Little Estero Report
After reading the Estero thread started by Joe Campanellie on Jan 26, I decided to drive up to Little Estero Lagoon Tuesday (the 3rd) on a scouting trip. Got there about 5:00 in the afternoon. It was a blue-sky day, a little chilly (upper 50's?), and windy. I left my camera in the car! The tide tables called for a low tide of -.4 at 1:00 that morning, and a high tide of 2.5 at 6:00 pm, so I assume the tide was near the 2.5 level while I was there.
The north end of the lagoon, near the Holiday End, looked the way I remembered it from a visit in April of 2007. The water level did look a little lower than I remembered it, but not markedly different. There were a few birds at the north end, and some along the bank on the far (west) side of the lagoon. Following the path south between the condos and the lagoon, I saw a total of perhaps 30 great and snowy egrets and white ibis, a handful of pelicans, a handful of shore birds, and one reddish egret.
On my visit two years ago, I stayed in the north end of the lagoon, so don't know how far the lagoon extended to the south. This time, I walked south past the grove of bushes and small trees which is located between the path and the water, about one-half mile from the north end of the lagoon. I was of the impression (perhaps mistakenly) that the lagoon took a little bend to the east at this point, and continued south. Instead, I found that the lagoon narrows to a small channel (perhaps five feet in width) at the south edge of the bushes. The channel winds across the beach, and out to the Gulf. This was the only inlet/outlet I saw from the lagoon to the Gulf. I didn't walk out to the point where the channel emptied into the gulf, but from where I stood, the channel appeared to be rather shallow. I wondered if the lagoon could even drain to the Gulf at low tide?
Adams Serra commented in the earlier thread that storms changed the geography last year. I didn't walk any further south, but didn't see any sign of a lagoon as I looked in that direction. If the lagoon stops where I stood, then the total length of the lagoon, from north to south, is a short half mile. However, in the prior Estero thread, Fabs mentioned photographing after Christmas near the small pier by the condos. I didn't see a pier on my walk. Does the Little Estero Lagoon resume at some point further to the south? Perhaps someone who lives in the area can help me find the rest of the lagoon!
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Originally Posted by Adams Serra
