We got to our destination at the seemingly perfect time and hit the trail. It was cool but the sun was up and warming things. Here come the EDBs and Brooksies! Well, except they never did. We saw nothing as we hiked 2 1/2 miles in, though it was lovely.
Well, wait... we saw lots of small lubbers.
Andrea found proof that at one time, reptiles did roam the area.
Finally, after about 3 miles of hiking, we saw our first Brown Anole.
In other words, we got there so early, the Brown Anoles hadn't even been out of bed yet. Another newly awakened Brown.
While cursing Matt, I said that I'd rather actually see animals than search for possible lifers, so when we got back to the beginning of the trail, we got back into the car and checked out some familiar spots, including a gully alongside a cruising road, where we found our first Florida Water Snake... the lovely pictiventris.
It was just a wee one.
Further down this road, we spied our first 'gator from the road. We pulled over and Andrea got this wonderful through-the-grass shot. American Alligator.
Spurred on by our desire to see more alligators and pad our annual bird count, we headed to a popular trail where both are usually in abundance. Plenty of humans here, but plenty of the animals that we sought we present.
Baby Anhingas anyone? (#31 on the year)
Alligators in their element...
We finally got our first turtles with a handsome pair of Florida Red-bellies.
We finished up this particular spot with a plethora of Brown Anoles of varying design, color and tail completeness.
On the way out of the park, we saw this small Red-belly catching some rays.
Of course, any visit to the 'Glades means a visit to Robert is Here. We stopped by to have some shakes and look at their animals.
Nothing to see here, kids.
We got our lifer Purple Martins, too. (#34, lifer #170)
They were busy trying to keep House Sparrows away from their nests.
We usually see a plump Tegu here but it wasn't around. Andrea pointed out an Agama, though.
No, not that one... the male!
Damn, that's a nice specimen.
There were many more Agamas here than on our last visit 2 years ago. I even got an Agama in my House Sparrow (#36) shot for the bird count.
It was now early afternoon and my plan was to get down to the tip of the park to see a Croc before it got too late, and to cruise the roads back after dark. That meant food now. We went over to a nearby taco place. It seemed like a safe bet for good food. I got the only non-meat thing on the menu... cheese enchiladas. The waitress noticed while serving us that the chef had made chicken enchiladas instead. She apologized, returned to the kitchen and later brought back my cheese ones. They were actually just some grated cheese sprinkled inside a tortilla. The green sauce was good but where the fuck was my melty cheddar? To hell with it, with Crocs on my mind, I ate them. Worst "enchiladas" ever.
After that, we headed back into the park. Our timing seemed pretty good. We made a few stops on the way down. Coming out of one turn off, we noticed a fallen road sign. That meant flippin' would happen. Much to our delight, there were some black coils underneath and we had an Everglades Racer to photograph.
A stub-tailed beauty.
We made it all the way down and were rewarded with an American Crocodile sighting... not an up close and personal one but we're always happy to see these rare beauties.
This second one was on the saltier ocean side of the marina.
The ever-present Osprey nest was there, despite probably taking a beating by Hurricane Irma (yes, we noticed a lot of Irma damage, especially this far down) and the couple had a chick! (#38)
We also had a brief manatee sighting, thanks to a couple (humans this time) who had been watching for them.
This Brown vexed me a bit... a little bit of a different look here and upon uploading the picture, I see some fringe on top of the tail. I've been told, however, that it is all Brown.
Outside of a building (that is closed... the roof came off in Irma), we flipped some limestone rocks. The first had a pair of Brahminy Blind Snakes.
Andrea noticed this Brown Anole napping inside a hole of the underside of the rock.
Next rock, two more Brahminys.
And the next... two more.
Six Brahminy Blind Snakes in the space of about 10 feet. Not bad.
