New Year in the River of Grass Part I

For the 2009 - 2010 new year, we headed off to the bottom of the continental U.S. to visit the Everglades National Park. On our

way down, we stopped at Myakka River State park, where the Florida ecology was already in evidence. Here we spotted alligators and egrets, before we headed of along one of the trails that cuts through the live oak and saw palmetto-ed terrain, which was alive with lizards. After walking through the forest, we got above it by visiting the park's canopy walkway. Because Florida is so flat, views like this don't come often. The 25 foot elevation walkway lets you walk among the spanish moss covered branches, while the 100 foot tower situated on one end gives you a sense of the landscape as a whole.

After grabbing some frozen custard at a ice cream cone shaped Twistee Treat, we found an empty beach to wander along and ring in the new year, and came across an abandoned wood carved duck bottle opener, which might have come in with the tide, we couldn't decide. The next day, we rambled on to Big Cypress National Preserve, and a walk on the Gator Hook trail. The trail was a bit rough and weedy, but we hadn't gone far before we spotted what we thought was a bittern in a marshy patch, but when I looked over pictures later, I decided it was really a juvenile green heron, which looks similar in the face and neck, but doesn't have the right body feather pattern.

After our short hike, we headed over to the Oasis visitor's center, which has a boardwalk overlooking the ditch that was dug to build up the road. Such ditches follow alongside many of the roads in this region, and are filled with water and alligators. Here, we had the normal compliment of egrets and herons, plus a few anhinga hunting in the water. The anhinga is probably one of my favorite Florida birds, because it is so fun to watch swim under water in their hunt to spear fish with their beaks. Of course, there are a lot of interesting and beautiful birds in Florida, so it is hard to choose only one.

Just a short drive up the road brought us to the Everglade's Shark Valley Visitor's Center. Here we were filled with wonder as tourists ambled along a paved walkway which was paralleled by an alligator filled waterway. Several of the alligators were sprawled right along the very edge of the asphalt. I was surprised at the total lack of concern most of the tourists showed the nearby predators. I watched as a handful of children tossed small pieces of wood onto the back of one gator, standing not more that 6 feet from it. Maybe they don't think they are real. But they are. As we walked along, we saw turtles surfacing for air, one of them bearing the marks of it's predatory neighbors. All sorts of birds perched hear and there. There was a snake sunning itself in a flattened patch of grass that was an alligator's preferred spot, and we even found a huddled, squeaking pile of baby alligators. Along the way, we ventured down the Otter Cave Hammock trail, which leads through the hammock along a limestone path, where the rock has had small tunnels eroded through it.

Shark Valley is at the top of the park. We now headed to the bottom. We arrived at Flamingo just as a storm began to roll in. We took an uneventful stroll around Eco Pond, and headed for the visitor's center just as the rain began to fall. We looked at the somewhat meager exhibits until the rain passed, then wandered over by the Marina, where we heard we might see an American Crocodile. And when we looked down among the slips, we did spot a crocodile, who rather than floating passively like the alligators, turned about in the water to watch us with interest.

then it was back along the road to Snake Bight trail. No, that's not a typo, this straight trail through a tunnel of trees leads to a bight, a sort of bay on a bay. But it was growing dark quickly at this point, so we didn't make it all the way to the end before turning back that night. When we returned in the morning,we were greeted by a small flock of ibis and spoonbills feeding in the mud and shallow water. After a quick stop to investigate a Mahogany hammock, which is basically an island of trees in the sea of grass, we headed on to the gumbo limbo and anhinga trails at Royal Palm.