'Glades, Day 2. 3-9-2023

We got up at the ass-crack of dawn, even before we could get the free breakfast at the hotel. But as soon as that door opened, we loaded up, wolfed it down and headed into the park. But not before I flipped a Brahminy Blind Snake on the hotel grounds.

I'd also photographed a Mourning Dove in the morning light. Not a need-it for my count but it's a good picture, so... here you go.

We hit the park and headed to a road cruising place. A massive pile of poo (no photo) was still there from the previous night. Must have been a bear. We hoped to see an EDB but no luck. I did photograph a couple of Little Blue Herons (#38). The white one is a juvenile.

We walked our EDB path but it had no snakes. A few Brown Anoles hopped away. This (native!) Coralbean plant was pretty spectacular, though.

You know, touristy or not, we headed over to a popular hiking spot because, well... we just wanted to see stuff. Sure enough, there were a couple of school busses there. It was Thursday after all and some lucky brats were on a great field trip! We went in undeterred. Finally got a Brown Anole to sit still for a portrait.

This was quite a sight... there had been a Double-crested Cormorant (#42) tenaciously hunting and he finally brought up a catfish.

An asshole Cormorant decided that it would be easier to steal that one than hunt his own.

Unfortunately, the asshole won the tussle. The other one went back in to try again.

A big sleepy-time 'Gator.

Andrea spotted our first Agama of the trip. I was a little shocked to see one within the park but that's how it goes.

A lovely female Anhinga.

I spent a lot of time with this guy. He started out brown, then went green and he even threw me a dewlap. But this is my best shot of a wondrous Green Anole, hangin' tough in a world of Brown Anoles.

Another lazy Alligator.

A couple of fish... a small but beautiful Florida Gar.

An introduced and also small Butterfly Peacock Bass. Google these guys... they get massive!

A Florida Redbelly!

Now, those kids weren't too bad. They had lists to check off sights, like Alligators and certain birds. One kid pointed out a kite and I finally got a shot. I'd seen them before but never got a photograph, so Swallow-tailed Kite (#46) becomes Lifer #201. (I paid him back with a Turkey Vulture.)

A sneaky American Alligator.

A plump Redbelly... and yes, he was eating that flower.

See? We're seeing things! I'd rather see easy critters than hike my butt off and see nothing any day.

A huge Florida Softshell swam under us.

A handsome agitator.

Look at the shit-eating grins on these two Red-bells!

This turned out to be our last 'Gator of the week.

Purple Gallinules (#48) were well represented and I took many photos of them. Here's one. They have candy-corn beaks.

It was noon by now and we had to leave the park and get gas and milkshakes. Priorities, you know.  A  bright male Agama (Peter's Rock Agama, I believe) greeted us on our way to the 'shakes.

His less- gaudy girlfriend was nearby.

This Iguana had a nice hiding place.

A matched set of Agamas.

Upon reentering the park, we headed straight to the southernmost point in hopes of seeing a Croc. Hey, this isn't a Croc, it's a Brown Anole! A pretty one at that.

American Crocodiles are a pretty widespread species but the southern tip of Florida is the northernmost part of their range. We'd been lucky in the past and have seen them on every visit. They are pretty comfortable in the marina down there. But I didn't see one.

Until I looked as lot harder. There was a big guy resting under some foliage on the other side of the water.

I pointed it out to a woman who works on the dock and she asked if I'd see the baby. Wh-wha-what??? She pointed it out and for cryin' out loud there it was... way out there.

Look at the teefies!!!!

I just about died from the cuteness. She said they estimate it to be about 3 months old. I have no idea. If it was a Gator that size it would be a year or two. At any rate, it is probably my favorite sight of the whole week.

Another thing to look for on the other side of the marina is Manatees. We've seen them a few times but couldn't believe our luck this time. Four or five of them kept surfacing, once on either side of me at the same time. They are West Indian Manatees and they are fascinating.

This one was munching on some algae on the pole.

We tore ourselves away from there to walk a little bit at dusk on a trail that was very good to us last year. Inevitably, we saw no critters but it was lovely watching the sun sink in the sky.

We wanted a snack, so we went back to the marina and got an ice cream and sat outside, listening to the Ospreys squawk as it got dark. Our little Croc pal had retreated to wherever he was going to spend the night. It was a heavenly half hour we sat there as the dark enveloped us.

Once it was dark, we slowly drove north. It was a full moon so the likelihood of anything being in the road was slim, but we drove about 25 mph anyway. We finally got to the trail we'd planned for our night walk. We sprayed down (a $12 can of bug spray was used up in the three days we were there) and put on our mosquito clothes. We looked stupid and couldn't see very well but we got zero 'skeeter bites that night. (I got a dozen on my back the first night.)

We headed in, headlamps flaring and before too long, Andrea spied a beautiful Garter Snake. This almost made up for the DOR we saw the previous night.

Right here is where my camera battery died. No worries, Andrea had hers. It's a good thing, too, because we saw another Garter soon after.

We'd never seen a Garter on this trail before, now there was two! A third was seen but I didn't get a shot, not being used to that camera (which was my responsibility now).

This surprised me... a Southern Leopard Frog. The water on the side of this trail must surely be brackish but this guy didn't seem to care a bit. I'd shined his eyes from about 30 feet away.

We always see a bunch of Cuban Tree Frogs on this path. Here's one of them.

This path is our best bet to see Scarlet Snakes, so I said to Andrea, "find me a Scarlet!" Within a couple of minutes, she did just that.

She's got a gift.

Then, as if she needed anything more to prove her superiority, she found a tiny Narrowmouth Toad!

I could only chip in with another Cuban.

That's all we saw while out and about. That night hike had skunked us last year but this year, we're quite happy with our finds. After that, we slowly drove back up but saw no critters in the road. The moon was full and red and was really beautiful. We had brought our reptile and amphibian count for the two days up to twenty species.

I closed the night with a football sized Bufo at the hotel's goldfish pond.

We were exhausted and slept well after showering off all of that Bug spray and sweat. Mmm... sexy.