Lovers key state park
Temperature- 27 degrees, sunny and clear.
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| Our eyes were peeled! |
For our last full day we went to Lovers key state park which is a set of barrier islands in Fort Myers. When we landed we were immediately greeted by a lovely sight of manatees feeding when we were crossing a bridge. After that we were allowed to walk around freely and explore the lovely area ourselves.
While walking around the area and watching for any signs of wildlife I had the very unfortunate experience of walking past some very angry fire ants (
Solenopsis) who let me know they weren't very happy with being disturbed. Ouch!
After I stopped jumping around we continued on our walk and we even got see a black racer snake (
Coluber constrictor priapus) before it scurried off. To my envy one of my colleagues also saw a belted kingfisher (
Megaceryle alcyon) diving for fish further up the trail!
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| We noticed a palm tree that lots of holes bored into it. These were very large holes so my guess would be a Pileated Woodpecker (Dryocopus pileatus) |
Barefoot beach
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| An Osprey we saw after catching his food! Photo credit to Sam Whittaker |
After Corkscrew swamp we decided to end the by heading down to the beach and relaxing by the shore. On route to the beach (and at the beach) we saw quite a few Gopher Tortoises (
Gopherus polyphemus) resting by the side of the roads and digging burrows in the sand. I was very impressed by the amount of signs around imploring people to check under and around their car before pulling out in case of hitting the tortoises. A few of us went for a walk along the beach and we saw some amazing wildlife such as Egrets (
Ardea alba) patrolling the shore for tasty snacks, Brown Pelicans (
Pelecanus occidentalis) and Ospreys (
Pandion).
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