Yesterday was a transition day – we left South Florida and headed north-west for the coast at Fort Myers, calling in at a couple of spots in and around The Everglades, including the recently opened Ten Thousand Islands marsh trail. Bush birds were hard to come by but we did see a few waders, the best being American Avocet. Our first Yellow-billed Cuckoo was a fly across the track. We moved on in search of a site which on our first trip to Florida produced some good birding – the beach at Fort Myers. This sea-side town was at the centre of Hurricane Ian last autumn which left total devastation in it’s wake. They’re busy re-building the place but it still looks like a war zone. The good thing is that the birds are still there and on the beach and around the small brackish lagoon we managed to find over ten species of wader – Willet, Black-bellied (Grey) Plover, Sanderling, Short-billed Dowitcher, Greater Yellowlegs, Killdeer, Semipalmated Plover, Dunlin, Western, Semipalmated and Least Sandpiper.