2/4 Audabon Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary

I keep saying places are my favorites, but this one really is.  I have always tried to visit here whenever I am in Florida.  It is about 25 miles from the Gulf Coast, northeast of Naples.  Out of the way, but well worth a few hours if you like birds and plants.  

This is a list of the birds that were seen today.  Unfortunately, birding is best in the early morning, but I was on my way between campgrounds and did not get here until noon.

The boardwalk is a 2.5 mile stroll, although there is a shortcut that cuts the length down by half.  Lots of benches on the walk.  Please wear rubber-soled showed, however, and whisper so you do not scare the birds. 

This red-shouldered hawk was right at the beginning of the boardwalk. 

A group of us watched this raccoon snooping through the shallow water looking for crustaceans and anything else edible.  He was not at all concerned about the crowd he gathered. 

The sign said this was a rabbit's foot fern.  It leaves are ruffled a bit but not deeply grooved as Boston ferns, in the second photo. 

Boston ferns in much better shape than the ones I used to try to grow indoors.

Part of the boardwalk.  To the left is wet prairie and to the right are bald cypress trees.  They are called "bald" because they lose their leaves in the winter. 

Sword ferns, I think.

This is one of the largest bald cypress, but it has a strangler fig growing up its trunk.

Same free, but you can see how the strangler fig has reached almost the top.

Wet prairie.  Home to deer, bear, cougars, and all sorts of animals.

An unpolluted swamp will have crystal clear water and hardly any mosquitoes, because tiny dish eat mosquito larvae in a real swamp.  It should be think in plants and wildlife, including birds, lizards, alligators, snakes, mammals, and more.

Great blue heron.

This is swamp lettuce.  Not edible, however.

The purple gannanule is walking on the "lettuce" leaves.  He is looking for small minnows he can sneak up on.  He has multi-color iridescent feathers.

This is a little blue heron.  He is about half the height of a great blue heron and light enough that he also can walk on top of floating leaves and sticks.

 He also eats small minnows.  The minnows, which are very common in the swamp, eat mosquito larvae, keeping a healthy swamp fairly mosquito free.

And the only alligator I saw--but a really, really big one.  He is not only long, but very thick, so likely to be very old.

Look at the beautiful breeding plumage on the front of this great blue heron!  We don't often see this is northern states.  These and other wading birds once almost went extinct because ladies liked to put their feathers on their hats. 

And another raccoon doing his raccoon-things. 

Another section of the boardwalk.

You can tell how old the boardwalk is.  This tree grew right up to and over the railing. 

This green lizard did not like me looking at him, so he kept moving to the opposite side of the tree! 

1/28 Shark Valley Bike RIde

Shark Valley is part of Everglades National Park and not too far from Midway Campground.  It is very popular with bike riders because it has a 15 mile paved loop trail that goes to an observation tower.  You can take a tram ride, ride a bike, or walk on the trail, although walking 15 miles is about 14 miles beyond my capability!  Riding a bike is a very popular option, and if you do not own a bike, you can rent one from the visitor center.  I  got here as soon as it opened because parking for RVs is limited and got the second-to-the-last spot.                  

The visitor center is fairly new.   

This is what the loop trail looks like.  Not many bike riders in the morning, especially when it is foggy.

A great white heron greeted me.

This is a hunched over little blue heron.  He has a long neck and long legs, but they don't show up when it is sitting on a tree branch.

An adult tri-colored heron.  I have trouble distinguishing these from great blue herons because they are about the same size, but this one has a white breast and a little brown on him. 

And here comes the tram!!!  They are noisy and scare some of the birds away. 

And a pair of wood storks just standing around.

I got some good video of what I call the wood stork dance.  Click here to open it.

Another wood stork a couple of hundred feet away.  This one was next to the road and not happy when a pair of bike riders rode by. 

There were a lot of alligators, as usual.  The day started out foggy and then turned sunny, so more alligators came out in the afternoon.  I probably saw 30-40 alligators today.

Another section of the east side of the loop. This side is curvy and does not get as many people riding past, so it is quieter.

What in the heck is this??  The curved beak shows it is an ibis. I think it has to be a juvenile glossy ibis, but it looks almost black.

Ah, one of my favorite Florida birds--a roseate spoonbill.  They are slightly pink because they eat shrimp. 

This is an excellent view of this one's spoonbill.

These birds below really aren't Everglades birds, but they do hang out just about everywhere along the southern coast of the U.S.  The top bird is a female great-tailed grackle, and the bottom bird is the male great-tailed grackle.  Some people call them the parking lot birds because they are often found in parking lots.  They are especially noisy and have a repertoire of sounds--chirps, tweets, whistles, cheeps, and everything in between.  During breeding season, the males do everything they can to impress the females, so are funny to watch.  They strut, bow, fluff their feathers, raise their wings, and dance around, etc.  If they could turn somersaults, they would!!!

Smallish bird with black beak, black legs, and yellow feet makes it clear that this is a snowy egret!! 

Whoever said only birds of a feather flock together???  There are wood storks, ibises, a glossy ibis, and roseate spoonbills getting along nicely in this tiny pond.

Made it to the tower and looking along the straight west loop.

And a view of the more curved east loop.

One of several yellow-crowned night herons that were sitting in a tree.  These are small birds with short legs, so stand out among the long-legged herons and ibises.

This little flock puzzled me until I looked them up.  They are juvenile white ibis.  I am guessing they are last year's chicks. They must be from the same nest because they really stuck together. 

I think these are mud turtles.

This is an American bittern.  It has almost no tail and a short neck.

A green heron, obviously, since this is the only heron which is green.  He is smaller and shorter than a lot of the other herons, and rarer, so I was happy to see him.

Same bird, but all puffed up so you can see his green feathers better.  I watched him walk along the edge of the creek for quiet a while.

I rode my bike almost 16 miles and spent four hours here today!  I saw a lot of birds, but it really pays to go slowly and stop to just look sometimes.  A lot of birds were semi-hidden in the shadows, so not easy to see if you weren't paying attention.