Day 3 and I had the kind of weather the Florida Chamber of Commerce has to love.
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| MUSAP enjoys the beach in Punta Gorda |
My GPS decided to take me way out of my way while driving to Peace River Wildlife Center in Punta Gorda. Note to self - look at map and have a general idea of where I’m going before starting the car. I was hoping to arrive at 9:45, after calling for proper directions and getting turned around I was an hour late getting there.
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| MUSAP checking out some vultures |
Peace River Wildlife Center is another non-profit that I decided to visit on this adventure. Their mission is to rescue and care for native small animals. They have aviaries that are open for public viewing that house the birds that can’t be released because of the extent of their injuries.
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| hawk |
When planning my trip I discovered Peace River offers a special opportunity for photographers. For a donation shutter bugs are given access to enter the aviaries with resident birds for an hour of picture taking. It’s supposed to happen before they open to the public at 11, but happily they let me still be a shutterbug even though I was an hour late getting there.
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| great egret |
It was amazing to enter the aviaries with the birds of prey - bald eagles, a wide variety of hawks, vultures.
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| bald eagle |
The burrowing owls shared their space with a kestrel.
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| burrowing owl |
I wasn’t too excited about going into the pelican enclosure until I got in there. The pelicans were unexpectedly beautiful. This was the only enclosure that was open above, so there were many visiting pelicans in there too. I couldn’t tell which were which. The visitors are smart birds that have figured out where they can get a safe, free meal.
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| brown pelican |
Also in with the pelicans were sandhill cranes, herons, egrets, and even a frigate bird.
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| sandhill crane |
This is another place that I will visit again when I am back in the area. If I lived in the area I would consider being a volunteer there. It’s a very clean facility and everyone I spoke with was friendly and welcoming.
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| brown pelican |
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| black crowned night heron |
The Wildlife Center is adjacent to Ponce de Leon Park in Punta Gorda so I walked over to take a look at the beach and the mangroves. Found a few things that attracted my eye.
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| wave and wood |
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| mangrove beach in Punta Gorda |
I had a few possibilities of places to stop before continuing down the coast to Ft Myers. I decided to check out Octagon Wildlife Sanctuary another non profit that cares for exotic wildlife. This place is run and cared for entirely by volunteers… and it looks like they could use some more help. Their web page encourages you pack a picnic lunch because they have places for you to sit and eat. Let’s just say I didn’t sit in any of the sagging, broken chairs. In all fairness, I’d prefer they use their money for animal care.
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| picnic places |
The lady at the entrance was sweet. She explained that Octagon is like a nursing home for these animals. They have no place else to go and they will get to live out their lives in the best circumstances that they can provide for them.
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| tiger playing with barrel |
They have a variety of animals. Each enclosure had a sign with info about the species, but also had info about the animal who was there and the sad story that led to them coming to live at Octagon. Powerful messages and worth reading. Some people should never own animals. Big cats may be cute when they are cubs, but they will never be pets.
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| who keps a tiger in their backyard? |
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| panther |
along the way I found things that were unexpected ~ this is an address I would like to have.
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| Fiddlesticks! |
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