Florida Day 2 - 21st May 2012

Everglades National Park 

A warning sign at one of the trailhead car parks, that vultures may damage our car...

Miche at the trailheads...

Only a youngster, but still our first 'gator of the trip...

A bigger relative not far away...

Red-Bellied Turtle takes a peak...

Overhead close-up of a Florida Gar...

Mid-morning cloud reflections as the temperature rose steadily to a chorus of loud Pig Frog calls - which sounded just like, er... pigs...

Unusual flowers...

Fancy a paddle? There are two 7+ feet alligators in this picture - not too easy to spot...

One of them, up-close...

A pair of Florida gar, ancient pike-like predators...

Largemouth Bass in the shallows...

Ibis...

Lizard near the entrance to the Gumbo Limbo trail. Gumbo Limbo is a trail through boggy woodland and was full of mosquitoes, we pretty much ran round without looking at anything at any length to cut down on the number of bites.

Miche in the car at Flamingo to avoid the skeeters - she'd taken quite a munching on the walk to the visitor centre and over lunch - however, they followed us into the car and we'd have to swot them as we drove along. Other than the mozzies there were vultures and fish eagles.

A very bold moulting Anole lizard flashes his dewlap on the boardwalk at the Pa-hay-okee Overlook...

Another flashy Anole at the Ernest Coe Visitor Centre, hidden...

... there you go...

Me with my eyes shut at the Robert is Here fruit stand enjoying an enormous Key Lime smoothie. They had amazing fruits, which you could see being harvested by hand in the surrounding fields...

Purple Martin chick awaiting a feed...

An obliging parent looks at me sternly...

Farmers Market Restaurant in Florida City where we ate on a couple of nights and had the place to ourselves most of the time, however the food was home-cooked and fresh as the owners are fishermen and the restaurant is bizarrely located behind industrial estate gates next to a huge fruit and veg warehouse...

Each evening we'd have a chorus outside our motel room of what sounded like huge animals, but turned out to be either a tiny lizard or, loudest of all, this small frog. When it rained (daily) the car park filled with small froglets.