This bit of wild kingdom was pretty amusing. A fisherman had thrown some (undersized?) sheephead fish out for the birds to enjoy. There were Laughing Gulls, Black Vultures and Crows dining on them. Two Black Vultures, probably siblings if you ask me, were less interested in the fish than fighting... nudging their shoulders into each other, trying to shove the other away.
The onlooking crow, now more interested in being an asshole than eating food, started egging them on, jumping at them, pecking and plucking their feathers. Things escalated.
They flew off, eventually, leaving the Crow to find new victims.
He eventually decided on a gull, on whose wing he stood, grasping and pecking, while it flopped there trying to get free. What an asshole.
Everybody finally ate in peace. The Crow had departed.
The shadows had become pretty long so we got ready for a night of road cruising. Our first find was a large Blue Crab that I thought had been squished but it side-stepped off quickly as I approached.
An hour or so of looping a certain route of road cruising didn't produce anything so we donned our mosquito gear and took a long, dark walk along a trail that went deep into the swamp, away from the road. Andrea looked quite sexy, as always.
We were well over a mile in before Andrea spied our first animal, a Cuban Tree Frog.
We'd gone in a little over a mile and a half before deciding to turn back. It just wasn't a very fruitful hike. Before too long, however, Andrea spied our main target on this path... a Scarlet Snake.
So beautiful.
Andrea dropped right where she was, in a swamp at night, in the dark, to enter the snake into the database.
Not 5 minutes later, she informed me that I'd just walked right past another Scarlet.
These snakes are a real treasure.
Feeling I had to contribute something, I finally noticed a small black squiggle in the path. We were surprised to see that it was a small Southern Ringneck.
Back in the car and out on the road, we saw this skinny Peninsula Ribbon Snake laying there.
I got out and snapped this picture as headlights bore down on me. I grabbed the snake, who latched onto me with its teeth, and took it to the side, showing it to Andrea as I did so. Of course, it was a park ranger. I got the usual stuff... no hooks, no collecting and don't handle them. Yes, sir. I know, sir. Of course, sir. He knew we were on the up and up but he had to do his thing, which I respect. (And he did catch me red-handed, moving the snake.)
Our next snake, a lovely Green Water Snake, needed no prompting to get off the road, thank goodness. He'd have made a large splat.
We were also treated to a couple of Southern gentlemen that we'd been missing so far... a Southern Toad...
and a Southern Leopard Frog.
Another Green Nerodia.
And another, that Andrea got up close and personal with.
A side trip to a resting area got us another Cuban. I also fell in a hole here. (Sorry, no picture.)
Another Green, perhaps the biggest of the night at about 3 feet.
We finally saw a non-cyclopion Nerodia in the form of a gorgeous pictiventris.
A wee Southern Toad.
We finally saw another Ribbon and had a chance to redeem ourselves with a better photo! Except the snake wanted nothing to do with posing.
I swear I didn't touch it. It's a trick of the light. *sigh*
That's a big Pig Frog.
We had seen a number of DOR snakes, a few Greens and pictiventris, mostly. a few anurans, as well. Not too bad, overall, and going in with the attitude that we know there will be some and we know the vultures will appreciate it, we didn't get overly upset. Such is life. Or rather, death.
One last stretch of road cruising made me stop for a stick bug. A Two-striped Walking Stick.
But wait... what the hell is this one? Look at all those legs! It didn't dawn on me at the time, it was a pair of Two-lines doing it as the female walked across the road.
I guess the first one was a confirmed bachelor.
Last animal of the night was a small Southern that I took to show to an exhausted Andrea in the car.
It was after midnight and we'd been up since 6 AM and we'd hiked about 13 miles during the day. Of course, it's usually the cruising that tires us out... staring at the road, going at a slow speed trying to see animals before you run them over.
That's a 15 species day right there. We were toast but very happy toast. Our weekend herp species count was at 19. I'd hoped we'd get 25 different species so we'd need to get a little more luck over the next two days. But for now, we needed sleep. We died off pretty quickly that night.
i missed you guys so much
ReplyDelete