Birds, (I always forget the names of them), diving for dinner.

Great Blue Heron.  This is the largest in the heron family.  These guys will eat baby alligators although they mainly consume fish.  Sometimes, they can choke to death on a fish, trying to get it down, if it’s too big.  Both parents feed the kids.  Herons can also seriously injure you with their beaks. 

Part of the trail.

A mama alligator.

See if you can find the baby alligator in this photo.  It was hatched in September making it about 3 or so months old.  It belongs to mama gator, above.  It takes about 65 days for eggs to hatch.  Baby alligators hatch once a year, late August to early September.  Females can lay between 20-50 eggs at a time.  On average, only about four will make it to adulthood.  At this size, the babies will eat minnows and insects.

Look towards the top, I didn’t see him in time to get him centered.  This is also one of mama gator’s kids but he was hatched in September of 2008; two year old gator.  He’s getting to the size where he is becoming a threat to the mama’s new gators so it’s only a matter of time before she chases him and his other two siblings who made it, out of the area. 

Purple Gallinule.  The ones here are very social and friendly.  I call this one Junior.  He’s not quite an adult.  These are the most colorful birds in the Everglades.  They have big, yellow feat which enable them to walk on top of lillies and grass; they don’t fly all that well.  Kind of like a chicken.  Male and female, as well as their young, are a tight family.  During nesting, the male and female take turns sitting on the eggs.  When they “switch” the one who is going to take over will go and get a leaf, bring it back and present it to the other as a gift, that other adds the leaf to the nest and they switch.

Great Egret.  These birds were almost extinct in the late 1800s, early 1900s because of humans.  Some fascination with their feathers.  Idiots.  The male egret is the one who chooses the nesting site, builds it and then goes and looks for a mate.  Both parents will sit on the eggs and both parents feed the kids.  To eat, the Egret will stand, motionless, for long lengths of time and then stab its victim.

Anhinga.  Hard to see because he would not cooperate with me.  Sometimes also called the “snake bird”.  They swim under water to catch their food but unlike ducks, they do not have oils to waterproof their feathers.  They must dry out their feathers by spreading their wings before they can fly.  They can fly with wet feathers, just not very well.

Along the trail, in the canals.  These are not mangrove trees.  These are called Pond Apple trees.  The Pond Apple tree is vitally important to the Everglades even though the fruit tastes terrible.  It provides habitat for animals such as the snail kite, (of which there are only about 200 or so mating couples left in the Everglades....we have spotted one male and one female in our area this year but can never get close enough to take a photo before it flies off.  It’s basically dark gray or black looking with a distinct white marking by its tail that you can clearly see when it flies off), and other wading birds.  Some people call the fruit an alligator apple and some confuse it with custard apple.  It is NOT a custard apple.  Don’t believe me?  Go ahead and make a pie with these apples.  Blech!  If you get lost in the Everglades, you CAN eat them, but...maybe try your hand at fishing, instead.