Our Saturday began early, especially when you consider we were up until about 1:30 AM. But we rolled out of bed and grabbed some swill from the hotel and headed back into the park from some morning road cruising, now armed with an $11 can of bug spray.
Early morning is always good for birds and we checked off plenty of them. One pleasant surprise was this Blue-winged Teal (#40) who was hanging out with some Coots. I'd never photographed one before, so it is Lifer # 197.
We parked to walk "our" EDB place, but saw none. But we continued walking out along the water and saw some pretty critters. These Halloween Pennant Dragonflies were everywhere.
The first photographed "herp" (although plenty of Agamas were flitting around the hotel grounds as we were leaving) was this nice Brown Anole.
A small Alligator was in the water about 15 feet out. Not an easy shot, but here he is.
We didn't get to go too far out this trail because of some work being done at the end of it. I shudder to think about what might be happening to the habitat.
We hopped into the car and went to a well-known touristy spot that is usually full of 'gators. Unfortunately, there were school busses full of kids there. Oh well, we picked this time, so we went about our business. This Anhinga (#42) echoed our sentiment.
There weren't a ton of Alligators present this time, but we did see a few.
My personal favorite part of the morning was finding a relatively secluded spot, where the din of humanity was a bit more subdued, and watching a couple of Red-bellied Cooters attempting to feast on Spatterdock lilies. Enjoy my montage.
He eventually got the whole thing in his belly.
A Pleco, the armored catfish. Also an introduced species.
A stunning, posing Brown Anole.
And, a couple more Gators. Believe it or not, our last ones on the trip.
From there, we opted to cruise a little more. One amusing thing was this- a Red-shouldered Hawk (#45) was perched on a wire, so we photographed it, thinking it's face looked like a Kestrel. Then, we saw a Bluebird, which was actually a Kestrel (#47)! Man, our sizes and brains were all mixed up.
We decided to head out of the park for a while and get some real food into us. Before hitting the road, I managed to flip a Brahminy Blind Snake. Tenacity had finally paid off.
We got some delicious Yardie Spice and took it back to our hotel to munch and relax during the hot afternoon (It was 90° out there and critters would be laying low.) Except the Agamas. They were having a blast. I was watching them from the hotel window. These guys were saving a parking space.
I saw a Cattle Egret (#48), much more ubiquitous now, after 3 years, strutting through the parking lot, head held high. Though the picture isn't great, it captures the silly gait and there's a bonus Agama on the sidewalk.
This Agama was making sure nobody fucked with my rental car.
Bellies full, we headed back to the park in hopes of getting to the tip by about 5 PM. Well, we did. We added a few more birds along the way, then hopped out when we got to the marina and saw our old pals, the American Crocodiles.
This second one was massive and enjoying a float until a boat of super loud, obnoxious people scared it away. This was the best shot I could get before the Loud Family got there.
Here's another loud family, but I loved these guys! An Osprey (#52) nest!
We went to walk a pond that we often see birds at and have been told of reptilian wonders around it, but the pond was nothing but thick mud and algae this day. It was a bit depressing. I photographed a Brown Anole whose head you can see through to cheer myself up.
Feeling a bit overwhelmed and tired, we pulled into a shady parking space far from the maddening crowd and rested for a while, watching Crows and Ospreys flitting around and getting philosophical. (Andrea: "You ever stop to think that our voices are just a part of a butterfly's everyday soundtrack?") Yes, we were quite tired.
After a rest, we headed back to the road to do some dusk cruising. Much to our delight, a young Scandinavian couple was parked along the side of the road and they had something in their hands... we pulled over and saw the woman had a Florida Box Turtle wrapped in a towel in her hands. They declared that they had almost hit it and were delighted to have saved it! We told them about the species. These two were cute and charming as hell and I told them they were my favorite people of the weekend. They posed with it and we got some shots of it, too.
That made my day.
Cruising wasn't the best time we'd ever had. Flying bugs were savage and clouds of them swarmed in the headlights. I only post this Cuban from the road because I was attacked in force by insects when I ran out to photograph him. Not a great shot, but a heroic attempt!
Sadly, there was a bit of road-kill in our travels. We saw a DOR Scarlet and a couple of Moccasins. We finally saw a live squiggle and ran up to photograph this Peninsula Ribbon Snake.
With large amounts or $11 bug spray and mosquito jackets, we ventured into the path where we often see Scarlet Snakes at night. At least one had been out this night. (It was a full moon and sometimes things don't move as much, I'm told. The moon can pull the tides, why not snakes?) Well, we went in about a mile and saw no snakes. Only Cuban Tree Frogs. But they're cute enough to get some quality shots...
And that is where our cameras turned off for the night. Our drive back up and out of the park was pretty depressing. We saw about ten DOR snakes... Moccasins, Water Snakes, another Scarlet... I know people with similar hobbies to ours love the road cruising, but I'm afraid that it isn't my favorite. Driving so slow (with the possibility of being pulled over by rangers for doing so), seeing so many deceased animals and just the always bleary-eyed concentration. I'd rather walk up a critter.
So, we had another 1 PM night. One more day. Just Sunday left. What would that bring?
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