DayTrip to Punta Gorda

On Tuesday, Ken & Bonnie and Chuck & took a day trip up to meet up with Ernie & Noela in Punta Gorda.  After driving off the island and turning north on Burnt Store Road, we drove near some Burrowing Owl nests.  The nesting areas are easy to spot from the road because they will be staked off with white PVC pipe and usually will have a little perch (that looks like a cross) near the hole where the owls have their nests.  Burrowing owls are found all over Florida but the greatest concentration of them is here in Cape Coral:  more than 1,000 nesting pairs.

We had stopped by some of the nests last week when we went to Manasota Beach hoping to see some of the owls but didn't see any then.  We stopped again today at some of the nests but again didn't see any at first.  We started up the road again and eagle-eye Ken spotted an owl sitting on a perch off the road.

We turned around and were able to drive up very close to the nest.  Ken got some great pictures:

The owls didn't seem to be frightened at all...and they are so cute!

We met up with Ernie and Noela at Ponce de Leon Park.  The park has a small beach and some walking trails.

Bonnie tried to strike up a conversation with Ponce but he didn't have much to say.  :)

We walked out on one of the short boardwalks...

...that takes you through the mangroves and out to a nearby canal..

...and a fishing pier.

Next, we walked over to the Peace River Wildlife Center which is home to birds with permanent injuries that could never survive in the wild.

Most of the injuries were wing-related, but this Sandhill Crane had an unusual birth defect of a beak that crossed over.

We left Ponce de Leon Park and drove to Fisherman's Village which has a private marina, shopping mall and restaurants.

The Peace River Wildlife Center (that we had just left) had an exhibit in the mall where they had this very rare little albino screech owl named Luna.

They also had a Great Horned Owl...

... that wanted to fly off!

We walked through the mall to the restaurant where we were having lunch:  The Captain's Table.

We had to wait a little while but it was worth it because the food was delicious.

After lunch, we walked along the harbor and found a "grown-up" playground filled with some pretty cool exercise equipment that we had to try out.

After recess on the playground, we continued walking around the harbor past the 41 North and 41 South bridges.

We stopped at an ice cream shop that perfectly matched my outfit.  :)

They also had pretty good ice cream.  The ice cream shop had some US and world maps at the back of the store.  I think the boys were trying to figure out where each other lived on the map.

After we left the ice cream shop, we began walking back to Fisherman's Village.

It was another terrific day with sun, fun, food and friends!  :)