Sunday, March 01, 2009

A Day at Corkscrew Swamp

We have company from the frozen tundra of Michigan so we have been trying to show him some of the neat sights of Sunny SW Florida. Last Thursday we went to Corkscrew Swamp which is near Naples.

Corkscrew Swamp is a sanctuary with a 2 1/4 mile boardwalk. There are all kinds of wildlife and vegetation including virgin Cypress. This is also where many of the endangered Woodstorks go to nest each winter. I am fortunate to get to see Woodstorks most of the time since some of them tend to hang out at the wildlife clinic I volunteer at.

I love going to Corkscrew since you see different things every time you go. The water table is very low right now so there wasn't a whole lot of water but we still managed to see quite a few wading birds a turtle or two and a couple of huge alligators. I really want to go back some time during the rainy season to see how it looks then.

We saw quite a few birds including Great Egrets, Great Blue Herons, Tricolored Herons, Snowy Egrets, White Ibis, a Barred Owl, a Hawk, and a bunch of little tiny warblers. The only woodstorks we saw were flying way up in the air.
Some of the views in Corkscrew are really beautiful. Here is just a sample.
And of course, at the end of the walk, there is always a place to sit down and just chill out. A good time was had by all.

6 comments:

Little Black Scrap Cat said...

Wonderful pictures. A beautiful place to walk and enjoy the birds and other wildlife. I'll bet your Michigan friend was particularly thankful to be there!

Anonymous said...

Nice. You always take your friends to places I've never even heard of. Who would have guessed that there is more to Florida than Sanibel?!

Queen-Size funny bone said...

Beautiful, I'm anxious to start walking but we are getting more snow.

The Farmer Files said...

I loved all of the wildlife pics and then I saw the pic second from the bottom, and I really thought that was a beautiful shot.

J said...

Great pictures....almost makes me wan to go...I'm scared of bugs :( Thanks for sharing!

Unknown said...

Oh great!! Another place we HAVE to go to!How am I ever gonna get shelling done at this rate ?!
My brother had been there(he's a photographer)and loves it there.