The Tamiami Trail (December 2018)

The Tamiami Trail is a road that crosses the Florida Peninsula from Naples to Miami. It runs through the Big Cypress National Preserve and for a long stretch borders the Everglades National Park. There is very little development along the way and it feels like it is all through wilderness. Most of the road is bordered by a ditch or a canal.

There are numerous places on the road, or a very short drive off it, where the visitor can park and enjoy the plentiful wildlife. An important detour is to Everglades City, which is the Northern entrance to the Everglades National Park. This end of the park is on the Gulf Coast and boasts miles of mangroves and many islands. There are many waterborne tours offered, but they were beyond our budget. And, as we subsequently discovered, there is so much to see along the Tamiami Trail for no charge.

We generally cannot remember exactly where we took the following photographs, and honestly, do you really care?

A butterfly that sat still long enough to allow a good photograph.

A Blue-gray Gnatcatcher hopping from one twig to another.

Yet another warning against patting the alligators.

One of the boardwalks that conduct the visitor to places of beauty.

A yellow flower with a visiting bee.

Some small fish in a very small pool.

A larger pool at the end of the boardwalk.

A Downy Woodpecker.

We were advised to “look for the snake right close to the boardwalk.” Here it is, photographed from a safe distance with a telephoto lens. It turned out to be an Eastern Hogsnout and not venemous enough to be dangerous to humans.

The Ochopee General Store and Post Office burned down in 1953. This shed was pressed into service as an emergency Post Office, and is still in use today. It is believed to be the smallest Post Office in the USA. We sent some postcards from there. The postmaster is used to being photgraphed.

A Palmetto tree.

A large alligator.

And another one. There is a different road nicknamed “Alligator Alley”.  How many alligators do they have there?

A Wood Stork in flight.

An Anhinga (Darter) with a Catfish. If you think the fish is too big to swallow you are quite right. After much juggling the Anhinga dropped its prey and we think the Catfish escaped.

Or was it recaptured? Our guess is that this one is a wee bit smaller.

A Great Blue Heron.

A large fish.

A Double-crested Cormorant. This is the same species that we first saw in Central Canada.

We think it was at the H.P. Williams Roadside Park that a young woman excitedly told us “There are two big alligators.” We fear she is badly near-sighted. We saw six large alligators and numerous birds.

A Tricolored Heron (rear) and a Green Heron.

An Anhinga sharing a fallen tree trunk with a turtle.

A long, thin fish.  Probably a Florida (or Spotted) Gar.

An Alligator attacks! Bill was attempting to photograph a fish rising to the surface when, whoosh, the frame was full of hungry alligator.

A different species of fish in a calmer stretch of water.

With so many fish about, no wonder the alligators grow so large.

An American Crow on the roof of a vehicle. You can just see it is planning mischief.