DAY 17 Friday 28 March

After breakfast at Sheila’s Cafe we walked to somewhere we would not have normally gone. We went to the Alligator Farm. The only reason we went was that Alison had told us there may be Roseate Spoonbills there. And there was - lots of them. As well as hundreds of alligators and crocodiles from all over the world (I was not aware there were so many different species) there was a most fabulous Rookery, all the birds congregating there of their own accord. Egrets, herons of different sorts (in their fabulous lacy breeding plumage with their green eyes), wood storks (my favourite) and, of course, Roseate Spoonbills. From building their nests to looking after their young, hence the picture. Quite a few photographers were in evidence, one in particular just studying the spoonbills. It would have been fabulous to come back as the sun went down, but they close at 5 pm. They are definitely missing a trick.

We definitely got our steps in today, and some. We walked everywhere.

Tomorrow we are off back south, maybe after visiting Alison’s cousin’s collectibles shop, Cool and Collectibles, in St Augustine.

We have decided to go back to Sanibel Island. We will do it in two jumps, tomorrow to just south of Orlando and the rest the following day. So tomorrow may not be that interesting. We will stay on Sanibel for 6 days. Been there before a couple of times and love it. Hope the hurricane last September has not done too much damage.