The Kid on the Running Board

Green Anole - brown phase

Years ago on a trip to Florida I went looking for Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary. I had done my pre-trip research for the

Green Anole - same one now green

area I was visiting and this place had jumped off the page as a great spot to see and photograph nature. So …, one day I went looking for it, following the directions I had written down. With much anticipation I drove along the access road reading the signs designating the Sanctuary boundary on my right. All I could find were laneways into picnic areas and

people enjoying lunch. No gate welcoming me to this great Floridian wonder, no sign to the visitor/nature centre, no obvious trails or boardwalks. I drove past what I believed to be the perimeter of the sanctuary, turned around and even more slowly drove back up the road, growing increasingly more frustrated with each happy group I saw enjoying their picnic. I never did find the entrance.

Today I let someone else do the driving. He knew where it was. He found it. I was overjoyed. I had a good time. What a great place. I saw native flowers and butterflies (could have spent all my time at the butterfly garden at the entrance) and a Red-shouldered Hawk and lots of White Ibises and watched a ‘chameleon’ change colour and a Painted Bunting at a feeder. Wow!