Everglades, Mosquitoes, and Heat

This is a series of entries over a few days as we catch up on our travels into the Everglades.  Neither campground we have stayed in had any sort of communication, wi-fi or cell phone, so we just concentrated on enjoying the fun, warmth and friendship.

Dee and Paul arrived on Thursday the 26th and had settled in doing hikes, paddles, bike rides and ranger presentations.  Marty and David were six days later, having been waylaid by the transmission adventure in Savannah.

On Tuesday, March 3, D&M decided to make it into Florida to ease the drive to the Everglades the next day.  We overnighted in Jacksonville in a Walmart parking lot and had a not so great night's sleep sitting beside a  class A with its generator running the entire night.

On Wednesday we headed south to join up with Paul and Dee and pulled into the campground around 5:00 pm.  And for a second time on the trip we arrived to a dinner already prepared!  Such a luxury!

We have been enjoying the sunshine almost too much.  We both got a little too much of it and now we are dealing with some sunburn issues and blistering as well.  We have been slathering up with lotion and maybe with some caution we will avoid getting in trouble later when we are on beaches.

We have had some great bird viewing while here, some of which is shared below.

The Ibis have frequented the campground on a daily basis and we have all enjoyed watching them.  They don't seem to be greatly afraid of people.

We have also enjoyed the butterflies that thrive in the campground, these great white butterflies are here and reproduce year around.

The blue tips on the antennae indicate that this is a male.

A frequent visitor to the tree on Dee and Paul's space has been this lovely red-bellied woodpecker, some times his mate is also in the tree.

Near by the campground is Eco Pond which is a great place to see all kinds of birds if your timing is right (we have not quite figured that out).  

We really like the White Pelicans along with the Roseate Spoonbills.

Deb and Trudie arrived on Saturday, one day earlier than expected, which has been really great. The six of us have done more bike riding along some longer walks, ranger talks, and on Monday a wonderful excursion in Florida Bay where we saw all sorts of birds and even dolphins!  

Cooking dinner.

We got to see a brown pelican working with the dolphins, or we should say taking advantage of their fishing techniques, which was something we had never seen before.  The dolphins would swim in circles stirring up the sand/mud from the bottom of the shallow water causing the fish to become confused and often they would jump.  When the fish jumped the dolphins could grab them and the pelican would try to do the same.  The dolphins later decided to play with our excursion, sometimes swimming close and under the boat; other times jumping completely out of the water, challenging the photographers.

Deb is a happy camper capturing all kinds of birds as well as a sea turtle.

And of course we saw many ospreys on our boat trip as well as around the campground.  Seems that they are doing very, very well down here and it is good to see and certainly we hear them!

This osprey above is shaking himself out after preening, it really makes him look as fluffy as a juvenile.  We got to see them carrying fish back to their nests and the mother's feeding their young too.  The juveniles were just big enough to see peeking out over the tops of nests with the same intense look as their parents.

This was one of three chicks in this nest, which is most unusual.  Most likely the smallest will be killed by the bigger sibs we were told.  Don't know if the osprey will successfully rear the three chicks or not.

Deb and Marty have been having a blast taking bird photos.  First at Eco Pond, then at Anahinga Trail: both places have required them to be up before sunrise and over to where they will shoot as quickly as possible.

This is a beautiful green heron they saw at Anhinga.

This is an Anhinga and when it swims the body is mostly under water and the the head sticks up making it look almost like a snake in the water.

On Monday we moved from Flamingo campground to Long Pine Key campground giving up electricity and vicious mosquitoes and tiny biting flies small enough to make it through the smallest screen.  Of course we all bare the evidence of their attacks even though bathing in bug dope.

At the Long Pine Key campground we are without electricity but are experiencing shade from more trees and enjoying larger and more quiet sites.

Neat camper!