Periwinkle Park

I really enjoyed the campground on Sanibel Island, so decided it merits a post.  Many of the sites are filled with “extended stay” trailer homes (as is often the case in Florida), and most are nicely, or at least creatively, landscaped by the owners.  It’s fun to see what people come up with.  

The park includes two ponds and the Sanibel River.  The river, of which I posted a photo on the first day here, is protected by mangroves on both sides and hosts Great Blue Herons, White Ibises, and other wild birds.

Not far from one of the ponds, in the front yard of a trailer home and at the top of an almost dead tree, is an occupied Osprey nest.  The Osprey occasionally visits the ponds, and will hover for a minute or two as it looks for fish.  It turns out there was at least one chick in the nest, since when I went back this morning, one of the parents was ripping apart a fish and feeding the youngster(s).  In the first photo you can see a chick, in the center of the nest inside the looped twig.  In later photos the chick has moved out of view, undoubtedly toward the parent:

Which prompts me to add, I have never seen so many Ospreys in one place in all my life.  They are everywhere on this island.  There must of hundreds of them.  It’s gratifying to see that they have made such a strong comeback.

We heard many different languages in this park.  There was a story on the news last night that explained that visitors come from all over the world to see the wildlife refuge here, and if the U.S. government doesn’t pass a budget today the park will close.  Selfishly, I am so glad we were able to see the park earlier in the week.  It was fabulous, definitely worth the trip.

So now for the fun part.  Oddly enough, this park has an aviary of tropical birds and exotic ducks, and a volunteer does a “show” each morning from 10-11.  She brings out each of the macaws, cockatoos, conures, and other tame birds and passes them around, telling the crowd a little bit about each bird’s life story.  Most were rescued from people who realized they had taken on more than they could handle.

I was more interested in the ducks, most of which I had never seen before:

Mandarin Duck (Now that you know what it looks like, will you ever eat one again in a Chinese restaurant?)

White-faced Tree Duck

Shelduck  (I really love the colors!  Mozell, wouldn’t this combination of colors make a great dress or handbag or something?  Designer colors!)

Ruddy Shelduck

These were just a few of over 30 species. 

A few of the birds were wild visitors, including a female Anhinga.  We saw her fanning her wings and tail at the same time, moving them slowly to warm and dry herself.  Cormorants do this frequently, as their feathers, unlike most birds’, are not water-repellent.

There was also an aviary, at the opposite end of the pond from the tame birds, of more exotic species that would never be considered pets, at least in the United States.  Here are a few:

Plush Crested Jay (Cyanocorax chrysops) from South America

I didn’t catch the names of these two, sorry.  One is a horn bill, the other a crane.  I think the owner of the birds in this aviary likes blue and white.

Because Blogspot is having a difficult time adding the last bird, I will create a separate post of it.  So this becomes one of two.