Our usual 3rd day in the 'Glades used to be Big Cypress. Andrea decided that she didn't want to spend the day in the sun there, so we opted to walk trails in ENP. Our hope was to walk up critters rather than road cruise, which had been a bit distressing the night before. We rolled out of bed before the Agamas, grabbed some breakfast and headed to the car. The Agamas were then up and getting ready for the day.
We decided to hit a trail in ENP suggested by our pal Bob as a morning walk. We got there a bit later than we'd have liked but it was fairly shady. It's a little over a mile and a half in. On our hike, we saw dozens of Brown Anoles skipping out of the path. Here is one that sat still long enough for a shot.
An interesting bit of flora... the Guilandina bonduc and the Nickernuts within the pods. They were all over. I tried to grab a pod to throw at Andrea and I got a pricker. Served me right.
It wasn't too long before Andrea said, "Here's something... a Racer!"
Shore 'nuff!! Look at that cute face!
Not much further in, she found another Racer! A neatly folded one, at that.
After the day we'd had on Saturday, with little sleep and a lot of sun, we took our sweet time on Sunday. We finally reached the end of the trail and rested for a bit. Some Brown Anoles kept us entertained.
We headed back, moving a bit slower since it was getting warmer. Andrea had one more trick up her sleeve... she yelled out, "Rat!"
Man, she was on fire! This was easily a 5-foot Yellow Rat Snake and pretty as hell!
From there, we went back to the marina. It was the first time I'd ever been there when the Crocs weren't around. At least we'd seen some the day before. There was, however, a sandbar not too far out in the water, it being low tide. There were a bunch of Brown Pelicans (#54) having fun out there.
Our Scarlet Snake trail. We'd been told by more than one person that during the day, a certain spot was good for Pygmy Rattlesnakes. My friend Ryan took the trail during the day last month and said it is true. He made me promise to walk the trail in the day. I didn't think I could. I was already toast. It is the same length as the trail we'd walked in the morning... just over a mile and a half. I didn't want to do it.
Andrea did.
OK, I plodded on. It was the first time we'd walked that trail in sunlight. Oddly enough, the mosquitoes weren't present. It was a pleasant and beautiful hike. It did, however, seem to go on forever. I was fatigued. People coming back said we were getting close. Some also said "it's not worth it". But we went on. And then it started raining. We donned our little plastic ponchos, mostly for the cameras' sake.
When we got to the (very muddy) end, we sat on benches on the dock in the rain. This sad bird, that I couldn't identify, had a crab's claw stuck to his beak.
Turns out, he is a Yellow-crowned Night Heron (#55) and he is Lifer #198. He did get the claw off eventually. What a face!
The rain let up, then started again, off and on. We enjoyed the end of the trail... it was muddy and not as full as it usually is, but it was cool. We saw a Horseshoe Crab swimming. Then we headed back.
While I was carefully stepping through the mud, eagle-eyed Andrea struck again. "Lifer"...
She had just found us our first ever Dusky Pygmy Rattlesnake. For the species, it was pretty big, maybe about 16 inches. He was poking his nose around, foraging.
Eventually, he settled into a nice coil to relax.
Well what do you know? Everyone who said that were right!
We hadn't gone on much further when Andrea saw a Florida Box Turtle in the brush. The rain had brought him out to look for snacks.
Then, another!
I finally chipped in with a snake when I saw this Drama Moccasin.
Dramoccasin.
I'm not going to lie... the last mile of that hike was very tough to take on our tired legs. I saw one Racer slide away but couldn't get a photo. We took our time and eventually got to the car where we rested our bones and drove back to the hotel, which was still roughly 45 miles away. There was a rainbow following us for a good portion of the drive.
We ate our leftovers from the day before and I, personally, was asleep by 8 PM. Road Cruising wasn't going to happen and neither of us were too worried about it.
So, we mixed it up by not going to Big Cypress but than seemed to really work in our favor. In all, we saw 22 "herp" species, with two Lifers (one native, one introduced) and added 27 birds to the 2022 count, including two Lifers. I mean, some could have been photographed up here, but so what?!
We usually booked a late flight for Monday so we'd have another half day to poke around but this time, our flight from Ft. Lauderdale was at 10:30 AM, so we had no time to fart around. My only photo of the day was a Brown (?) Anole that was soon replaced by an Agama.
On the way out of the parking lot, I saw some Myna Birds, a species that I couldn't get on camera earlier. But my camera was packed. Oh, well.
It felt great to get back after three years. Some changes were good, some weren't so good but the Glades remain one of the Earth's real treasures. There is nothing like them anywhere else.
Wow so impressive love the photos
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