Prettiness.
Our first stop of the morning was a walk along the canals outside of the Park. There had been a prescribed burn of one of the farm fields next to our spot so it was stinky and parts of the habitat was scorched. Andrea walked along the water and I stayed up by the bushes, such as they were. She spied our first Alligator of the trip and snapped a safety shot before we saw it slide into the canal.
All I had on my side were Brown Anoles, but I love them, so that's OK.
We'd reached our turning back point, about a half mile in, and went back, anxious to get into the Park. We walked back together next to the water. There was an interesting crack in the road ahead...
It was a handsome Peninsula Ribbon!
That was a nice start. We moved on, stopping to use some restrooms. We spied some young Alligators basking at water's edge. Not baby-babies, but pretty small.
Of course, one always has to have targets on a trip like this. One of the frustrating things is to set a target, then not see it or anything else. Such has been the case for the past 5 years concerning Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnakes. We know the habitat and have even been tipped off on good spots to see them (thank you, son) but have never encountered one. With a false sense of hope, Andrea even said the first one to find a venomous snake gets lunch bought. Fair enough.
We were walking a shaded area and I was about 20 feet ahead of her on the other side of the path when I heard her say, "Eeedeebee". She had just got herself a free lunch. Her initial view...
Now I'm no trophy herper but actually finding a target you've sought for years is pretty damn nifty. Andrea was full-on shaking.
We showed him to a birder who was nearby. He was impressed. The snake is a biggie... healthy and probably about 3 feet.
Well, Lifer achieved, where do we go from there? Well, we walked on. Next up was an Everglades Racer who sped into the brush. I did manage to sneak a shot through the bushes...
We left that spot to drive along and see if anyone was up warming. We stopped at a roadside channel to peek into the water. There was a small Banded Water Snake periscoping up to the top.
That made all three Nerodia already, having seen the other two the previous night.
Nearby was a bright Southern Leopard Frog noggin.
Jonesing for Alligators, turtles and birds, we headed to a popular spot where all three can be seen. On the way there, we saw a group of people stopped alongside the road. We got out to see what was up. They were birders looking for Brown-headed Nuthatches and they'd just found their target. I got a shot of it, Lifer #183.
We got to our spot and there were Gators a'plenty.
Another youngster!
Red-bellies were basking up a storm, doing yoga.
It looked like a new batch of Lubbers had been brought into the world. There were incredible amounts of them all over. You really had to watch your step and even then, it was a massacre.
We added some more birds to our count but lets face it... you go to Florida, you want to see Alligators. And we sure did. This first one is how I would bask if I was a Gator...
We had never seen turtles eating Water Lilies before but we spent a good 15 minutes watching this Red-bell go to town on one. It was hilarious.
Not far away, there was another giving it a go.
Even if Andrea hadn't found the lunch EDB, she'd have earned it by finding our first native lizard species, the formerly abundant Green Anole.
I was as happy to see this guy as anything we saw all weekend. They have all but been forced out of the area by the Browns.
We decided that we were hungry so we went back to town (it was now pretty hot and animals would be tougher, anyway) and had some kick-ass Jamaican Food (Yardie Spice). Then we went for a mouth-soothing Milk Shake at a popular spot on the way back to the park. It is known for delicious treats and invasive Agamas.
We enjoyed our refreshments while looking at their menagerie and spying a few wild lizards, including a second Green Anole (who was brown at the moment).
This guy was about 10 feet up a tree and it supports the theory that Greens have moved to higher ground due to the sagrei invasion.
The Agamas were pretty exciting to watch. This male was in amazing breeding colors... he looked surreal.
There were a half dozen smaller ones (all female? Not sure.) nearby.
At one point, he charged this smaller one. Male dominance display?
We headed back into the park, intent on going all the way to the end. We stopped again for a bathroom break and flipped some eggs outside. Anole?
Andrea caught a few winks while I drove the length of the park. I made a couple of pit-stops to check out some birds but we made it down to our destination in time to see what we wanted to, like this Crow cooing and mewling like a cat while begging for French Fries.
We were at the marina and saw some Manatee action but my only photo is this distant shot of one's barnacled head.
