Once again, we have escaped the Midwestern winter for a week in South Florida. Leaving the cold, snowy landscape of Missouri yesterday afternoon, we arrived at our condo on Longboat Key at sunset, under clear but cool skies. This morning, with the temperature in the upper 30s F, we awoke to low tide on Sarasota Bay.
Despite the chilly temperature, a great variety of waterbirds had gathered in the shallows. Great egrets dominated the scene, joined by smaller flocks of white pelicans, double-crested cormorants, snowy egrets, little blue herons, white ibis, pied billed grebes and red-breasted mergansers. A lone wood stork, several great blue herons and a handful of yellow-crowned night herons foraged along the mangrove islands while brown pelicans and royal terns dove for their morning meal.
Once the January sun had tempered the morning chill, we headed to the Gulf side of the Key for a walk along Longboat's uncrowded beach. Due to little wind over the past few days, the Gulf was flat and placid and only a low, gentle surf lapped the shoreline. Laughing gulls, royal terns and sandwich terns basked on the modest dunes while squadrons of brown pelicans undulated across the calm, blue sea. Walking barefoot on the cool sand, our memories of recent frigid nights and windblown snow quickly faded in the warm, morning sun.
