A very short trip in the Everglades

goofry

On a recent trip to Miami to Naples and Fort Meyers, I took a couple of hours to see what wild life I could find in the swamps of South Florida.

My first stop was to the Frakahatchee Strand state preserve. This was the first guy I came upon. I took a short walk into the mud to get as close as possible.



He let me grab a few shots before he had enough of me and headed off...


Next up was the boardwalk. I kept hearing more Hawks and several owls, but couldn't spot any. I made my way to the end of the boardwalk and got a shot of this little guy:


On the way back to the parking lot, I took a look at the eagle's nest. Nothing going on there. But alas, not far away was indeed an eagle. No great in flight shots, but I was happy to actually see this one in the wild.


By the time I made my way back out, the sun is on it's way down and I am too far away from any other parks to get any more shots.

So the next morning I get up at 5:00 am so I can make it out to Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary just NE of Naples. I make it there by 7:00 am when the doors open. Now I must say, given more time, I could easily spend the whole day here. But I only have 2 hours before I have to make my way back to Naples to visit some customers. This place is cool with 2.5 miles of boardwalk through 4 different areas of the swamp. At 7am, I am actually out before most of the wildlife, but you work with what you got. Oh, and I got rain this morning as well. Anyway, about halfway through the walk I start seeing more wildlife. More of that in the next post.

goofry

Here's a shot of the boardwalk at Corkscrew.


One of the first birds I saw...


Next up was an Anhinga..

and two more taking a nap..



In the same area were a few Herons..






More to come...

goofry

Near the end of the boardwalk loop, I start heading through the pond cypress when something catches my eye. I stand still for a while hoping that what I just saw fly away will come back around. I'm in luck, another hawk flies right overhead and lands.





Probably the coolest part of watching this hawk was that it was obviously working on a nest. In the next picture, you can see it pulling on a branch trying to snap it off. It only took a few tries and off it went.





Well, that's about it for the wildlife.

I'll leave you with a few images of the flora as well.





Thanks for looking.

Leslie

It is so good to see that the water is back at corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary! I was there this past July and it was bone dry.

I like yout little blue herons (well I think they are little blue herons). Here's one of my shots from an earlier visit:

Leslie

I'm not sure why my picture isn't posting...oh well..

Andy

Leslie wrote:

I'm not sure why my picture isn't posting...oh well..

Because you used a lightbox link, not a share / embed link

Lightbox:

http://www.lesliemarsh.smugmug.com/gallery/1369669_xnqUq#64613092_D9LTc-A-LB

Embed:




looks like this, ignore the *. You get this from the "share" photo button.

Help: http://www.smugmug.com/help/picture-sharing
[*IMG]http://www.lesliemarsh.smugmug.com/photos/64613092_D9LTc-M.jpg[*/img]

Leslie

Thanks Andy!

zacker

nice shots, the one time we tried corckscrew swamp, we got there 15 minutes before it closed so they wouldnt let us in, it was our last day in Fl and we were staying up near Ft. Laurderdale so we had about a two Hour ride home...lol mabye next time!

We did spend every day in and around the glades though...great place!!!

goofry

Leslie, I like your shot of the gator. Actually, most of Corkscrew was still dry. The only water I saw was in the Cabbage pond area. I would love to see this when it is full of water.

Zacker, I'm sure you were bummed not getting in. They sure seem to make a point that they are not staying past 5:30. I think the next trip I make I will plan on at least a whole day off work to maybe go to Big Cypress or Everglades City. This area seems to have so much potential.

Thanks again for looking,

NomadRip

I was at Corkscrew for the first time last weekend, too. It was ll dry except for the lettuce lake area, and it was pretty dry, too. Beautiful pictures!

goofry

NomadRip wrote:

I was at Corkscrew for the first time last weekend, too. It was ll dry except for the lettuce lake area, and it was pretty dry, too. Beautiful pictures!

I was actually surprised by how dry it was. I know it's the dry season, but you are right, even the Lettuce lake area only had a little water. I would think this place would be pretty amazing in the wet season.

Thanks for the comment on the pictures. I wanted to get so much more, but only having a couple of hours each day was not much time in this expansive space.