seeing alligators and water birds. Occasionally you see other animals. This trip I saw a couple of turkeys and a few deer, but not as many as I’ve seen on previous visit. I also didn’t see any wild pigs on this visit. Even the dug up ground that indicates their presence was missing this year.

This afternoon I got most of the outside chores prior to travel complete. I still have to dump the tanks and stow the hose outside. Inside I’ve got most of the items I can do ahead of time complete. Tomorrow a one hundred and thirty mile travel day back to the Orlando area. There is no real time constraints on travel. I probably leave around 11AM. Traffic is likely to be heavy.