New Year's 2006 - Everglades

_mg_1641_1.jpg Sunrise over the southern tip of Florida	_mg_1643.jpg Florida Bay has keys starting right off the shore of the peninsula	_mg_1667.jpg A turkey vulture with fishing line wrapped around his feet
_mg_1671.jpg The shoreline at Flamingo campground	_mg_1672.jpg Hurricanes Katrina and Wilma may have downgraded this dock	_mg_1677.jpg These tiny spiders had a healthy population, with lots of webs
_mg_1682.jpg I expect he was looking for fish	_mg_1688.jpg These guys seemed to want to dry their wings like this every chance they got	_mg_1705.jpg The hammock in the distance was the high point in the Everglades, at 8 feet
_mg_1716.jpg Just his head was above water	_mg_1726.jpg Three gators lying on a small island in a pond	_mg_1737.jpg A big alligator
_mg_1738.jpg A beautiful little bird	_mg_1756.jpg The herons were comfortable fairly close to the alligators	_mg_1757.jpg The great heron has the confidence to leave his back to a moving gator
_mg_1759.jpg A couple of gators sunning on shore	_mg_1769.jpg A pond with enough gators to dissuade me from thinking about going for a swim	_mg_1773_1.jpg A beautiful heron
_mg_1774.jpg Some small bird who blended in so well to his surroundings	_mg_1777.jpg Three turtles. I guess the gators don't find them tasty.	_mg_1781.jpg This guy was stalking something, but only he seemed to know what
_mg_1806.jpg The difference between land and water was fuzzy in the Everglades	_mg_1807.jpg Shallow ponds, boggy land, as far as the horizon	_mg_1813.jpg White pelicans enjoying the shallow water
_mg_1815.jpg The same white pelicans in flight because some cyclists got within a hundred yards	_mg_1833.jpg A heron in flight	_mg_1835.jpg A hammock sits in the middle of the wetlands
_mg_1836.jpg Sharon riding down the old Ingram Highway	_mg_1841.jpg Returning on the same (abandoned) highway, Sharon avoids an alligator waiting for a slower rider	_mg_1850.jpg These little birds would flee for us by skittering across the surface of the water instead of actually flying.
_mg_1860.jpg Sharon on some single track	_mg_1871.jpg Some of the wetlands were reminiscent of Yellowstone's mud pots	_mg_1873.jpg A field of glass, with random hammocks in the distance
_mg_1883.jpg I'm not sure the difference between wetlands and swamp, but this seemed swampier	_mg_1891.jpg At the edge of a hammock it was almost like a moat	_mg_1910.jpg Canoeing in the mangroves
_mg_1914.jpg The lanes were often narrower than the width of a kayak paddle	_mg_1922.jpg In other places the route widened	_mg_1933.jpg From a distance this spot of land looked like a gator
_mg_1939.jpg An air plant	_mg_1940.jpg Air plants don't need much to hang on to	_mg_1948.jpg A little resting area for an alligator
_mg_1950.jpg Another air plant	_mg_1954.jpg There were 160 numbered poles to lead us through the mangroves on this route	_mg_1956.jpg The strong winds required tying one side of the mosquito tent to the car to keep it from blowing down
_mg_1976.jpg Sharon in the mangroves at dusk	_mg_1984.jpg A mangrove with its extensive collection of roots at low tide	_mg_1997.jpg Sunset over Florida Bay at low tide
_mg_2016.jpg The variable flora beyond the coastal mangroves	_mg_2019.jpg A pretty flower	_mg_2021.jpg Sharon
_mg_2028.jpg A wood stork in Snake Bight	_mg_2029.jpg A lovely little ground flower	_mg_2031.jpg Snake Bight as it empties into the Bay
_mg_2040.jpg Another air plant	_mg_2046.jpg The black stuff is marl, seaweed thrown on the ground well inland by the hurricanes	_mg_2047.jpg A cool little air plant
_mg_2048.jpg A dead tree can still be home to a big air plant	_mg_2050.jpg A tiny little guy	_mg_2051.jpg I love these things
_mg_2057.jpg Mick on a trail on the coastal prairie	_mg_2060.jpg Sharon amongst some trees that get bent by hurricane winds a year ago	_mg_2067.jpg Another...
_mg_2096.jpg A relatively rare roseate spoonbill	_mg_2116.jpg Another roseate spoonbill in flight	_mg_2125.jpg A pair of egrets in flight
_mg_2140.jpg A pelican seems almost cumbersome compared to the more delicate larger birds	_mg_2165.jpg An ibis, a couple of roseate spoonbills, and other birds sit in a pond	_mg_2187.jpg This guy reminded me of a penguin when I first approached
_mg_2194.jpg As I neared he finally moved, revealing his long neck	_mg_2204.jpg A beautiful snowy egret	_mg_2215.jpg You can't tell the birds without a program
_mg_2220.jpg The hurricanes didn't only pick up seaweed, but evidently some crabs, too. This was taken well inland on a supposed prairie	_mg_2227.jpg Trees likely killed by the hurricanes a year earlier	_mg_2237.jpg The marl was deep enough to make cycling incredibly difficult
_mg_2244.jpg This turkey vulture must have thought we were riding so slow we might become dinner	_mg_2247.jpg Sharon resting	_mg_2250.jpg The prairie with a hardwood hammock and lots of grass suffocated by the marl
_mg_2254.jpg Sharon with a thin layer of the stuff, learning it is odorless	_mg_2256.jpg An engine with propeller, steering wheel and throttle, this boat has seen better days	_mg_2260.jpg The boat was about fifty yards from shore
_mg_2266.jpg Marl covered mangrove roots	_mg_2269.jpg A shoreline of the stuff, you don't want to try and walk through it	_mg_2274.jpg The tide coming in on the Bay
_mg_2279.jpg The succulent grasses on shore	_mg_2289.jpg One of the few palms on the shore	_mg_2292.jpg A great old hardwood tree that stood up to the storm winds
_mg_2293.jpg The gnarled base of the tree	_mg_2299.jpg A New Year's Eve dragonfly	_mg_2303.jpg Mangrove roots and cypress knees

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