from the crow's nest

Wednesday we escaped from St Petersburg and drove South. The objective was to visit the Audobon Society's Corkscrew Sanctuary which is located just north of Naples. www.audubon.org/local/sanctuary/corkscrew/

But nothing is simple in our lives. First we stopped at Southeastern Guidedogs for a tour of their facilities and a love session with the puppies. The place is amazing. Very professionally managed! They breed and train guide dogs for the blind. Their training program is very thorough for both the dogs and the people. The recipient must stay at the facility for almost four weeks to bond with their new dog and learn the guiding techniques themselves. The organization makes certain that the dog is specifically trained for its master's new environment (riding trains or buses, etc) and enables a new level of independence for the blind. Everything revolves around a loving atmosphere for the dogs - from playtime for puppies to finding a comfortable retirement scenario.

After the long time spent at the kennels, we drove and drove and drove. The choice of going down US41 instead of the Interstate was not good. But after getting lost we finally found Corkscrew Sanctuary around 5:00 PM.

What a perfect time of day to walk their boardwalk. A nice cool breeze with lots of shade was just what we needed. The Audobon Society has invested a large amount of money into the building and the boardwalk at Corkscrew. They have ensure as little encroachment on the environment as possible yet made it most pleasant. The walk is about 2.5 miles and at first it was a bit disappointing. We have more birds at home that we saw in the park! But then we spotted an immature Bald Eagle. Nothing can take away the thrill of seeing that beautiful bird. Thank goodness we took the binoculars. Unfortunately, we had no camera.

The other thrill was seeing alligators in their natural habitat. Fantastic! We watched one gator in particular waiting for him to gobble up an immature Ibis - he got a fish instead.

Corkscrew Sanctuary is a beautiful park but it needs more land. Developers and miners are everywhere in that vicinity. I wonder how the Everglades Restoration will affect that area. Gotta find out!