Birdwatching In The Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge

Sunday was a beautiful day for birdwatching in the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge.

I took my wife, our wonder dog Elmo, my Nikon CoolPix 8700 camera, and a few fishing rods to search for fish and birdlife.

Instead of taking the long drive through unimproved Shiloh road, we went directly over Haulover canal to the section near Black Point Drive around the Indian River Lagoon.

There seemed to be more different types of birds in the area, congregating mainly in the marshes adjacent to the river.

The warm temperature also brought out the alligators en masse. They were all over the drives sunning themselves along the banks in the marsh areas.

I'll let the pics and movie clips speak for themselves.



We halfheartedly dropped baits in a couple of areas, mainly around Peacock Pocket, with nothing to really write home about.

I believe that the extreme cold fronts killed off the vast percentage of fish in the very shallow water areas we normally frequent. The Wildlife Officers that I spoke with about the poor fishing in these areas, agreed with my observation.

Fishing in the Indian River side is still decent for black drum and redfish. There are a lot of drum in the river, and they are biting on shrimp, cut baits, and whole blue crab.

Enjoy the pics.

Till next time, Tight Lines!

Black Point Wildlife Drive Birdwatching

The weekend has been a bit too cold for my wife to do any serious fishing, so since it was the last couple of days for my annual vacation, we decided to do some bird watching in the Black Point
Wildlife Preserve.



I packed up my camera, my wife, and our wonder dog Elmo for a little fresh air.

The birdlife was decent for this time of year and I took some pics that I have posted here for your enjoyment.

A little bit of action occurred when someone left the unimproved road and wound up almost in the drink!




The EMS, fire truck and KSC officers temporarily closed off the drive until the problem was taken care of. It's nice to know that help is close, especially if someone would have had a severe medical problem.

Anyway, the weather was brisk, but it didn't deter visitors from all over the U.S.

We were surprised to see bird watchers carrying their photographic equipment from Canada,Alaska,Vermont,Louisiana,etc.



The drive was unexpectedly crowded for this time of year, and I realized that what we locals take for granted, others from around the United States find remarkable.



Hope you all enjoy the pics.

Tight Lines To all of you and we sincerely wish all of you a Happy and Prosperous New Year!