The Everglades

Thursday 6th January 2010

Took our first trip into America’s ‘last frontier’, the Everglades. Before Flagler came in with his railroad, the Everglades started north of Palm Beach, now they don’t start until Homestead.

We were amazed at the amount of wildlife to be seen on the Anhinga trail. Just pulling into the car park we were amazed at the number of black vultures, only later to find out that these are intelligent birds that have learned that they have nothing to fear from humans in this area and one can get to within a couple of feet before the creature will jump back. Then we noticed that there was a dead one hanging from a post. This seemed very odd until Paul read that the bird had been found dead and was being hung there to discourage nesting in the car park.

We later heard one of the park rangers saying what a pest they are becoming with a liking for ripping the rubber from car wiper blades and window trims. He went on to say that he has seen them taunting the gators by pulling at bits of grass just inches from the gators nose. As soon as the gator moves, of course, they jump just out of the way.



The area is a true treasure chest of other wildlife; Great Egrets, Snowy Egrets, Grey Herons, Green Herons, Tri-coloured Herons, Anhinga, and of course, an abundance of Alligators with a few Crocodiles thrown in for good measure and all, more or less, oblivious to the humans wandering around.

We spent more time there then we intended just wandering round the boardwalks and the ‘Gumbo Limbo’ trail an area of slightly higher ground inhabited by various trees including the Gumbo Limbo tree, also known as the ‘Tourist Tree’, I did also see somewhere that it has many other common names but the only other mentioned was the ‘naked Indian tree’. The trunk of this species is a very reddish brown and the bark peels off in a similar way to sunburned skin.

Feeling pretty cold from wind we jumped back in the car and moved onto the Pay-hay-okee Overlook which is a short walk along a raised boardwalk above the swamp leading to a higher platform allowing a view of the Saw Grass Prairie all the way to the horizon with the odd clump of higher ground supporting a few trees. It was here that we came across a Park Ranger giving a talk to some other visitors. We arrived sometime after the talk had commenced but we got the gist of it; that this area is actually very fragile and how ‘man’ has impacted upon it, particularly with Miami just up the road and growing bigger almost every day . One of the party said that he had heard almost the exact same talk some thirty years before; he went on to ask ‘so what exactly is being done to protect the area’. The ranger only really came up with one thing that was currently being carried out and that is the building of a bridge to replace part of Highway 41, a road that was originally built back in the 1920’s to link the east and west coast. A bridge that is apparently costing some $80 million plus and that the local Indian tribe say is a complete waste of money as the bridge is a ‘tiny drop in the ocean’ compared to the length of the road. This tribe has tried to intervene by suing the government but the ‘powerful and the good’ overcame their objections passing a law to say they couldn’t sue. Good old USA, land of the free!

Time was passing so quickly that we decided to go straight to Flamingo, the most southerly part of this area, so named after the birds that the early settlers found there. Unfortunately, these birds that the early settlers wanted to honour were actually Rosette Spoonbills. Paul has had this idea about kayaking the everglades or, more realistically in this weather, taking a tour boat so when we saw that a party of people we just boarding a tour boat we hurried to the shop to make inquiries. This particular boat was actually going out into the Bay of Florida but we were promised views of much wildlife. She told us that there were a flock of white pelicans currently in the bay, that there was a good chance to see both Manatees and Bottle Nosed Dolphins and that it was going to be a beautiful sunset. We bought our tickets and jumped aboard.

We learned about the difference between the white and brown Pelicans, other than the colour. The white pelican feeds by swimming along scooping up its prey whereas the grey pelican flies high, spots his prey and then dives, entering the water with its back nearest to the water; something we have witnessed many times since arriving here. Sadly, this is way of hunting eventually leads to blindness and the bird ends its life by starving to death as he can no longer see his prey. Although we never got to see any manatees, the dolphins did come out to play in the wake of the boat and the sunset was absolutely stunning.





Friday 7th January 2010

Back into the park again today with our first stop being the Snakebight trail and a 1.8 mile walk through mangroves. The sun decided to shine today, the wind has dropped and the temperature has reached the 70’s. The yanks still work in ‘old money’ here but to us, modern Europeans, that means up in the 20’s. The trail ends at the ‘bight’ and into Florida Bay. It was a very pleasant way to spend the morning but when we got to the end, although it was very peaceful and beautiful as well as having the area to ourselves, we were disappointed to find that the only wildlife out and about were the mozzies, about 10 of which had lunch on me!

Arriving back at the car two hours after starting out we decided that this was the best day, weather-wise, that we were going to get for about a week so we headed back to Flamingo to see about hiring a canoe (I hoped I would stay dryer in a canoe than I would a kayak). The Visitor Centre ranger confirmed that the best place to paddle would be the part called Nine Mile Lake and that canoes could be hired there. Back into the car and ten miles back down the road, there were canoes there but no-one to hire them to us. Two guys who were just taking one out informed us that we had to rent them in Flamingo; there they would give us a key to the padlock, life jackets and paddles. So, back into the car, back to Flamingo, hire the gear, grab $5 worth of petrol, sorry – gas, or we wouldn’t make it back to Homestead, then back down the road and finally out onto the lake.



It is actually a vast nine mile lake but with many mangrove islands growing. The way was clearly marked and so – we have canoed in the Everglades. There wasn’t really that much wildlife and we have, by now, got so many pictures of Egrets and Wood Storks and so many of the other birds that it didn’t really matter. It was just fun to be canoeing the Everglades. Then, as we came into the last section, I noticed that the bank we were heading for had a very large Crocodile on it and as he noticed us he slipped into the water with such ease. Yes, that’s right, he slipping into the water that we were canoeing on, and he seemed to be coming in our direction. Although never really believing that he was coming for us, it was still a relief to see that he was actually swimming across our path to get away from us.




To see more pictures of the Everglades Click Here