Myakka Bird Walk and Outpost

January 4, 2024                                                            Most Recent Posts:
Myakka River State Park                                  Pictures Are Back Sort Of!
Sarasota, Florida                             Bringing in the New Year – January 2024

Still no luck on pictures viewable on cell phones.  Only on laptops.

In addition to miles of hiking and kayaking, Myakka River State Park has number of other things to see and do.

At the other end of the park road from the ranger station and my campground is a bird walk.  It’s a very long boardwalk that ends at a viewing platform.  The boardwalk normally goes out into the Upper Lake which the river flows through.

Usually the water completely covers the area you see as brown in this picture.

But until recently they have not had enough rain and as you can see, green grass has grown up to the platform and the lake is far removed and without binoculars or a viewing scope like the volunteer on the left has brought you can’t see anything.

And that’s what I saw, nothing.   It was disappointing since there are nearly always a lot of wading birds, ducks and gators around.

So I walked a mile down the road to the commercial area of the park.   This is the end of the channel which is used to load up boat tours or launch rental boats or your own if you have one.   The building in the distance is the pavilion known as The Outpost.

Due to frequent flooding, at least in the past, the building is on stilts and has a gift shop and a restaurant.  I thought I might have lunch here.

But I found out when I got there that the building is under renovation and the restaurant half of it is closed.  Only the gift shop remains and I’m not a shopper.

What they do have is a mobile kitchen just beyond the steps.  Pretty sorry looking.

Here are the offerings.   A greatly reduced version of their normal menu.

From there I walked down to the area of the old Weir which I was sad to see they had taken out.   The weir was an earthen dam constructed by the CCC in 1938.  Water was held back during dry times (normally March –June)  and would flow over it during wet times.  But apparently there were ecological consequences to this as well as maintenance costs.  It was removed along with the viewing platform that was there.   It was estimated that removing the weir could create about 70 acres of additional wetland habitat.  So I guess that’s a good thing.  Still it was an interesting part of the park’s history.

But the gators and black vultures who were always there, are still here along the banks.  They don’t seem to care.

As Laurel kindly pointed out in her comment.  These are actually Blue Winged Teals and just goes to show that my birding skills have atrophied along with a lot of other things.

I love this picture.  I was so lucky to get it.

Limpkin with a bite of lunch.

There was a wide variety of birds here today which was very nice.

This is one of the only parks in which I see the Roseate Spoonbill so there are multiple pictures of them.  Such unique birds.  I hope their name doesn’t get changed.  It seems perfect to me.

On my walk back to my car at the Bird Walk, this handsome hawk flew in and posed.

When I saw the picture below, it reminded me of Judy Bell who was a wonderful full time RVer  National Wildlife Volunteer.  This is a tribute to her if any of you followed her.   She ended most of her posts with

THE END