This morning, John Livernois and I traveled south to the Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary, located in northern Collier County,  arriving there about 8:30.  The primary purpose of this visit was to see and photograph the Ghost Orchid, a very rare orchid.  A single blossoming plant was discovered last year at Corkscrew.  This same plant blossomed again in the last week or two.

We were quite surprised to learn that the swamp has been dry, due to minimal rainfall the past year and early this year.  It was about a mile walk along the boardwalk to the location of the orchid.  Staffers had set up a spotting scope looking at the orchid, which was about 150 ft away.  Even with the scope pointing at the plant, it was still difficult to find.

We set up our cameras with 400 mm lenses on tripods.  We also used 1.4x teleconverters, making the effective focal length of our setups equal to 900 mm.  There were only several spots where one could get a clear unobstructed view of the orchid.  If you got too far to the right or left, a branch would obscure the view.  Lucky for us, there were very few people stopping by to view the orchid.  It was quite hot and muggy, causing one’s glasses to fog up when looking in the viewfinder.  After capturing a few images we started back.  There were no water birds to be seen, due to the lack of water.  We did spot one Red-shouldered Hawk sitting quite close to the boardwalk.  There were a number of small birds around, such as Grackles, Carolina Wrens, Mockingbirds, and Woodpeckers.  By the time we got back to the visitor’s center, we felt a few drops of rain.  Good timing.

On Friday morning, I decided to go into Punta Gorda Isles and check on the status of two Burrowing Owl nests I was aware of.  The first one was on Tropicana.  This nest had four young juveniles; one adult was seen watching over them.  It was interesting to note that the eye color of the juveniles ranged from dark to pale yellow.  None had, at this time, the bright yellow eyes usually seen in these owls.

The second nest I visited was on Colony Point.  There were two juveniles along with two adults watching over them.  These birds, including the juveniles, had bright yellow eyes.  These juveniles, as well as the others on Tropicana, were nearly full grown.

For the past several days, I noticed four Roseate Spoonbills feeding, along with other wading birds, in the drainage ditch along Rampart Blvd between Walgreens and the I-75 overpass in Port Charlotte.  This morning I decided to visit the ditch and obtain some pictures of the Spoonbills.  I arrived there at 730 a.m. and, guess what, no Spoonbills.  I did take some images of a Tricolored Heron periodically flying over and dipping in the water.  Other birds seen included Glossy and White Ibis, Great and Snowy Egrets, and a Great Blue Heron. 

Around 8:00, I decided to drive over to the marshy area in back of the Walmarts on Kings Highway.  Lo and behold, mixed in with the various wading birds were four Spoonbills about half way out in the marsh.  Other birds seen included Little Blue and Tricolored Herons, Great and Snowy Egrets, Moorhens, Killdeer, and eight Sandhill Cranes on the far bank. 

Based on a conversation I had with a friend, who stated that he had seen several Stilt Sandpipers at Ollie’s Pond yesterday and the day before, I decided to visit Ollie’s Pond this morning.  I arrived at 7:45 and stayed until 10:00.  Much of the pond has dried up; I suspect it will be completely dry in another week or two.