Everglades pics - many, many pics

[nwheat]

When I was in Florida a couple of weeks ago, I was able to visit the everglades. This was my first real attempt to take wildlife pics, I'm pretty happy with how some of them came out.

First, a few willett pics that I took on the beach.




On our everglades trip we first stopped and walked a short way into the Fakahatchee swamp. If you read The Orchid Thief, this is where the orchids were stolen from.



Bald eagle nest with babies hiding from my camera

The trail ended in an alligator hole. The momma that dug the hole was elsewhere but there were still several hanging around.


This ibis was foraging really close to all those gators.


Next, we went on a boat tour through some mangrove islands (10,000 islands area) near the gulf.

Lots of osprey nests - no manatees, though.

This one had a very curious baby!



We stopped a few random areas along the way for pics, too.


This limpkin was kind of far away, but still a cool find.


The last part was an airboat ride. Very hard to take pictures here, but so many alligators!!

Yellow belly slider

Softshell turtle

Skink that was in our boat

Great egret

Great blue heron

Black necked stilt

Green backed heron

Moorhen & her chick

And the cows that hang out with the gators


Another day, we drove through Ding Darling wildlife refuge.
My favorite little blue heron:


Snowy egret

Roseate spoonbill



We did see one snake, very briefly. Most likely a black racer, although there was some discussion that it may have been a young indigo. It was a great trip and I'm glad I finally took the time to do it!