Gone Herpin'! (Dial-up SMACKDOWN)

[elevatethis]

Well, sorta...For spring break I went to Sanibel Island with my girlfriend- it was awesome! One day we took a break from coronas and the beach and went hiking through the J.N. Ding Darling Wildlife Refuge, which covers the back 75% of the whole island.

Saw some pretty cool stuff:

Mangrove...teeming with life, just stay real quiet and be real still....




Saw some birds:
Got himself a bullfrog!



Some mammals too, kinda cool to see them NOT dead on the side of the road or in my garbage can...2 of 4 babies and mom (the rest were camera shy):


Most of the herps were hard to catch on camera. I saw a rediculous variety of anoles and other smaller lizards like this guy:


And last but not least....my girlfriend was looking at these pink birds, I go to take a pic, and this dude cruises by:

He was trying so hard to creep up on the pretty pink birds. That woulda been a cool pic...alligator eats endangered bird!

Last but not least, me in the swamp:


Enjoy!

Brad

[cassandra]

Neat! Looks like it was a nice hike. =) Thanks for sharing!

[tigerlily]

Wow, it looks like a cool trip! Very nice pics. Awesome.

[kavmon]

nice pics, except for the last one! lol

i'd rather see a pic of lindsay, not you bro!


vaughn

[JLC]

Mangrove...teeming with life, just stay real quiet and be real still....

I found myself holding my breath while looking at your pictures! What a wonderful experience and beautiful shots!!

[elevatethis]

nice pics, except for the last one! lol

i'd rather see a pic of lindsay, not you bro!


vaughn

Haha, Lindsay was all freaked out once we saw the alligators, and wouldn't go anywhere near the shore after that!

Very cool place though...such a privilege to see these animals in their natural habitat as opposed to seeing them at a zoo or other attraction. Very unique experience.

I actually went into the place hopefully looking for some signs of indigo snakes, which are heavily protected and severely endangered in south florida. Unfortunately, I didn't see any signs of them in Sanibel....

[ssscales]

Great pics, Sanibel and Marco Island are very nice beaches. We try and go out there at least one long weekend a year. What's funny/sad is when you see 3-4ft Savannah monitors out there!

[elevatethis]

That's a real problem in south FL. Burmese Pythons are pretty much there to stay in the everglades, I read an article about how they are winning out over crocodiles as top predator, they are even breeding.

[ssscales]

I don't even want to go there..

Burmese are definitely breeding in the Everglades and soon will be a huge problem, not just for the Everglades, but for herpers. These Burmese pythons may be the straw that breaks our backs with laws banning constrictors as pets in FL. This is a real concern for me, even though I don't keep any true giant snakes the laws may not distinguish between a 6ft Boa and a 16ft Burm!

[elevatethis]

My guess is that they would include boas. I don't know if you've ever read anything about the problem with them on Cozumel island, Mexico; after some research, is was found that there was a mexican movie filmed there in the 50s and they brought 5 boa constrictors from the mainland to be used as props. When filming was done, they released the boas. 50 years later, the island has been overrun by the boas offspring and they are severely threatening several species of birds and rodents. Studies suggest that within 10 years their food source will have been all but whiped out and the boas will eventually starve.