Ellen and our friend Claudia taking a pose
then bicycled 5 miles the other direction to Wauchula to return a rented movie. Plenty of exercise that day! We are here until the 13th. We are both working hard so probably won’t have any more time for activities until we hit the road again.
We also saw alligator,
otter, and various wading birds. We enjoyed the beauty of the saw-grass plains up close as the wind blew through our hair.
He swings his head back and forth with his big flat bill in the water until he bumps into something good to eat.
Stoney tried to walk over mud flats with no luck except to sink into the mud.
Taking abreak from our bike ride for a snack
We nearly had to leave him there. We also rode over by the marina and saw our first crocodiles. 
Not a cute as the alligator.
We met at the edge of the bay as the tide was out, exposing mud flats and hundreds of birds having their breakfast.
We then walked on down a path to see both inland and coastal birds. We walked right past a rather large alligator lounging in the creek bed. We would have never even noticed him if the ranger had not pointed him out, even though he was only about 5 feet away.
Unfortunately, we should have written down the names of the birds we saw as nearly all were new to us and remembering all of their names impossible. 
We were joined there by our friends Claudia and Stoney. We went for a short bike-ride along the shore, saw some vultures drying their wings,
and Claudia and Ellen even got their feet went in the bay.
bad smelling buzzards, 
Herons, 
various other ducks and birds and of course the infamous alligator.
It was very interesting to see all these creatures in their natural habitat.
