2019 Everglades Trip Part 3: March 10th.

Since we'd already surpassed our species goal, which was 26, we decided to take our time and relax for the next couple of days. 30 species was pretty good and since we were in Florida, why not just relax and look at Gators and Turtles. We headed out late (slept in/ Daylight Savings Time) to go to a part of the 'Glades where we can do just that.

Of course, our lateness made us miss a space in the parking lot of an actual park, so we stowed the car up on the road and walked in. It gave us a chance to see a few Gators in person, rather than from a car window.



There was a big Softshell cruising along, too.


Now, this place is filthy with both Peninsula Cooters and Red-bellies. Most shells are covered with algae and if you can't see the Pen Coot's "hairpins" or the Red-bell's "cusp", you just can't ID too easily. And do they hybridize? I dunno. So, that said... here's a turtle.

Probably a Red-bell. Maybe.

This little nipper is a Pen Coot.


A pretty Anhinga.


This little Yoga guy looks to be another Pen Coot. He was small and adorable.

Better watch out... there are tons of large fish in here! Florida Gar up the ying-yang.


This Brown Anole was warning me to get away from his Lubber Lunch.


Portrait of a young Red-belly.


Lazy Sunday swim time.

See, now this is what I'm talking about.


A stack of chelonia. I think the 2 left are Pen Coot and the 2 right a Red-bells. Note the small Red-bell has his head stuck under the other's butt.


Bellies of Red. (Clearly cusped)




Coot of Pen. (Visible hairpins)


Hey, what the wha??? Who told a Softshell it could get up and bask?  I'd never seen ferox doing yoga before!


Just like the day before, we saw Red-bellies eating Water Lilies. I'm super-pleased with this shot!


This guy gave us quite to look.


We saw these two babies on our side of the water...

Of course, Mom can't be far away and she wasn't. She was snoozing on the other side.

But what's that on the shore, above her arm?

That's a whole pile o' babies!

We'd walked out about a mile and decided to turn back. This Alligator was our turning spot. We could have booped him if we were really stupid.


An old-timer, probable Pen Coot. Or Red-belly.


This Limpkin flew over to our side and posed long enough to become our Lifer #184, #52 on the year.


We took some sheltered trails, sat for a bit and resumed up a different path. There was a group of picture-takers gathered 'round ahead. What were they looking at?

Piles of babies! This one had the best seat in the house...

A Snowy Egret (#53) thought about it but mercifully didn't try to pull the trigger.


What a treat to see so many babies!


Keeping with the little on top of large theme, this young Pen Coot was trying to bask on a big Red-bell.

He slid off when the RB swam away.

We were ready to move on/ get lunch so we headed back to the highway and our car. Still, there was plenty to see along the walk. Like another Softshell...


Friendly neighbors.


I've got these last two in as tentative Red-bellies.



We went to the restaurant (Dutch treat... no silly betting games this day) and after, looked around the back. We'd flipped a skink there over a decade ago. There was a board, which I flipped. A Red-headed skink (Broad-headed?), about 6 inches long, darted out and into a flattened box nearby. OK... I got you now! I went to the box, carefully opened it and the skink jetted out and went under a dumpster. To add insult to injury, a small brown Gecko ran right over my hand to hide, too. Damn!! I had to console myself with a shot of a few Double-crested Cormorants.


We went further down the road in this region, and headed to a fine Gator spot. Our first sighting there was a ferocious Brown Anole.


Below the raised boardwalk, Alligators were plentiful.





A Brown Anole looked down upon the Gators... "eh, I could do that."


This one was eating a strawberry or something...


This one was being a nosey neighbor, peering at my beautiful wife.



From there, we drove the back, dirt roads for a while, adding a few birds but seeing no snakes. Last year, we'd seen Moccasins and Racers here but it was quiet this night as the sun went down. Before hitting our after-dark cruising area, we snapped a few twilight Alligator shots.



It finally got dark and we headed into our cruise spot... 24 miles of dirt road through the middle of swamp. We're almost always completely alone here, though the kids we ran into Friday night said that bandits like to rob people here now. I wasn't too worried but it set Andrea on edge.

Not too far in, we saw our first snake of the day.. a Brown Water Snake.

Andrea bent all up for a good shot...

The fruits of her contortion...

Finally, we got decent Brown Water Snake shots.... our other two sightings were in the water.

Hey, now... a Southern Toad and my more conventional photo-stance.



Next up, a small Yellow Rat (still with saddles) cozied up to Andrea.



The Pig Frog of the Opera.


From there on out, we only saw a few Southern Toads. (Andrea did not kiss any of them.)



What a difference from the night before, when things were moving all over the place. The temps were the same and the moon phase wasn't much different. It's interesting. Damned if I know what makes wild animals do what they do.

Speaking of the moon... here is a cool shot of the sky and crescent moon that night.


The lack of movement was good for one thing... we only saw a couple of massacred snakes on the highway home. In the past, it has been a bloodbath. In the end, we're quite happy with our day's finds. No new species (damn Skink!) but tons of beautiful animals. A good Sunday. And only one (half) day left!