Today we are walking at Shamrock Park and along the Intercoastal Waterway which is a canal that makes Venice Island.
We love coming here because of the diversity of wildlife here. On most days you can see gopher tortoises, desert hares, iguanas, alligators, butterflies, egrets, herons, bald eagles, and many more.
There is a playground for the little ones and tennis and basketball courts. There is also a nature center here that offers classes occasionally.
The main path is paved, but there are many dirt and grass paths throughout the park. These are the best places to spot the tortoises. There are also a lot of benches and picnic areas to enjoy.
We ventured down this sandy path to see what was down this way. We saw a lot of gopher tortoises but they quickly scurried into their holes. We counted about 20 holes.
This path led to a few cool vantage points overlooking the water.
The path narrowed where this sign was posted. We opted to turn around at this point. Lol
The channel is narrow along the paved walkway but over here it opens up. There are quite a bit of boat traffic through here.
Florida has cacti too!
Back on the paved path. It had been cloudy here for the past few weeks but this day was sunny and blue.
They added a neat little feature to the pavement here. There were different animal footprints set into the cement. Raccoon is pictured but there was also squirrel, bald eagle, otter, and little girl.
These dead trees are actually a valuable asset to the eco system as it is a preferential spot to perch for some of the birds here. I also find them to be quite beautiful as they stand there defiantly naked among the leaved trees.
We took a short jaunt off the path again looking for some more creatures. The middle of the day is pretty quiet.
The bees were active, though.
The airport is on the island side of the waterway and you can see it up ahead in the distance.
The walkway on the other side was one of Hurricane Ian's casualties. The land just gave away here and spilled into the waterway.
The winds from the storm did knock a lot of the leaves from the trees. These beauties by the senior center were full and now it feels like fall here the way they look.
You can continue walking, but we decided to double back and go back to the park.
The nature center is the building you can see if you look closely at the center above the trees.
The grasses here have turned a lovely shade of purple.
We didn't get lucky today to see one out in the open, but I am going to include a picture of a gopher tortoise I captured on a previous walk. Isn't he handsome?
Our last stop on the walk is the butterfly garden. Not a single butterfly to be seen but there are some amazing plants and flowers here.
I really like this bushy palm.
That's this week's Wednesday Walk. Didn't have as many animal photos to share as I would have liked, but the weather was gorgeous.
See you next week!
