March 21st, 2023

It's the Birthday Girl!    All together now, "Happy Birthday Joy!"

Actually her birthday was one week ago, and for her birthday  she asked that we hike in Myakka State Park.  Birthday Wish Granted!  For obvious reasons, the Photo Safari is the Birthday Hike :)

It was a Perfect Hiking day, a little chilly and not crowded, at least not crowded with people!  We saw lots of other crowds. The sort that we particularly enjoy:

Our favourite sorts of crowds :)   None of them actually stopped to sing a chorus of "Happy Birthday to You"  but we know they were thinking it.

Myakka is a stunningly beautiful place but it's a little worse for wear since the Hurricane back in September.  It 's been cleaned up a lot but not all of the repairs have been done.  The Canopy Walk still needs work as does the boardwalk:

Very sad to see some of the familiar and wonderful things gone, but the wildlife isn't so bothered by it.  To them it was all stupid human stuff, nothing that really impacts their lives and we were delighted to see the wonderful wild life not only surviving but thriving.

It was cold and windy that day but sunny even so which allowed for some beautiful water reflection shots! 

One of my favourite birdie photos from that day was  a little red winged blackbird just barely hanging on to his perch in the breeze:

Everywhere we turned,  one moment right after another, there was yet something else to take a picture of. It was incredible!  What a perfect photography day!

The scenery, sigh, it's just such a beautiful place. I cannot fully express with words how stunningly beautiful Myakka is so, since a picture says a thousand words: here's a few:

Here are a few other photos that are a little random for you too:

The Birthday Hike was an Awesome Photo Safari !