Six mile cypress slough preserve

Wednesday
Today, we left the island and visited Six Mile Cypress Slough Preserve in Fort Myers. Someone had told us about this preserve when we were in Sanibel two years ago, and we visited it then and really enjoyed it, so returned this year. The cypress slough catches and slowly filters rainwater on its way towards Estero Bay. The predominant feature are the magnificent cypress trees, adorned with many varied air plants (see thumbnail photo) and with the associated cypress “knees”, but there are several ponds/lakes where we saw our first alligators on this visit, as well as numerous turtles. In addition to the usual sort of birds, we also saw a couple of small birds, new to me, the Blue-grey gnatcatcher, and Black and white warbler. The sky cleared as we walked around, and when we returned to the island, we went and enjoyed some time by the pool. The pool water was quite warm, it must be heated, but when you got out, the air felt quite cool, so we then came back for a hot shower, before heading down to the beach for the sunset (see extra)