Gator Country

As much as the latest storm tried to prevent it, I made it to Miami after only modest delay. Today I rented a car and drove out to Big Cypress, which is part of the Everglades.  The trip passed through an indian reservation, so I stopped and chatted with a native guide who offers airboat tours through the "Sea of Grass".  I may have to go back and try that.

But today, I wanted to take a walk in the Glades.  It was a reasonably warm day - about 70 degrees and sunny.  The glades are absolutely teeming with life, most notably birds life!  I saw hundreds of anhinga and cormorants, which means that the water was full of fish.  There were many different types of wading birds, from the large blue herons and snowy egrets to smaller colorful bank-stalkers whose names I don't know.  And quite a large group of buzzards were scrumming in a field, obscuring my view of whatever meal they were jostling over.

The walk was fun, although the section of trail I was on was rather dry and more brown than green (it is winter after all).  But the water was full of alligators, turtles and fish and the scrubby thickets with small wrens, mockingbirds and quite a number of orange and black butterflies of about 2 inches in width.  I took some pictures which I posted on a tab above.  Hope you enjoy them! BB