26 March 2019

The Florida Keys (12-14 December 2018)

The Florida Keys is a chain of islands running West from the tip of the Florida Peninsula. The largest urban area is Key West at the end of the chain. Several people had advised us to avoid Key West, so we didn't go any further than Big Pine Key.

It's not a long drive from the Everglades to the Keys, and it wasn't difficult to find an information office to advise on our options.

John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park

Florida is outside the true tropics, but we have to admit that the Keys have a tropical feel to them. Except that much of the tropical world is underdeveloped and quite cheap for Westerners, whereas the Florida Keys are distinctly pricey.

We didn't go and inspect the coral reef ourselves, but we accept that there is coral out there.

A White Ibis with pink legs. This means that it is not the breeding season, when the legs become red.

A large lizard.

We had a slight difference of opinion here. Eve thought the water was cold and Bill proved it wasn't by going for a paddle. It certainly wasn't icy, but he admits that it wasn't quite up to the temperature of a relaxing bath. Do you like the T-shirt? It's a souvenir of the Everglades. Can you identify all the birds illustrated?

What's the use of having an underwater camera if you don't take any underwater photographs? If you know what this underwater organism is, please leave a comment to let us know.

Coconut Palms.

The park includes a good little aquarium.

A species of lobster.

A less shy resident of the tank.

We wanted to stay at one of the state park campgrounds, but they are booked up many months in advance. Well, they are much cheaper than the privately operated campgrounds. We weren't very far from the Everglades so we turned around and went back to Long Pine Key Campground.

We decided to have an evening amble around the lake. We came upon a guy with a camera and a tripod and fell into conversation. He wasn't a professional, but he certainly knew photography and was there specifically to photograph the sunset.


We didn't compare results with the expert, but we're happy with our souvenir of the evening.

Laura Quinn Wild Bird Sanctuary

The best value destination in the Keys. Admission is by donation. We were happy to drop a few dollars in the box, because the sanctuary is doing work we approve of, and displayed a good range of birds that are either recovering from some mishap before being released, or have no realistic chance of being able to survive again in the wild. Bill's attempts to photograph through wire cage fronts were not as successful as at Billie Swamp Safari, but some came out well enough.

A Brown Pelican.

A Broad-winged Hawk.

A Great Egret showing signs of developing breeding plumage.

Big Pine Key

A tourist information office had pointed us at a piece of woodland on Big Pine Key with some short trails where there was a good chance of seeing the endangered Key Deer. This is a very small deer that exists nowhere but the Florida Keys.

To get there we had to drive across several keys and their connecting bridges, including the Seven Mile Bridge. Luckily for acrophobe Bill, the bridge isn't very high and there are nice, opaque concrete walls to contain the view, so his heights phobia wasn't much troubled. The Confederation Bridge between New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island was much scarier.

This was too far to double back to Long Pine Key Campground so we stumped up for a private campground. $70 for an unpowered site is very expensive elsewhere, but it's standard in the Keys.

Driving through the camp we saw – a Key Deer. It was between two RVs and had something of the attitude of waiting for a handout. It was tiny, with horns that made us think of a miniature reindeer. Of course it had gone by the time we found our site and went back with a camera.

There were some Willets feeding in a marshy pond by the campground.

The next day we visited the local tourist information office. The lady was most surprised at what we had been told about seeing deer in that particular wood. “I've walked those trails a hundred times and I've never seen a deer there.” Oh well. At least we had seen one.

Theater of the Sea

The Florida Keys has its Marineland in Islamorada. There are restrictions on what they may keep and display, and it's not all performing seals.

Performing sea-lion, to be strictly accurate.

Two of the dolphins performed in the “lagoon”.

They have a collection of parrots that do tricks. This is a Hyacinth Macaw.

Injured marine animals are doctored at Theater of the Sea. If they cannot fend for themselves in the wild then they may stay. This turtle needs extra flotation or it would sink and drown.

The star turn was the dolphins in the pool. They go through an extensive routine, including stunts with one of the trainers in the water.

A high jump.

Here the dolphin and trainer have both surfaced 'feet first' in perfect synchronisation.

Flowers

December is winter in the Northern Hemisphere. Some plants just don't seem to realise this:






To allow our wallet to recover a little we left the Keys and parked overnight at the Cracker Barrel in Homestead, for which there is no charge.

