With a full day of wildlife viewing and hopes of seeing some Spoonbills, our excitement had us up before sunrise. We enjoyed a quick breakfast at the Bistro in the hotel, stepped out back to check out the view from the hotel and that is when the wildlife experiences started. Pelicans were flying back and forth. An Osprey was perched on a tree. And at least one dolphin swam quite close to greet us.
In the days and weeks to come, I'll be posting more short videos on my YouTube channel and my Instagram account including a video of the dolphin.
We then loaded the car with my camera gear and binoculars for Paul and headed to Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, just a short distance away. We started at the Black Point Wildlife Drive where we paid our $10 day pass at the self-pay station and started the 7 mile loop. The weather was perfect, right around 60 degrees and sunny. It was a beautiful day to roll down the windows and crawl past marshes in search of elusive birds and other wildlife. The auto trail wasn't too busy but those that were out were clearly serious birders and photographers this early mornings. My 80-400mm lens was on the small side and some people carried both binoculars and camera with large lens.
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| Belted Kingfisher |
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| Double-crested Cormorant |
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| Tri-colored Heron - I have never seen so many of these as we did this day! |
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| Double-crested Cormorant |
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| Double-crested Cormorant |
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| Tri-colored Heron |
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| Tri-colored Heron with a Little Blue Heron in the background |
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| Common Gallinule |
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| Roseate Spoonbill |
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| Roseate Spoonbill |
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| Northern Shovelers (Juvenile on the left, male on the right) |
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| Anhinga |
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| Hooded Merganser with a bunch of American Coots |
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| Immature Bonaparte's Gull |
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| Immature Herring Gull among a lot of American Coots |
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| A couple beautiful Redheads among a lot of American Coots - these caught the eyes of other birders on the trail! |
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| Great Egrets |
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| So many Great and Snowy Egrets! |
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| Tri-colored Heron |
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| A Turkey Vulture looking down on me from the trellis on a blind - he wasn't fooled by the bird blind! |
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| Osprey with a fish |
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| Glossy Ibis |
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| Tri-colored Heron - the easiest way to identify them from other herons is by their bright white belly. |
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| Male Anhinga |
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| Wood Stork |
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| An American Coot not at all concerned with the American Alligator |
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| Double-crested Cormorant with breakfast larger than its head! |
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| Male Anhinga |
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| Anhinga's are great swimmers |
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| Green Heron |
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| Great Egret, Snowy Egret, White Ibis |
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| Little Blue Heron |
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| Little Blue Heron |
We spent about 2.5 hours driving the 7 miles of the Black Point Wildlife Drive (including very brief hikes at two different stops (the 0.5 mile Wild Bird Trail and a few observation points near the restrooms). We then moved on to the Visitor's Center where there is a short board walk and staff we were hoping could give us further recommendations on where to go next. The staff weren't all that helpful but we found a few items to buy in the gift shop and enjoyed the short boardwalk.
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| Blue-gray Gnatcatcher |
We crossed the bridge back to the main land to have lunch at Pier 220. The food was great and the view of the water and pelicans was beautiful.
We went in search of the Florida Scrub Jay (and hoped to see more spoonbills) at the Scrub Ridge Trail. The trail was very wet (and we never saw anyone on the trail even though cars were in the parking lot so I think most turned around right away) but it was worth it. We got a glimpse of a flock of Roseate Spoonbills through heavy brush and met an Armadillo who didn't seem to notice us. He probably didn't expect anyone to make it through the swampy parts of the trail.
We made a brief stop at the Manatee Viewing Deck but didn't see much so didn't stay long. We also tried to go to the Canaveral National Seashore in hopes of finding some shorebirds along the beach but it was closed, possibly because of the scheduled launch.
Before heading back to the hotel, we decided to drive a few unpaved roads that followed Gator Creek.
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| Greater Yellowlegs |
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| Cattle Egret |
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| American Alligator |
Back at the hotel, knowing there was a launch scheduled for 4:32 p.m., we decided that would be a great time to have an early dinner at the rooftop Space Bar where we would be able to see the launch. So about 4:25 p.m., we headed up and grabbed a seat just in time. (This was our third launch of the trip so we weren't willing to invest a lot of time waiting. If we missed it, we missed it.)
This day's launch was SpaceX releasing Starlink low orbit satellites using a Falcon 9 rocket. Starlink is the new internet being implemented on Royal Caribbean Group ships (which includes Celebrity Cruises). This launch went off right on time. The Vehicle Assembly Building at the Kennedy Space Center was blocking the launch pad so we didn't see the rocket until it cleared the very tall building.
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| Mahi Mahi Tacos |
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| One huge preztel! |
As our vacation came to an end, we took some time to relax in the hotel before bed.
The next morning, we woke up at 5:30 a.m. to get an early start on the trip home. After leaving a little after 6 am Eastern, including a couple of stops plus a car wash, we arrived at home in under 10 hours, just before 3pm Central. The Audi posted 36 MPG on the trip down (rated at 31 on the highway) and about 32 on the trip home (thinking the way home is more uphill plus it was in the 40s), very good mileage! We found premium for $2.97/gallon at one stop and the highest was $3.94.
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