Birding in Southwest Florida
After comparing our schedules, we found one 3-day stretch that both our Bonita Springs friends and we had open to bird at Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge on Sanibel before they return to Pennsylvania in April. How can retired people be so busy? And then we got the weather forecast: thunderstorms the day we planned to go there. What the hey, we’d drive down anyway, bringing games, cards, and books for entertainment if we couldn’t go outside. On the way down, we lunched, as usual, at Woody’s River Roo on the Manatee River, in Ellenton. The weather was lovely, so the restaurant was packed. At first, Grant found a table near the stage with a guy doing 80’s covers. But I watched, and as soon as I saw a table farther away, and even better, in the sun, we moved. We shared a grilled mahi-mahi Ruben on marbled rye and an order of sweet potatoes. That afternoon, we visited Marsh Trail, east of Naples, off US 41. Not many birds until they all began flying in to roost. Hundreds of white ibis...