5-20-17 the beach, Wakodahatchee, and Green Cay---Yea!!!:


I had hoped to spend the day at the beach.  But it was pretty rough today.  At least it was sunny and warm.  So we sat in our thrift store chairs for a bit.  I did go into the water a couple of times.  I applied lots of sunscreen.  Then we spent some time in the Royal Vista pool.  Nice that Wyndham allows you to use their other resorts when staying at another one.

 Deceiving how "calm" the water looked on "film".

 There were a few roped off areas where turtles had supposedly laid their eggs.

 heading in

 straight out.

 looking north

 rough water.

 back on shore, we snacked on watermelon and apples. 

After about 3 or 4 hours there, we changed into dry clothes, then headed to Dyan's Cafe for dinner again.  It was as good as always.
Afterwards, I suggested we head to Wakodahatchee for sunset.  Unfortunately, the wetlands closes at 7:30, so we walked through there in an hour, then headed over to Green Cay for sunset.  I know they have a gate that will let you out after hours.
Heading into wakodahatchee.

 Nice to see water in it.  Last May it was suffering a drought.

 a bunch of baby wood storks.

 a couple young great blue herons sparring.

 Close up of a momma wood stork checking me out as I checked her kids out.

 Turned out to be a great time of day to be there---about 1 1/2 hours before sunset.  The sun was low, there was a nice breeze, and it didn't feel hot at all.  It amazes me that S. Florida 88+ evenings feel so much nicer then 88+ nights in the midwest!

 A green heron

 love the extensive boardwalk over the wetlands

 flasher woodstork

 So many young woodstorks!

 a female grackle

 tri colored heron.  I love the late afternoon lighting, too.

 a wood stork still nest building.

 heading on around the wetlands.

 2 graduates were here getting pictures taken.  What a great place for taking posed photos!

 a swamp hen

 looking back into the sun towards the big pavilion near the entrance.

 a great blue heron.

 another great blue, along with a cormorant.

 Ken charging ahead---worried that we'll be locked in

 A great egret teasing a gator.  The gator finally backed into the water and took off.

 a young grackle squawking and momma trying to feed it.

 I heard someone mentioning that some babies were really active for being only a day old.  So I looked high and low until i saw these little guys.  Baby stilts!!!! First baby stilts I've ever seen.  Last year there was a stilt nest that I kept checking, but it eventually got flooded.

 zoomed in more.

 Proud momma or daddy stilt

 Even saw this guy wandering around

 another great blue heron

 a couple of swamp hens.

 close up of a tri colored heron

 a clatter of wood storks

 a coule cute little tri colored herons

 Dinner!!!

 hard to believe wood storks are endangered when you see all of them here---especially all the babies.

 some young great egrets looking for food.

 wonder how many times they stab each other?!

 the anhinga still working on dinner.  I never did see it get it down.

 a cattle egret

 just a few more of the many young wood storks

 great egret

 portrait of a young wood stork

 one of the many strange flowers in south florida.

 We did make it out of Wakodahatchee by 7:30 and made our way a couple miles to Green Cay.  We were able to catch sunset there at 8:05.  This wetland closes at sunset, but the gate will let you out after that.
Sunset looked promising, but didn't really explode.

 still pretty, but not spectacular.

 that was pretty much it

 zoomed into a small area.

Not quite the day I had anticipated (beach day), but turned out to be a great day!