Everglades 2018... Day Four: Monday, March 12th.

We awoke to pouring rain. I mean, we'd already had a wonderful trip so we couldn't exactly get upset about a rainy morning. We had planned on walking the canals this morning but decided instead to cruise the park for a while. You never know... rainy weather could bring out Box Turtles. For the second day in a row, we found a Brown Anole on the hotel grounds for our first animal. This guy was flipped.


Cruising got us no reptiles or amphibians but we were very happy to see a couple of dozen Wood Storks, a species we'd not yet seen.

We were worried that Hurricane Irma has harmed this threatened species.

The rain let up to just a sprinkle, so we headed over to a good Alligator spot for a last look at some crocodilians before we had to head back up North.




The Black Vulture Tree was in bloom.


We headed back to Robert is Here for another milkshake before hitting the road. (If we lived near here, we'd both weigh 400 lbs.) I'd seen an Agama stretched out in the light rain on the way in but it was gone by the time we left. In it's place was this Marine Toad who was poking its head out of a rat trap.

It seemingly backed up and out the rear of the trap. Species #26.

We drove North, in and out of heavy rain. It cleared a bit by the time we hit the Burrowing Owl place on the way back to the airport. We had plenty of time still, so we got out to look around.



We went back by the water to look for Iguanas and stuff and noticed the wind picking up and the clouds thickening. Andrea warned me that we'd better hurry. I kept flipping. Thanks to my tenacity, I flipped our first lifer snake of the weekend, a Florida Brown Snake. (Note the healing Green Water Snake blossoms on my thumb.)

Not much different than the Northern ones we have up here. This guy seemed to know what was coming next... he was bracing himself.

The skies absolutely opened up and it started pissing down. We made a break for a nearby tree.

The tree offered us little protection. The car was about 200 yards away and we made a run for it. We got soaked. The son-we-never-wanted was texting with Andrea and he said to get a shot of a Burrowing Owl in the rain because they look even more pissed that way.

I opened Andrea's window for a shot and she got more pissed as the rain fell into her lap. I turned the car around so my window came down for this shot.

Worth it.

Since it was a wash-out, we headed toward the airport. It let up while we were still on the way to the highway and I saw a little park and pulled in to it. Andrea needed facilities to look for Wood Frogs and, since the rain had stopped for a spell, we figured we could change into dry clothes. We looked around a bit. It was a lovely place with a pond, alligator and snake warnings and some birds and Brown Anoles (that avoided my camera). After changing, we headed back out. There was a little fountain before the road that I wanted to look at before heading to the airport. I'm glad I did.

I saw some larger-than-anoles skittering away as I approached the fountain. They looked like young Basilisks. Circling the fountain, I saw that they were basilisks, but I couldn't get a shot. This Brown Anole was sitting atop a corner of the structure, though, looking like a king.

That's all. That's all I wanted... one more herp.

But then Andrea noticed this young Brown Basilisk sitting below the anole.

And that was the beautiful animal that we ended our vacation on.

We got to the Ft. Lauderdale airport plenty early and it was packed. Lots of flights were being delayed and cancelled due to the storm up North. Most flights to Boston were cancelled. Our Delta flight was delayed by an hour (making arrival right at the predicted start of the storm) but we eventually made it on and got home in the pouring rain at about 2 AM. When we woke up after 10 AM the next morning, this is what it looked like outside.

We got about a foot all told. Thank you for sticking with it, Delta.

So we consider that a damn good trip, squeezed in between two big Nor'easters. As I finish up this post, we're expecting another blast tomorrow. We know how fortunate we are to have had that weekend together, in the sun, and seeing animals. 29 herp species and 27 birds.

Maybe, if this snow should ever melt, Big Night will happen up here and we can get 2018 under way for real. Today is, after all, the first day of Spring.