This is one of my favorite places in Florida. A lot of people think of a swamp as a mosquito-ridden, smelly and ugly place, but this one should convince anyone how beautiful they can be. This one is the largest remaining tract of old-growth bald cypress trees and is full of huge ferns, orchids and other air plants depending on when you visit, birds, and alligators. This one has a 2.5 mile boardwalk, and is best visited on a cooler day, as you can get really hot on such a long walk. I took along a frozen bottle of ice that slowly melted and lasted me the almost three hours I was there.
Here are some photos. And surprisingly, it was not busy today, as I feared it would be, so the parking lots were almost empty. Nice to be there on a day when there were not a lot of noisy visitors scaring the birds away. Below is the entrance.
I had the whole RV and bus parking area to myself.
There is a very nice visitor center with a gift shop, rest rooms, and a snack machine.
This chalk board is at the start of the boardwalk, and people enter the birds they have seen on that day.
This is the start of the boardwalk, just outside the visitor center. If you want to see birds, you need to wear shoes with rubber soles and walk as quietly as you can, stopping occasionally to look and listen.
It is hard to show how tall some of these trees are.
This is an American white ibis. You can distinguish it from the white great egret because its bill is curved down, while the egret has a straight, pointed bill.
This boardwalk was built in the late 1980s, so this tree had time for its trunk to grow around it.
There is a variety of small changes in the height of areas inside the sanctuary. Just a few inches can cause different kinds of trees and plants to grow. The water level also varies by the time of year, which affects plant growth and whether or not specific birds can find a meal in an area.
This photo shows a tree with many branches of a strangler fig growing on it. What is interesting about this plant is that its seed germinates in the top of trees. It lives as an air plant until it can send shoots down to the ground, at which point, it becomes a free-standing tree. At that point, its shoots encircle the host tree, and it dies.
Two enormous cypress trees!!
More photos of the boardwalk. There are benches and places to sit in the shade, by the way, just in case the day is hot.
The tree has a strangler fig that has falled over and is now helping to hold the host tree up.
The photo above shows a great egret fishing and hiding behind a plant. Finally, I was able to get a better photo as it walked out where I could see it better. Note the straight beak.
The stuff floating on this section of the sanctuary is duck week, NOT slime. Tiny fish live in the water of this swamp, and they eat small fish and the larva of mosquitos, which helps control mosquitos.
This is the tail end of a little blue heron, but he refused to face the camera, so this was the best I could do!
And this is a great blue heron in breeding plumage.
This is an anhinga, aka snake bird because he his long neck makes him look like a snake when he swims.
And this is an alligator on a log. Some people said they saw teeth, which would make him a crocodile, but I cannot see teeth, and generally crocodiles live in brackish water much farther south in the Everglades.
Two more trees growing around the boardwalk! Their bark looks like it puddled on the boards.
Almost back to the visitor center. This area is swampy but full of grass and deer hang around here.
I plan on coming back here in January or late February. There will be different birds and possibly some flowers in bloom then.
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