Birds, turtles and alligators but no donkeys
By: Richard
Katrina and I recently visited the Florida Everglades and had a wonderful time. We were not surprised that there were no miniature donkeys but we were surprised that the area looked nothing like the image we had in our minds. There was no bayou like you see in and around New Orleans, no tropical jungle like you might find in Mexico or else where in the tropics, and there was not even a lot of water.
We visited in February which is a good month to get out of the cold up north and it is the time of year that there are a lot of birds in the Everglades. However, it is also the dry season in southern Florida. That is good from a visitors standpoint but it means that the Everglades are very dry and will be nearly completely dry in just a few weeks.
This year is dryer than usual which means the alligators are very much out in the open. Here are just a few of our photos. We know they aren’t miniature donkeys but if you love animals you should enjoy these images anyway.
Let’s start out with a couple of Love Birds, feathered……
….and not feathered!
Pelican looking for a meal, he found one just seconds later.
How many Pelicans do you see sitting in the tree? There are 3.
The Dolphins were more interested in feeding than entertaining.
This place next to the doc looks just like a movie set.
Mr. Turtle takes a sun bath.
Look closely for the bird.
Ok, here are some alligators. These are babies and only 6″ to 12″ long.
You can see mommy alligator just off to the left and babies on the rock. She will lay eggs with 40 or so hatching. Only 6 to 8 will likely reach a year old.
If you look closely you can see a couple of babies crawling on their mom’s back near her rear leg.
Not everything in the Everglades is camouflaged.
Look closely and you can see the baby bird just to the right of mom.
This is as much water as you will see in the Everglades in the winter. This was taken on a boat headed out into the Gulf of Mexico. You will find a few lakes or ponds in the area that will also resemble this. Most are only inches deep.
This is the most common site we saw in the Everglades whether we were in the north end or south end. During the summer (the wet season) this should be full of water but there will be few birds around and the alligators will be in the water.
This site was astonishing. Each of these alligators is 6′ long or longer! There are even more outside of the picture.
This bird just finished diving into the water for a meal and must now sit in the sun for a half hour to dry its feathers before it can fly again. Some birds have an oily coating on their feathers so they can fly immediately after coming out of the water but not this bird.
