Everglades National Park
This morning and yesterday morning, we got up early and went exploring. We headed to the Everglades, which are really very close to us. First we visited Chekiko, a rarely used entrance to the park which is only open a few months of year due to flooding. There we ran into a kind and chatty ranger who gave us all kinds of information. We spent that morning searching for specific animals to fill in the Bingo game she’d given Ingrid. It was a beautiful little spot, just some picnic tables, an alligator pond, and a series of short nature trails. We did indeed see a couple of alligators, some herons and egrets, big snails growing on trees, and lizards. It was a little strange, but very nice, to be the only people there!
Today we drove to Shark Valley and took a two-hour tram ride through the Everglades. It was a little slow paced for Ingrid but we got to see tons of wildlife. Great blue herons, snowy egrets, great egrets, white ibis and glossy ibis, turtles, adult and baby alligators, rosiette spoonbills (pink birds with a spoon shaped bill!), American storks, a red shouldered hawk, anhingas, two kinds of vultures. Those are just the ones I can remember. See all of these in our photos below. It was amazing to see how many different animals were hanging out together within a space of just a few feet. It looked like someone had purposely placed all these animals there together, but of course they just exist that way in the wild. Often we would see egrets standing only a foot or two away from an alligator! Weird to see knowing that an alligator will readily eat an egret. They only eat about once a week, but still! The ranger told us that an alligator can run twenty feet in two seconds!
The ranger talked a lot about the connection between different plants and animals, how each depends on the others. About what John Muir had said, touch one thing in nature and you’ll find it’s connected to the rest of the world. I had one of those wow moments in realizing how true this is here. Seeing the ethereal beauty of the Everglades and understanding how easily it can all be destroyed made me feel like never buying a disposable bottle of water again. It’s sad to know that there is a detectable level of mercury in every type of plant and animal here. I sincerely hope that it will look the same as I was priveleged enough to see it today, for many many more years.
I’m so happy that we finally got out to see the Everglades. The weather’s been uncooperative and Andrew’s been so busy with work, but we’re leaving Florida at the end of the week and it’s time to squeeze in any last important must-do’s. I also have snorkeling at Biscayne Bay on my list, but the weather service says thunderstorms, thunderstorms, and more thunderstorms. I’ll probably have to let that one go, until next year.
