Got to sleep in a bit today because we are at our destination in Florida.
Karen took some photos around the hotel property which I will post on our Flickr site.
After lunch we headed out for a bit of bird watching at the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge. On our way we crossed over the Max Brewer Bridge which spans the Indian River Lagoon.
We saw some early birds of the human kind… dry camping in their motorhomes along the shoulders of the road, awaiting the launch of the Space Shuttle on Friday. They will have a front row seat, the launch pad is just beyond the Vehicle Assembly Building.
We drove along the Black Point Wildlife Drive, a 7 mile loop through part of the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge.
Here are some photos of the birds we saw.
A Snowy Egret that just caught a fish. You can still see it holding the fish.
A Great Egret
A Tricolored Heron
A couple of White Ibises.
A Reddish Egret
A Great Blue Heron
We finished the loop and then drove about 10 miles to the Manatee Observation Deck. Along the way we saw these two Black Vultures sitting atop a hydro pole.
And this Osprey sits on another hydro pole.
Arriving at the Manatee Observation Deck.
Surprisingly we actually saw a Manatee… we really didn’t think we would see any.
We then headed to the Merritt Island Wildlife Visitor Center, and along the way we discovered the NASA Employee Entrance road… strictly no entrance. This is as close to the Vehicle Assembly Building that we got.
The Visitor Center
The lady at the Visitor Center told us that if we wanted to see even more wildlife we should drive along the 9 mile Peacocks Pocket Road. We certainly saw more birds but it was a goat trail of a road, not really suitable for anything less that a high clearance pickup truck, but we made it through without tearing the oil pan off the bottom of the engine. The road started out ok for the first mile, but then progressively got worse and worse.
She was right though, we saw so many more seashore birds, including these two black vultures in a dead tree.
A Great Egret
A Tricolored Heron
A Common Moorehen
A Roseate Spoonbill and a White Ibis
Some Black Necked Stilts
After 9 miles of driving on that trail we are back onto pavement and heading back to our hotel. We went to the Garden Grill for dinner and then to Wal-Mart to stock up on some supplies.
To see all of our photos from today, they are posted on my FLICKR site.
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