Day 33: February 2nd - The Everglades

Partly sunny, warm 82 degrees, calm 

Anhinga Trail - Everglades National Park

        When you visit the Everglades, the first place to explore is the Anhinga Trail.  The boardwalk winds through a swamp brimming with big gators.....a major plus id you are a bird buiding a nest and getting ready to start a family.  Trees surrounded with water filled with the hungry reptiles makes for prime real estate for breeding birds.  Amy predator with an ounce of self-preservation will not chance an encounter with these toothy beasts just to grab an egg or a chick.  There is surely a more inviting environment in which to seek out your quarry, and so the area of Anhinga Trail is a photographer's dream.  Folks wander through this part of the refuge 365 days a year and the birds are virtually oblivious to their presence.  It is not unusual to be able to approach a cormorant, or an anhinga, or green heron to within 5 or 6 feet without raising any concern with the birds.  With so much to offer, we ended up spending several hour walking the boardwalk an thanking our lucky stars that we are shooting digital and not paying for all this film!
      One of the premier subjects of the day was a beautiful anhinga with eyes which looked like she just made a commercial for Revlon.

Anhinga on the nest

      Of purse, all this courtship can drum up an appetite.  Check out the video of this ravenous bird taking on a meal almost as big as she is.  We wondered if the bird had what it took to ingest such an ample portion, but as seen here, the bird was up to the task.

      One of our target birds of the day was the rare Short-tailed hawk.  A southern Florida specialty, we had our hopes as high as the canopy that we would not only see the bird, but also capture an image of two of the bird.  Well, it doesn't always go as you hope for, and today the hawk eluded us.  We did get excited at one point as we spotted a juvenile hawk off in the distance.   We tried like crazy to "morph" the hawk into the Short-tail, but try as we might, it still turned out to be a young Red-shouldered....the default hawk of Florida.  Still, it made for some fine viewing and got our adrenalin going.

Red-shouldered hawk

      Towards the end of the day, we pulled into an area known as Mahogany Hammock.  Here we were hoping for owls and another tough bird to find, the White-crowned pigeon.  No luck with the pigeon, but the owl.....now that was a different story.  We pulled into the parking lot and began our walk out onto the boardwalk.  No sooner had we begun walking then we heard the loud, and I mean very very loud hooting call of a Barred owl.  A second owl was answering from afar.  We walked over to a bench which was right next to where we heard the bird, but could not for the life of us find it in the dense canopy.  Suddenly, the bird flew right over our heads.  At only 10 feet or so above us, you really get an appreciation for how big these owls are.  We then realized that the second owl which had been calling had come in behind us.  The two birds then flew into a tree behind us and caterwauled back and forth for a time ling enough for us to watch and snap a couple of shots.  One of the owls then left the tree limb and the second was soon to follow.  Quite a show to end our day long tour of the glades.

       
        We never did make it more than half way down the roadway to the end of the park at Flamingo, but that simply means that we will have to make the effort to return sometime within the next three months.  It will certainly be near the top of our list.