Lakes Park Canoe Trip Great for Birdwatching

Let's go canoeing in Lakes Park, our hosts said. Monday was the first really warm, sunny day we have had on this Florida trip, so after our lunch on Ft. Myers Beach, we drove back to one of the unique Lee County Parks, Lakes Park, that was created out of an old quarry. We have been here before and toured it in a 4-person pedal surrey, but this time, we were going to get in the water and see the habitat "from the inside."

The beach had various pedal devices but we were going to tackle the water in one of the oldest type of water craft -- the canoe. Doug and Matt have canoed here before, as well as on other rivers. The last time Norm and I took a canoe trip on MIssouri's Current River, he says we almost drowned. (We didn't really; we didn't even turn over. But the water was kinda swift and it was a little hard to control it.) But at $15 an hour, this seemed fairly safe, especially with life vests.

We were so entranced by the water ways through the park. We followed Doug and Matt's lead most of the time and just enjoyed the day. There is some current on the lake, but nothing like fighting The Current back in the Ozarks. I even began to remember how to steer and do the good 'ol J-stroke from the stern.

Doug insisted we come alongside so he could take my camera and take our picture. As you can see, we are pretty relaxed about the whole thing.

After we finished our hour on the water, we walked around part of the park. This stand of reeds caught our eye because I thought I could hear a bittern calling. They are so shy, almost impossible to see.





Sure enough we didn't see a bittern, but we did see this great blue heron on the other side of the reeds. He posed for us for quite a while and I was thrilled to get such a close up shot (10x optical, 10x digital) with my Canon SX110.

While we were still in the water, we noted this snowy egret fishing some distance away.












Brown pelicans aren't very rare at all, but this fellow was sunning himself on a post as we left the canoe dock, and he was still there an hour later when we came back.

While we were walking around I spied an anhinga some distance away, drying its feathers while perched in a tree. These birds lack natural oil to make their feathers waterproof, so they have to dry themselves in the sun after every fishing trip, which means several times a day.

We felt we had a perfect Florida day and enjoyed it immensely.

Today we went to Pine Island and explored a site once inhabited by Native Americans--the Calusa tribe. More about them tomorrow.