Visits and Birding in January

With a little help from our friends (thank you Jimmie and Ellie!) we left Clerbrook last week and came over to the west coast of Florida. First we spent Sunday at friends Donna and Kim’s where they put on a spread and we watched the two championship football games. We stayed at an Elks Lodge one night, then came over to Palmetto to a harvest host. The host is Paul so I call it Paul’s Back Yard. Its 5 acres, his house is in one corner so the space is wide open.

We met my sister Holly at Celery Fields, a well thought out birding area with a very cool gazebo structure including seating. Parakeets and painted buntings are attracted to bird feeders. We struck out on the painted buntings but here’s the parakeet. They are huge.

After our birding adventures, we met Andy (Hollys husband) at Tide Tables in Sarasota. It is a casual outdoor seating seafood place, we loved it. We had scrumptious fish tacos that came with coleslaw and fries and enjoyed the water view.

Then we went to Mayakka River State Park. We got lucky! We saw a spoonbill, a Lesser Yellow Legs, a couple of Stilts, some Limpkins, and of course some Alligators.

We had to make a pit stop on our way home today at BigFoot of Florida to get our camper hydraulics checked. Turns out the hydraulic control panel needs to be replaced/upgraded which also involves a new electronic system. They have to order parts and we will have to go back there to have the work done.

We met a couple, Cheryl and Tim, also staying in Paul’s backyard. They are full time RV’ers, living in a van! Approx 25 feet. I looked inside. They had the essentials but omg it was a small space. They had 400 amp hrs of solar, enough to power the refrigerator (a little bigger than the college dorm size). They were friendly and nice enough but holy cow it was tiny! Once upon a time they had a thriving portrait photography business and a massive house. We think they went broke and that’s how they ended up in the van. They headed off to Ft DeSoto this morning hoping to see the birds we saw yesterday.