Wednesday we stayed close to the condo, venturing out for a couple of walks, including on the beach. We spent a good deal of time reading, as well as watching the inauguration on TV. We found a good Indian restaurant in the neighborhood and got some takeout in the evening.
On Thursday morning we waited for the rush hour traffic to clear, then took a drive up State Highway A1A. It wasn’t hard to find the road, it runs right in front of our building, and continues hugging the coast. “Highway” is something of a misnomer, as it is narrow, has many stop lights, and the speed limit is generally 35 mph or less. But it is lined with mansions and luxury condos. We drove up toward Del Ray Beach, a community of “cute little shops,” but only drove around. No shopping with Covid.
We continued north toward Palm Beach and yes, Mar-a-Lago! There wasn’t much to see at Mar-a-Lago but barricades, law enforcement vehicles, and a wall. (Did Mexico pay for it?) There was no stopping, and we got only bad photos as we drove by.
Next, we returned southward and visited two nature preserves. Although they were in separate cities, they were actually only about 2 miles apart and were very similar to one another.
The primary features were swamp and birds, though we saw one alligator (too far away for a good photo) and a half dozen or so turtles.
At both, we walked on boardwalks over the water. The signs told us that we could expect to see 6-7 species each of egrets, herons, ducks, and owls. It was the wrong time of day for owls.
We didn’t figure out what these white birds were, but they were very large.
After some internet research, we are guessing that they are wood storks.
The Anhinga goes fishing, then perches with wings spread so that its feathers can dry in the sun. We saw many of these in the Everglades, as well.
There were a lot of photographers with very long lenses who were, I’m sure, getting much better photos than these, taken just with the iPhone.
No comments:
Post a Comment