CORKSCREW SWAMP

Yesterday was the last day of my stay with friends in Estero, FL. But we were up early and off in the dark to visit the Wildlife Sanctuary at Corkscrew Swamp, east of Naples. With 2.5 miles of boardwalk through marsh and swamp, it’s a great place to get some exercise and be away from concrete and plastic. 

It was overcast, trying to rain but it couldn’t quite make rain drops; enough I kept my camera in its case but didn’t put on a rain coat. The boards creaked under our feet and daylight was leaking through clouds but no sunshine. Rick had camera troubles and that spoiled his hopes but we did the walk anyway. Sometimes you just have to go and do, take your chances and make the best of whatever shakes. The dark water, vegetation and shades of gray were not what I was looking for but that’s what I had and I started taking photographs.

About the time you get used to the calm and still, there was motion down close to the water and there was color; white, behind the trees and brush. Big birds were slowly but surely, working their way from right to left, harvesting the bounty of the swamp. They are hunter-gatherers; no agriculture or animal husbandry for them, no hanging around waiting for crops to ripen. The birds simply go where the food is and they eat as they go. They seem to get along with each other, no fussing or fighting. Maybe they find more food in a group than one can by itself. Now and then there was a deep throated squawk and someone would flap their way up and around a tree but they were serious about worms, snails and other little macro invertebrates on the swamp floor. While I took photographs, Rick counted about fifty birds. Several other bird watchers with cameras materialized. The clicking of cameras seemed as invasive and obtrusive at the time as horns honking in the gridlock, just a few miles away. The big question was, what were they? I knew I saw an egret’s long, straight bill but somebody else said they saw the pink, curved beak of an ibis. 

There were more birds along the walk, anhingas, storks, woodpeckers, waxwings, but they were to far to get good photos. At the nature center, we made a stop at the gift shop and come out into sunshine. My best photo of the morning was simply, water droplets leaving rings on the still water. My time was short. The people behind us got the good light and we did the best with what we had. I had to get on the road by noon. 

This morning I’m at Starbuck’s in Sarasota. I’ll meet up with an old high school amigo in a couple of hours; we haven’t seen each other in in over 50 years. He’s well and busy, as am I; can’t ask for any more. As I edit my photos from yesterday I see there were both egrets and ibis in that swamp-flock. I always wonder why people who are supposed to be not only intelligent but wise, who are no more different than the ibis from the egret, feel the need to kill each other in the name of God or patriotism. But I’m just an old man who would rather go out in the swamp in the rain than sleep in.