Glades

Jan 30 – Feb 2, 2012

This is our 4th yearly trip to the Everglades National Park. The photo above is my first attempt at a panorama… using Photoshop CS5’s photomerge feature. Who says you can’t teach an old dog? Each year, we’ve discovered something new and wonderful. Last year, it was Snail Kites at the Stormwater Treatment Area off Hwy 27 (south of Lake Okeechobee). This year, at the same spot, the water level was very high, and we saw herons and masses of coots and ducks, no kites.

The trip began with a good exercise in patience. Bonnie and I drove to Cape Coral hoping to get a glimpse of a Burrowing Owl. Cape Coral, which made national news because of the enormous number of foreclosures there, is also home to the largest concentration of burrowing owls in the state. Well, in the world, they say. We found plenty of burrows, each marked by a cross shaped perch where the owls can hang out and watch for predators and prey. We parked in the library parking lot (it was Sunday, and the lot was empty) and waited. And waited. There’s about nothing as boring as waiting next to a burrowing owl’s burrow. I counted the number of people walking their dogs. We waited from late afternoon to sundown without seeing an owl.

The next day, we spent the morning at Audubon’s Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary, and drove to the Travelodge in Florida City that afternoon. On the way we detoured through the Okaloacoochee Slough State Forest (Co. Rd. 832), which was wonderful, teaming with hawks, American Kestrels and wading birds. The photos below are from the national park, our final destination.

Great Egret in a great clump of bromeliads

Snowing egret with breeding plumage

While I was photographing the egret, this gator ambled onto the bank a few feet away...

American crocodile sunning on a bank at Eco Pond.

I think this is the same Little Green Heron I photographed a year ago!

American Bittern camouflaged in tall grass. These were the first photos we've been able to get of Bitterns.

Little Pied-billed Grebe shakes off water.

Cormorant wing. I've been looking for images that might translate well into black and white.

Walking on water: Snowy Egret hunts for minnows.

It's Anhinga nesting season. Here, the male and female prepare to switch spots on the nest.

Always fun to watch the Purple Gallinules.