Today we opted to take a short hike in the Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary.
First, let me mention a sweet memory. My late mother-in-law Bobbie (Memaw) lived in the Melbourne area for about 5 years and she loved the bromeliads that were everywhere in south Florida. These are tropical "air" plants that seem to grow on anything, even a tree branch. When I met her she had a nice collection of them and it was a thrill when one bloomed. Now, today, I walked among them growing everywhere around me, and smiled as I thought of her.
But wait! It gets better! Even though the water is mostly gone from the swampy areas, there were several large pools left in the Lettuce Lakes. As the water level goes down and the lakes shrink, the fish are more concentrated - and that means Feast Time for the egrets and storks and ibises and spoonbills. We've never seen anything like this before. They didn't even seem to be intimidated by the large alligators! Here are a few pictures from yet another stellar day!
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| Bromeliad in bloom. |
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| Anhinga. |
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| Ibis. |
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| Baby alligator. |
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| Roseate Spoonbill. |
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| Blue Heron, ignoring Mr. Big Alligator. |
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| Nobody seemed to care about Mr. Alligator. |
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| This was maximum zoom so it's a little blurry, but right behind this egret is a whole mess of baby alligators. |
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| Wood stork. |
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| Cottonmouth water moccasin. (eewww) |
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| Pretty pink bromeliads, all in a row..... |
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| Saw lots and lots of strangler figs climbing up the trees. |
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| Just a small example of the damage we saw from Hurricane Irma. |
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| Buttonbush. |
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| Nice little stand of cattails. |
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| Huge patch of Alligator Flag (see previous photo). |