The real draw for me down here is the American Crocodile, of which we saw one.
We walked around a bit and saw some interesting stuff. This is a handsome pair of Brown Anoles.
This interesting spider turned out to be a crab.
We took a walk around a nearby pond while waiting for nightfall. I got my standard really good picture of Black and White Stilts in the waning light.
The sun was almost down and we were ready to go... except I'd forgotten to bring our fully-charged headlamps. Evidently, they were still on the hotel dresser. Oh well, not to panic... the marina store was still open and I grabbed two $3 flashlights and a (ouch$!) pack of batteries. Still, for under $20, we were ready to go.
Our first encounter was a nice pictiventris to whom we suggested the grass might be a safer spot.
Next up, I saw a snake in the road but a car was bearing down on it and me. Breaking the rules, I grabbed it and handed it to Andrea saying "Mangrove?"... obviously, I hadn't had a good look at it.
Mercifully, the car wasn't an officer to see we'd handled a Yellow Rat. (Last year, I got "busted" removing a Pen Rib from the road... I was humiliated.)
Speaking of Pen Ribs, they were our next two snakes.
We got to our walking spots and put on our usual target of Scarlet King Snakes and Scarlet Snakes, both Coral Snake mimics. The flashlights weren't great but they were better than nothing. Andrea did something I'd never encountered before... she farted and a Cuban Tree Frog hopped into view.
Now we've cruised frogs, walked frogs and shined frogs but this is the first time we'd ever farted a frog. Impressive.
We weren't having too much luck. Perhaps it was due to the poor light being shed by the flashlights. But on the way back Andrea stopped and said "What is that?"
Thinking she must be joking about Corals, I said "baby Scarlet" and covered it up to get it into photo-shape.
After looking at the pictures, I did have a question or two. This juvenile didn't have the orange head that Scarlets get and the snout looked pretty blunt, more like a Scarlet King. The best field test is to see if the belly is white or if the rings continue around but it had moved on. I thought Scarlet all day. This became a real interesting discussion at a few places on Facebook with all kinds of definitive (if contradicting) IDs were coming in.
When all is said and done, I'm sticking with my field ID of Scarlet. This overhead shot of Andrea's suggests a pointier, upturned snout that Scarlets have.
And that is that. It is not "Yikes! Indisputably an SK", asshole.
We saw one more Cuban in there but flatulence had nothing to do with it.
Back out to the road, we saw another Pen Ribbon, but this time with a meal in it.
It was good to see some live ones because there was quite a bit of roadkill this night and it was mostly Ribbons and pictiventris.
Next up was the most formidable beast I've seen in a long time. This Green Water Snake was pushing 5 feet and it wanted to kill me!
Nudging it off the road got my shoes and pants bitten and he was only just beginning.
I tried nudging him with a stick and he bit the stick. He lunged at me. He was not impressed with my attempts to help. No way was I going to pick him up. He'd have shredded me. Finally, he went to the grass and sulked.
A live pictiventris!
Andrea scored our first Moccasin of the year, just a wee one.
Another living, breathing, slithering pictiventris!
We'd made our way up through the park almost to the spot where we'd seen the Amphiuma the night before. This large Southern Leopard Frog showed us where to turn.
On the access road, this smaller one assured us we were going the right way.
We saw no Amphiuma but we were amused by the chorus of Pig Frogs.
Here's a Pig Frog tadpole sprouting legs!
Andrea spied this Brown Water Snake hunting. What a great photographer I am!
As good as my Amphiuma shot!
A couple more of the noisy Pigs!
What the hell is this sword-assed lobster bug?
Back out on the road, we saw our first Southern Toad.
It was a beauty and Andrea kissed it on the lips. Seriously.
Our last sight was our 30th species in two days, but not our FOY. A pretty Eastern Garter Snake was making its way across the road.
And that was that. We made our way back to our room, showered and died for a while. Daylight Savings Time was upon us and we'd be getting a late start the next day. But at 30 species already, we could afford to just relax and take the day slow.
mouth-soothing Milk Shake............. i READ......mouth-soothing milk SNAKE
ReplyDeleteyou's are getting in my head