[at-l] Sanibel Hike

[RoksnRoots@aol.com (RoksnRoots@aol.com)]

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    I met Rich (Solar Bear) right on time and he was the only one to show.
Ding Darling Wildlife Sanctuary is 5 minutes from me, so it was easy.

    Today was a perfect summer day with scattered fair weather clouds and
tropical heat at 92*. To newly arrived northerners it could be considered
sultry hot. We walked the only hiking path in the sanctuary amidst the lush
semi-tropical vegetation. A combination of high water table and hurricane
stunting keeps the tree heights uniform at about 30 feet maximum. There's a
plethora of varieties dominated by salt bush scrub and other mundane willowy
buttonwood-types including white mangrove out by the sea edge. The path is a
level sand berm separating the brackish inner sanctuary waters from the outer
more saline ponds. It is interspersed with culverts to allow tidal exchange.
Rich was impressed with the ripping high tide inflow through the culverts.

    As I expected, midday is not the time to go because even the wading birds
and other wildlife have the sense to stay out of the midday Florida summer
sun. I compare the high sun here to a Mexican desert environment. It takes
time to adjust to. We didn't see as much as a palmetto bug on the hiking
path. To make it worse the tide was coming in high, so the low tide waders
weren't present looking for exposed fish in shallow pools. In February I saw
plenty of wildlife from this same path. No 12 foot alligator this time
either.

   So, I yacked Solar Bear's ear off about Trail politics, and he wasn't
short of talk himself. It was good to speak to somebody who understood the
Trail from an organizational perspective. We walked four or five miles over
two hours and eventually did see some of the more common birds upon taking
the sanctuary drive back. There were the usual suspects in egrets, hookbilled
Ibis, red shouldered hawks, and herons. A small yellow throated warbler that
Rich spotted was the highlight of the day. Right after we parted company in
the lot I assisted a gopher tortoise across the highway and placed him safely
in the brush on the other side of the busy island road.

   Well, it's good attendance was light because this was bad timing for the
tides and wading birds and the sun was penetrating. I'm kind of worn out as I
type. (An endangered wood stork just cruised by over the pond like a
pterodactyl). Rich seems like a good guy. The climate here can either be a
tropical miasma or garden paradise depending on how the sun hits you. Down
here cloudy days are the good days because you can get out at noon outside
and work. As the afternoon grows here today after our walk, Sanibel drifts on
as a sleepy island in the stream. The pearly gallery of afternoon rainy
season clouds are scattered above the tussocks and a few gray bottomed ones
are showering out. A cloud scene reminiscent of far away tropics that sends
the mind in free flow on first gaze evoking an exotic mood lingering
somewhere between the palm tops and Gulf sky colors. A good thing about the
island are the reliable Gulf breezes that keep the heat from being stifling.
The humidity is light this summer and the mosquitoes are low. There were no
bugs on our hike...

    The east coast canopy forest would probably make for better hiking...