Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge

[cos]

Text message I sent to Alice at 5:16pm on January 3rd:
"I'm in love with Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge. What an amazing, serene, beautiful bird paradise."

I had a leisurely day leaving south Florida going to St. Augustine for the evening, so I decided to stop on the way at this place I knew almost nothing about except where it was and that it was probably a good place to see birds. Got there only an hour and a half before sunset, picked a path, and soon saw this:

In the foreground are glossy ibis, and behind them are mostly northern pintail ducks, with a few gadwalls and blue winged teals and maybe other species. Sorry about the wind noise - it was breezy but not enough that I thought of how much it would affect my camera's microphone; in real life I was hearing lots of bird calls, and in the video they're mostly drowned out :(

Everything I saw there was in just that one hour and a half, driving one loop road and hiking just the first 1/4 mile or so of two trails. Never more than a few minutes until the next exciting bird sighting. This was my favorite thing I saw:

And this video is a collage of various other moments from my brief time there.

Next time I'll go for a whole day, or several. Hike all the trails, and just sit down some places for a long time watching. I could've spent the whole hour and a half just sitting by that lake of ibis and pintails if I'd had more time.

Comments

[mirrored-echo.livejournal.com]

That's the area where I grew up! I used to go to the wildlife refuge with my father when I was a kid to look at birds or kayak. :) I never thought of it as a place anyone from out of town would want to visit, though. So this post makes me happy.

[cos]

Once I get Alice there (which may be a few years, she has so little time for travel), it will probably be one of her favorite places in the world.

[kirin]

Similar to when I visited Sanibel Island with family the xmas before last. Birds, everywhere you look! In addition to tons of egrets, herons, ibises, ducks, etc, there's also a substantial population of ospreys there.

(Aww, I can't pick a super-appropriate icon I had because I let my paid LJ account expire recently. I don't suppose there's a way to influence *which* six icons you retain access to...)

[cos]

That's a place I could've stopped at on the way from Tampa bay to the Everglades, a few days earlier on the same trip. Noted for next time...

[diatom.livejournal.com]

Awesome! I didn't know you were a bird person! Florida is good for birds (parrots in backyards!), and fish.

[cos]

Yeah, I saw fish too :) Will post eventually.

[sapience.livejournal.com]

I'm so glad you posted about this here, and on FB. I'm making a trip to Florida this summer (it's where I grew up, and where my family still lives), and have been trying to figure out what to do while I'm there. This is a great option. I'll also be near Sanibel Island, which someone else recommended, so I may check that out as well.