2019 Everglades Trip Part 1: March 8th.

Boy, we really needed this trip this year and there were no weather threats by the time our departure date rolled around. Andrea was sick, though. It's always something. But she soldiered on and we got up at 2:30 AM to get ready for our 5 AM flight. We pretty much had to tell the cab driver how to get to the airport but other than that, getting to South Florida was easy this time.

We got our car and headed straight to the Burrowing Owl place, determined to start our reptile, amphibian and bird counts right away. We got there by 9:30 AM and saw our first animal... a Burrowing Owl.

His right eye is funky...maybe he held in a sneeze.

More followed.


Along with the Monk Parakeets, we saw another illegal alien, but we're not xenophobic. Egyptian Geese have established themselves in the area now, too. It's our Lifer #181 and a hell of a good lookin' goose.


We'd made guesses as to what our first herp would be, figuring on Brown Anole or Green Iguana. No, it was another invasive, the weirdest snake of them all... the Brahminy Blind Snake.


Next up was a Green Iguana.


Then the Brown Anoles started in hot and heavy. I'll never tire of their variety of skins.




I followed a Brown Anole around a tree and spied, deep in a crevice, a Cuban Tree Frog. Yes, another invasive.

This shot was nearly impossible to get and I almost gave up. I'm glad I kept trying.

What's that up in the tree?

Oh, a handsome, dark-headed Green Iguana.


Check out the casque on this Brown Basilisk, another invasive!


I guess it was wise to wait until Andrea suggested "First one to find an actual native gets free dinner!" before flipping a piece of garbage and finding this native Southern Ringneck.

Check out that belly!


Back to the invasives, this Brahminy Blind Snake was massive. Relatively speaking. It was roughly the size of a small/ medium DeKay's.

Impressive for this species.

A few more Burrowing Owls...


From there, we decided to get some supplies. In the Publix parking lot, this male Boat-tailed Grackle was displaying to every other Grackle present. I'd never seen this behavior before.

I love these guys... even more obnoxious than Blue Jays.

We got to our next destination, a spot we'd discovered by accident last year. We'd studied up on it since then and were excited to get back. This Green Iguana was sitting near the water when I spied him through some bushes.


Next up was my first nemesis of the weekend, but not the last. Under a rock, there was a small frog, probably a Greenhouse Frog (also invasive). I had all kinds of chances to photograph it but just as soon as I snapped...

... he disappeared. Bastard. One missed species and I got no more chances for one.

Oh well, Andrea scared up this young, handsome Basilisk a short while later.


Further exploration of this place revealed some interesting habitat.


Brown Anoles were abundant and I didn't want to have a whole blog post just about them but I couldn't resist some specimens, like this redhead.

Wearing a vest of old skin and it's still gorgeous.

Under some concrete in the woods, we found a pretty pair of Southern Ringnecks.


A cutie photographing a "Corset Tree", as we call them.


There was a massive iguana deftly jumping around the tree-tops of this tree.

No, he's not in the pic, but what a lovely tree.

Attached to this park was another nature area that Andrea had researched over the last year. She determined that Gopher Tortoises were a possibility here. At any rate, it made for a beautiful walk.


There were loads of holes there in the ground that could be tortoise burrows, but our time of day was wrong.

It was early afternoon and it was very hot by now.

So hot, in fact, that we only saw Brown Anoles for a while.



We found some orange trees alongside the trail.

I shook a few down for future munching, though I suspected they were pretty unripe.


Well, we had no luck with Gophers but this stunning Brown almost made up for it.


We walked out a boardwalk and when we reached the end, Andrea said "I think we just found our happy place." It was filthy with turtles!


There were Red-bellies...



There were Penninsula Cooters...


There were Red-ears (invasive)...



A Florida Softshell even popped up.


They were all begging. Obviously, people had thrown snacks over the side before. This Mick Jagger fish was there, too.


Even this Catfish was begging.


We sat there, watching frolicking turtles and fish and bit into one of the oranges. It was very tart but it really hit the spot. (We'd both been craving lemonade anyway.) I thought that making some orangeade out of them at the hotel might be a good idea. (A know-it-all who also told us that Wood Storks were no longer on the "extinct list" told us they were sour oranges. I said I know... we just ate one.) Here's a flying Wood Stork, who I hear isn't on the Extinct List anymore.


We got a lifer bird next... we saw a Mottled Duck pair grooming under the boardwalk. #35 on the year and #182 Lifer.


A cool caterpillar of the Spanish Moth (Xanthopastis regnatrix).


Well, it was time to hit the road and we'd spent a lot of time out enjoying nature, so we'd have to face the music, or rather the traffic, to get to the motel. We hit the highway and sat for a bit. Eventually, we got to a Service Area on the turnpike on the other side of Miami to get some refreshments. We made a quick Ken-like friend.


Unable to stop myself, I sought out and found a few Brown Anoles there.



We got to Florida City, checked in to our motel and then went for (my free) dinner. We ate at a buffet until it got dark, then we headed into Everglades National Park for some road cruising. It had cooled to below 70° since the sun went down, so we didn't think we'd have much luck on the roads. We were right. Still, we went to our usual Friday night spot, about 15 miles into the park, and strapped on our headlamps.

First up was a pretty Mediterranean Gecko (yes, invasive).


We could hear Pig Frogs oinking away and eventually, we saw them. Photographing them without lighting up their eyes was impossible, but they still look beautiful.




We'd passed a truck driving slowly on the road and figured it was other herpers. While we were leaving, we all met up and despite trying to be cagey, we all knew what each other were doing. So we started talking about what we've seen here in the past and what we were looking for over the weekend. I'd mentioned that Amphiumas had been seen at this spot, though not by us. This crew was made up of young Floridians. While talking, the girl of the bunch ("her first time out") noticed a Narrowmouth Toad at our feet munching on ants!

Our first one in a few years.

We wished each other luck and we headed to our car. We'd only been out for about 20 minutes but this spider had already set up housekeeping on my door.

I gently removed him and we started to leave.

All of a sudden, one of the kids came running back out to the parking area... "we found an Amfooma"! We raced back to where the others were and sure enough, a large Two-toed Amphiuma was there, with his front half hidden under some muck.

He had come out from under the boardwalk while they were looking into the water! Obviously, we thanked them profusely for calling us back. It was our lifer, though getting great shots wouldn't be possible.

It's hard to see here but the head is way over under the grass on the far right of this picture.


While watching, this brave (stupid?) young Green Water Snake swam by, actually brushing against the Amphiuma.

He could easily have wound up being a snack.

We all parted ways, them to "hopefully see an Anaconda" (oh, to be young again) and we to head back for some rest. We'd been up for roughly 20 hours. We stopped at a few culverts along the road on the way out. One had a pretty Pig Frog.


At another, we enjoyed watching a good sized Brown Water Snake hunting for fish.


A Black-crowned Night Heron was also hunting there.


We got back to our hotel at about 11:30 or 12:00, burnt to a crisp and eaten alive by mosquitoes... but we felt great. We'd left 25° temps and landed in 75° temps and had seen 16 species of reptile and amphibian this day. Not too shabby. We would, however, have to take care of our skin the next day. The sunburns were epic.