After enjoying the holidays with family in various places and our return being delayed by a couple of days due to weather, Mike and I are now back in Florida. Happy New Year to all!
We squeezed in one more trip to the Everglades. This time the Flamingo area which is the southernmost headquarters of the park and right on the coast in the Florida Bay. We were hoping to see flamingos, crocodiles and manatees and maybe rent a canoe.
We did get to see two of the three very close to the visitor center! We were told it was too cold for the flamingos right now (had a few nights in the high 50s) but that we might see some roseate spoonbills nesting in the trees of one of the inland ponds. Unfortunately, we were not able to spot any of them either.
It was good to be back in shorts after being bundled up for a full month;)
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| we saw manatees right away in the marina, unfortunately, the water is not clear as it is so close to the bay |
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| two snouts popping up for air... |
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| my best pic of theses gentle creatures |
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| these iridescent fish were hanging out in the marina also, very cool |
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| heading down the canal in our 4 hour canoe rental |
Our only sighting of a croc in the canal itself was this foot long baby sunning on a rock.....
On our way back to the marina, he had turned to smile at us;)
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| lovely and calm....for a while then the wind picked up |
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| mangrove alley |
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| this young man was trying to do a little sun bathing but the clouds were hanging around |
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| after 3 hours of paddling Mike is still smiling |
Back at the marina area, hanging around an old dam separating the bay area from the canal, we found more crocs:
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| crocs teeth go every which way, from behind you can see one sticking out of the side of this ones mouth |
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| from the front, you can see he/she is fairly young at 5 ft long with those beautiful white teeth |
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| these two are very large and old with the one in back being ancient.....look, no teeth!! |
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| this close up shows how the lower teeth actually pierce the upper jaw |
this ospreys nest was right on the dam and she did not seem to mind the people checking her out. it was
still difficult getting pics of her as
she was not going to get up for us.
I'm thinking she was trying to keep
some eggs warm!
Though we did not see any roseate spoonbills at Paroutis Pond as we had hoped, we did see wood storks hanging out there!
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| woodstorks |
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| late afternoon light on a red shouldered hawk |
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