Black Point Drive at Merritt Island

Neither of us slept especially well last night. Me, because of sciatica pain, and Mary because I was flopping around trying to get comfortable. We went downstairs at 6 am for morning beverages and to wish Cindy a happy 68th birthday. We got her a Blenko glass hummingbird and a bird identification book by Stokes. Unlike the Sibley book that use illustrations of birds, the Stokes books use photos of each bird including juveniles, various morphs, and other variants.

Mark made breakfast burritos, which were very good, then we gathered the things we thought we would need for our two-day visit to Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge and Canaveral National Seashore. We left the house at 8 am for the nearly 3-hour drive to the Space Coast. Other than around Orlando, traffic wasn’t too bad and we made good time.

Painted buntings at the Merritt Island Visitor Center

Our first stop was at the Merritt Island visitor center. The volunteers there were exceptionally helpful giving us maps and advice on where to see interesting wildlife. They even gave Cindy a guide to birding in Eastern Florida. We had heard that painted buntings could be seen at feeders behind the visitor center, so we waited out back. We were rewarded by seeing several beautiful painted buntings and other songbirds. As we watched the buntings and took some snapshots, we chatted with a couple that we had met at Myakka River State Park last week while looking for caracara.

Common gallinule

Using the maps and information from the volunteers at the visitor center, we drove through the 15 mile Black Point Wildlife Drive. We have taken this route several times in the past, but we still enjoy this drive every time we are on the Atlantic Coast of Florida. We stopped so many times that it took us three hours to take the 15 mile drive. We saw many types of egrets, herons, ibis and other wading birds and waterfowl. There was a debate over a frequently observed bird whether they were common moorhens or common gallinules. Different print and online guides gave us conflicting information. We eventually learned that the birds had been called common moorhens, but they are now called common gallinules. We saw more ospreys that we could count.

Roseate spoonbill at Black Point Drive

When we left the Black Point Drive, we drove to the Scrub Ridge Trail. We parked at the trailhead and walked the one-mile loop through palmetto and other scrub. We didn’t see the variety of birds that we had seen at Black Point, but the walk was interesting and we were happy to move around which seemed to help my sciatica pain.

Our last stop for the day at Merritt Island was at the Bio Lab drive where we saw large flocks of glossy ibis, egrets, skimmers and terns. We also saw congregations of large alligators along the banks.

Steve & JD Maue at Dixie Crossroads

After leaving the Bio Lab drive, we drove to the Hampton Inn in Titusville where we checked in and freshened up before dinner. We only had a few minutes before we left at 6 am and drove to Dixie Crossroads where we met my friend and former coworker, JD Maue. JD is the STEM coordinator for the public charter schools in Brevard County. It was great to see JD and catch up on our lives as we munched on the sweet hush puppies on the table. We all enjoyed our meals. JD and I had flounder stuffed with crab. Mark and Mary had coconut shrimp, and Cindy had a crab cake. As we prepared to leave, our waitress brought Cindy a slice of key lime pie in a to go box as a birthday gift.

After paying the bill and saying our goodbyes to JD, we drove back to the Hampton Inn. We were all tired and turned in by 9 pm.

New Smyrna Beach, Canaveral National Seashore

We had our morning beverages and did our language lessons before coming down to Mark’s breakfast of biscuits and sausage gravy. It was excellent. We walked the dogs then got on the road toward the Apollo Beach area of the Canaveral National Seashore. My lifetime National Park pass got us in at no charge. We drove to beach 2 where we had lunch of corn nuts, Ritz crackers and peanut butter. We watched some ruddy turnstones and gulls mooching scraps of our lunch. We didn’t notice that an older lady fell in the sand not far from us. We thought that she was trying to get a closeup photo of something in the sand. Walking along the beach was difficult in the soft sand. We looked at a few shells and took a few pictures. The afternoon was beautiful in the low 80s. We had to take pictures to send to friends back home since they were in the middle of a winter snowstorm with high temperatures in the 20s. We were happy to be in Florida this week.

There were several armadillos scampering along the road as well many more that had been hit and killed. Mark spotted a large tortoise near the road, so we backed up to get a better look and take some snapshots. We didn’t see any wild hogs but there was plenty of evidence that they are in the area. Large areas looked like they had been plowed from the groups of pigs rooting in the damp sandy soil.

We drove along the beach areas and stopped at several places to enjoy the view. We did not stop at any of the clothing optional beaches in the park. Near the end of that end of the park we visited the historic Eldora State House in a community that was formed in the 1800s. The volunteer on duty told us that her husband was a Marshall graduate from the 1960s. We explored the well-preserved house and watched an informative video on the community around the house before we returned to the car.

We drove to the Hampton Inn in Titusville where we checked in and cleaned up in our rooms. The Hampton Inn was very nice and appeared to be fairly new of at least recently remodeled. Our room had two double beds. We met Mark and Cindy at 6 pm to drive the short distance to Dixie Crossroads for dinner. We were pleased not to have to wait for a table and were seated immediately. Our waitress as very nice and efficient I picked up on what I thought was a Pittsburgh accent based on her use of “yinze”. When she came to the table to bring drink refills, Cindy asked where she grew up. She said that she was born in Baltimore but grew up in Pittsburgh.

Cindy had a dinner of crab cakes, Mark had a rack of ribs with fries, Mary had grilled mahi mahi and I had the special which was a flounder filet stuffed with lobster dressing with cheesy grits and a cup of Cajun soup. We all enjoyed our meals. We were surprised that our bills were within one cent of each other at $41.70 and $41.71 for each couple.

We went back to the hotel and went to sleep quickly.