The Everglades

Maria had a route planned, and she had researched several possible options and stops. It was a perfect morning, made even better by 130 black skimmers standing resolutely on the beach, all facing the sun. At one point there were four species in one field through the scope: sanderlings, Laughing gull, Snowy egret and a Royal tern which is a large tern, similar to the Caspian but with an orange bill.

We packed apples and water and binoculars and drove down through Bonita Beach and Naples and headed east on the Tamiami Trail, seeing dozens of Double-crested cormorants and occasional Anhingas perched on the telephone poles and Belted kingfishers on the wires along this route.

After a brief stop at Big Cypress Bend Boardwalk where we saw a catbird and an alligator, we went on to a little gem of a place that Maria had scouted out: Kirby Storter Roadside Park. It was a small nondescript area just off the Tamiami Trail with a boardwalk that began in the open and ended in deep swamp. Near the beginning, there was a chickee which are the simple shelters found throughout the Everglades and available for campers/kayakers/canoeists. They are open-sided with palm-thatched roofs. We saw a soaring Red-shouldered hawk and a tail-twitching Palm warbler but no other birds until we entered the trees when we started seeing suggestive teasing flights of birds which would disppear into the foliage before we could ID them. We did see manage to see a bright red cardinal deep in the sunlit greenery and a few yellow-rumped warblers and heard more but couldn't find them. We walked to the end of the boardwalk, to the "alligator hole" where we watched a snake moving over matted leaves on the surface of the water, a large turtle on a log, a small alligator swimming slowly near the boardwalk, a pair of Great egrets and a Great blue heron and another Red-shouldered hawk. One of the egrets was making a strange hoarse sound, stretching its long neck and displaying its plumes.

While walking back, a young girl exclaimed about "swans" just as Maria and Richard also realized there were two Great egrets and a WOOD STORK! The stork is a huge white bird with a vulture-like head and a long, heavy, decurved bill. It moved closer and spread its wings showing large black markings. It was walking, probing and sweeping its stout bill through the murky water. There was some interaction between the egrets and the stork; perhaps the egrets were courting and the stork was ava non grata. WhateVer, it was thrilling to watch these pure white birds in this deep green swamp. The herons especially move very deliberately and purposefully and gracefully through the mud and water, putting one foot carefully down in front of the other.

I saw a flash of blue and persisted in following twitching movements through the foliage and identified a Northern parula, an especially beautiful warbler.

A ranger told us about the panther population and how it is rising in the Everglades and how they find and inoculate the kits against feline distemper. There are usually knowledgeable folk around, either government employees or volunteers or citizens, all of whom are willing to share their knowledge of the local natural world.

We drove to Everglades City and took a boat ride through part of the Ten Thousand Islands National Park seeing bottlenose dolphins, American oystercatchers, White Pelicans, Ospreys on their nests, Royal terns and more ibises, herons and egrets. An aerial photo of lower Florida would show a million white birds dotting the landscape. It was now mid afternoon, and we were fatigued and hot and headed for home, seeing several alligators in the canals, looking like old tire treads, and at one quick stop along the highway, we saw a Common Moorhen and a Little blue heron, both new birds for me.

Watched the sun set as people walked and bicyclists rode the beach while Richard prepared a wonderful dinner of pork tenderloin medallions, cauliflower and sauteed onions and mushrooms.