One of my favorite drives of all time is US 41 through the Everglades. Miami is about 4 hours from our house, and a trip there always yields the reward of the road.
Years ago during a college summer, I was collecting signatures for an amendment to our state’s constitution for a one cent tax to support Everglades restoration. One kid asked me if the Everglades was “that ride at Busch gardens.” Someone else remarked that he went to Everglades National Park and “it was the ugliest thing he’d ever seen.”
If you’re tuned way into to the overpowering majesty of some of the great Western mountains, you may be at first disappointed by the flat, subtle and seemingly monotonous nature of the Everglades terrain. But take a closer look—hell take a few hours to school yourself on the complexities of the water cycles, ecological diversity and fragility of the great balances of elements and wildlife there. You will be utterly amazed at its beauty and its worthiness of preservation.
Thank goodness our state and the federal government are now investing in its restoration. It’s the largest restoration of its kind—fitting for the only such “river of grass” in the world of its kind.
We only got out of the car this time for about 20 minutes at the Shark Valley entrance to Everglades National Park. I repeat. It was c-c-cold this morning. Wading birds were plentiful and also looked to be pretty darn chilly. I found the expressions on this Great Blue Heron (top) and this Black Vulture to be absolutely priceless. “What chu lookin’ at, Willis?”
We saw lots of Wood Storks, Ibises, Little Blue Herons, Great Egrets, Snowy Egrets, you name it. Red-shouldered Hawks looked down from perches to their next cold fur-ball of a meal. Double-breasted cormorants hovered in the masses in bald cypress trees as they took a short break from the cold fishing waters. On the Bobcat Trail boardwalk, a busy Blue-Grey Gnatcatcher worked the leaves with expert skills for insects like an old man with a metal detector on the beach.
I'm hoping to get down to that very special part of Florida in the Spring for a fitting exploration like the ones I enjoyed a couple years ago.
So much to enjoy and appreciate down there. You must get to the Everglades at least once in your life. I recently finished Liquid Land: A Journey Through the Florida Everglades by Ted Levin. Superb!
Hope you're staying toasty where ever you're living. Flanders is still jiving with her snuggie.
12 comments:
Last time we drove through the Everglades the cypress trees tried to kill me. They are beautiful trees but not friendly towards those of us with asthma.
Things are COLD in Minneapolis right now. Single digits. But this week it's supposed to get back up into the 30s. Finally normal winter temps!
So glad you survived your weekend and ended it on a high note, Gropy! Your photos, as always, are gorgeous. Lucky birdies and even luckier river of grass to have you on their team.
I love bird photos - these are great
ironcially, in person birds gross me out but in photos I think they are so beautiful.
Those are a couple of great bird portraits. I do think they look quizzical, but how could birds have facial expression. They can't even smile (except in looney tunes).
Some years ago we witnessed a nutty tourist walking up to some HUGH sleeping gators at Shark Valley. We were ready to see him lose an arm. In your current weather I imagine the gators would be very safely approachable, giving a great opportunity to get a good pic of D man riding a live gator. It would make a great promo for the Everglades.
Notary sojac.
Smokey Stover (not the only person making posts in the wee hours of the morning, I see.)
I think you're right! I would love to do that. We did go through a cypress slough last time we were in Florida and that was fantastic!
We took a cool boat tour thru the Everglades when we were in Fl a few years ago. I thought it was amazing. We saw gators and herons and all types of wildlife. It was terrain like nothing I'd ever seen.
Thanks for the tour, and I didn't have to get cold.
Great shots and informative post! :o) I always cringe when people don't "get" the importance of grasslands like this!
I hope it warms up for you soon! Hang in there!
Iguanas falling out of the trees because their little cold-blooded bodies are frozen stiff? This is sad :( Awesome shots of the poor chilly birds!! Thanks for the excursus into the beauty of the Everglades!
We have gazoodles of vultures. They swirl round and round certain houses in our neighborhood... houses which, coincidentally, receive a visit from a silent ambulance later, an ambulance which is in no hurry to get there, and in no hurry to leave.
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