Time for a Florida Road Trip!

When we returned to Florida at the end of October, our mail was inundated with Hard Rock Casino mail, offering Tony, “The Gambler”, free play dollars and our first free night offer at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino.  The winds had been terrible the previous couple of days, creating huge waves and beach erosion, so it was no fun at the beach.  All this tempting literature from the Hard Rock and the desire to see some different scenery, helped shape a road trip.  We decided to travel to Everglades National Park and then break up the return trip with a night at the casino.

We hadn’t been to Everglades NP for several years and had only visited in the summer.  I was interested to see what wildlife was there in the fall and winter with the “great bird migration” just starting.  We headed south to our favorite area right inside the park, the Anhinga Trail.  As we made our way into the parking lot, we were greeted by 30 Black Vultures and warning signs indicating that they WILL damage your vehicle. 

 

 The park service provided tarps and

 bungee cords for you to cover your vehicle. 
 Evidently the vultures pick at anything rubber; windshield wipers and the weather stripping around the windows, many people covered their vehicles.  Tony covered ours, but watching the vultures, you would see them test the tarps and hop around the parking lot and target any vehicle that owners neglected to cover.  The vultures actually were quite comical and even more so when returning owners were chasing them off the uncovered vehicles!

We had visited the Anhinga Trail many times in the summer, where we would see many huge alligators.  However, we learned since the water level in the Everglades is still high, the alligators were nowhere to be seen. 



Anhinga along the trail

We were initially met along the trail by a double-crested cormorant that had just caught lunch, something that looked like an eel. 

The cormorant, a swimming bird that catches fish, struggled with its prey in the water until it finally downed it in two big gulps.  We saw a number of blue, green and tri colored herons in addition to the anhingas and cormorants. 

We decided to go directly to the Flamingo Visitor Center at the end of the park road, which was 40 miles from the entrance.  From the Flamingo marina they had Mangrove Boat Tours that would take you back into the everglades.  Arriving at the marina we once again were met with more black vultures! 

Vultures migrate to South Florida in the winter from October to March.  Experts say the black and turkey vultures, members of the stork family with wingspans of nearly 6 feet, come to the subtropics in search of carrion, but we know better, they are looking for windshield wiper blades!
 

Looking out over the Florida Bay we also were able to see hundreds of White Pelicans that had just migrated there for the winter. 

 
I had only seen them once before in Cancun.  They are beautiful birds in flight, looking similar to a Wood Stork.  In flight, you can see the White Pelican’s black tipped wings as they glide gracefully just above the water.  They have the second largest wingspan of all birds in North America, 9 feet; second only to the California Condor.

However, I was most surprised by the number of Osprey that were there. 

White Pelicans watching Osprey carrying away their catch.

 

Between the Florida Bay, the marina and the mangroves, I saw more Osprey there than any other birding location that I have been to in Florida.  Every time I looked around, it seemed an Osprey was carrying off a fish it had caught. 



Another good catch!

Osprey landed on a tree near the marina.

Two hours later he was still eating the same fish!

  Osprey is the only raptor whose diet consists solely of fish.  While eagles, hawks and other raptor eat small mammals too, the Osprey never strays from sushi.  We were really fortunate to have several of the Osprey hang around the marina where we were waiting for the boat tour and pose.

We also saw several manatees in the marina, our first of the season.  Manatees have just started returning for the winter, and a couple females with one year calves were hanging out in the marina. Unfortunately to water was not clear, so all we got to see were their noses!

Manatee mother and calf

Our boat tour was very interesting.  As we made our way down the narrow canals, we were able to see two small crocodiles, my first in the wild. 

Evidently the Everglades is the northern extreme for crocodiles and southern extreme for alligators.  We also saw a number of White Ibis in the mangroves.  The Ibis is the last bird to leave when hurricanes approach and the first to return. 

We learned some interesting facts about the flora of the mangrove swamp.  I had never heard of the Manchineel tree, otherwise known by the Spaniards as manzanilla de la muerte or the “little apple of death”.  Everything about this tree is so toxic, not only is its apple like fruit poisonous, but its leaves and bark is so caustic, you receive chemical like burns just by brushing up against the leaves or trunk.  Even water dripping over the leaves, can cause burns on your skin if it drips on you.  It is said that Ponce de Leon was struck by an arrow that had been poisoned with Manchineel sap during battle with Florida natives, dying shortly thereafter.  Poor Ponce de Leon, he came to Florida to find the Fountain of Youth but found the Tree of Death instead!

The mangrove trees themselves are interesting too.  Mangrove swamps protect coastal areas from erosion and storm surge from hurricanes.  They tolerate a broad range of fresh/brackish/saltwater and expand by massive intertwining of aerial roots. 

Their seeds are also unique as they form a propagule (a ready-to-go seedling).  The mature propagule drops into the water and can remain dormant-floating for over a year.  Once a propagule arrives in a suitable location, it can start to root within an hour. 

Our day at the Everglades was full and with sunset approaching, we made our way to the Hard Rock Hotel.  While we had been to the casino many times, but we had never stayed overnight.  The room was quite nice and it was great not to have to drive the additional hour home. 

We had a great dinner at the Hard Rock Café, bringing back memories of past vacations.  Christina loved to go there whenever we were vacationing when she was a child.  After dinner, off we went to lose money at the slot machines.  Ultimately we retired early before we lost more than our free room would have cost.  Guess we will just have to settle for winning thousands of pretend money on our “Jackpot Party Casino” game on our cell phones!