Everglades Day 3 (11 December 2018)

Our third day was essentially to return to the Homestead entrance to the park and visit some of the trails we missed on Day 1.

Before we set off we did scout around the Flamingo area again in case there was anything new. And there was. This is an immature Black-crowned Night-Heron.

Snake Bight Trail
The trail is 2 miles from the road to the coast at Snake Bight. It is almost perfectly straight. It goes through a variety of terrains, despite being in Florida and therefore totally flat. There were plenty of birds, particularly woodpeckers and flocks of White Ibis, but they persistently sheltered behind twiggy branches, or deep shade or simply kept moving about so the photographs were very poor.

Flowers can't hide from the camera.

And this spider chose to remain in the centre of their web.

The end of the trail. There are birds out there. Hundreds, maybe thousands, of them. About half a mile away. We couldn't even identify them with binoculars. :-(

More coastal mud.

A spiky, cactusy plant waiting to impale any hiker who carelessly steps off the trail.

Other Places

We didn't make notes of where we saw these other than "in the Everglades National Park somewhere".

Fruiting Sabal Palms. The cabbage-like growing tip and abundant berries were an important food for native americans.

A small fish in a pool. Considering the numbers of herons and other fish-scoffing birds in the park sunbathing near the surface of clear water is a very high-risk choice for a fish.

Good-looking trees. There was an information board about these trees. But we didn't take a picture of the board so we can't share the information with you.

An attractive plant of unknown species.

We ended up at the Long Pine Key Campground, still in the Everglades National Park. When we checked in the ranger had already cashed up and shut down the till. “Never mind. You can pay me in the morning.” So we did.

This campground had hot solar showers. Aaaah.

20 March 2019

Everglades Day 2 (10 December 2018)

The day was spent in and around Flamingo. Flamingos are occasionally seen there, but none turned up while we were around.

Guy Bradley Trail

We elected to walk from the campground to the marina. The trail is not very long, but it was alive with interesting and mostly photographable wildlife.

The first thing we saw was a tourist sprawled on the ground trying to get a close up of this crab.

We stepped carefully around a scattering of dung on the path. A few minutes later a park employee asked had we seen it. “Black bear. They come around at night.”

The coast here is mud, rocks and mangroves.

A pair of Ospreys. Their nest is out of the picture to the right.

A pretty Convolvulus.

We think this is Ardisia crenata, a kind of holly with several common names. If so, it is an unwanted Asian plant. Please leave a comment if you can positively identify it.

A Little Blue Heron

An Osprey on the wing.

A Willet, a species of sandpiper, comes in to land.

And a Great Egret takes off.

The striking features of a Yellow-crowned Night-heron.


The yellow crown is not obvious unless the bird looks at you.

The Night-heron and the Willet hunting together.

The Willett comes ashore.

The Night-heron has caught a crab.

An American Kestrel. It would not turn around and face the camera.

Marina

The marina was recommended to us as a place to see manatees and American Crocodiles. We found no crocodiles, but a group of manatees was apparently feeding right inside the marina. Because the water was very murky we only saw them when they came up to breathe. Unless you happened to be looking at the right place, the first indication of a manatee at the surface would be an exhalation of breath. By the time you had located the animal it was sinking back down into the depths.

A manatee with its nostrils adjacent to the pole.

Two manatees.

There were ospreys nesting at the marina, too.

Walking back to the campground we came across another species of crab …

... and a shiny, black beetle.

Mrazek Pond

On the previous day a flock of Roseate Spoonbills had been at this little lake. We hoped that they might still be there.

The first thing we saw was this flock of Snowy Egrets.

The spoonbills were still around, although most of them were on the other side of the pond. This one obligingly flew across.

And looked down his beak at us.

A Wood Stork flying by.

A Great Egret

We went back to the marina to have a second crocodile hunt. No crocs, but we did see some more interesting birds.

A Little Blue Heron having a bad hair day.

There were a few Brown Pelicans.

Eco Pond

This pond is just off the road very close to the campground. Was it worth looking for even more water birds? Yes it was.

An American Avocet. There was a flock of them, at extreme camera range. I'm sorry the picture is fuzzy.

The avocets were accompanied by some Black-necked Stilts.


The campground's tent sites were beside the sea.

Nearly sunset.