Gators Galore along Loop Road

If you are in Big Cypress, you will see gators, and if you drive along the Loop Road Scenic Drive, odds are, you will see LOTS of gators, if you know where to look!

This seems to be truly an environment that alligators love – I like to call it hidden in plain sight.  As we were driving along this road, a car stopped and the driver asked if we had any luck seeing any gators, clearly implying they hadn’t.  I said yes, but said you really need to look for them, explaining the areas of water at each culvert of the road.  I’m not certain if they wanted to go through that much trouble (his reaction seemed less than enthusiastic about actually having to look for the gators), so who knows how “lucky” they were at seeing any.  As you can see from this guy, he just sort of seems to be hanging out among the swampy growth floating on the surface of the water in some areas.

So, then, I thought it might be fun to give you an idea of what I was trying to explain to that driver.  I’m calling this “Find the Gator”.  I’ve taken a close-up shot of the gator and then an image of the complete environment in which we saw him (for some reason, gators are always male to me!).  Do you see him in the larger image?  Hint: He’s on the left side of the image.

Let’s try another one – This one might be a bit tougher.  The image at the bottom is the closer image of him. Look closely along the brush along the shoreline in the larger scene.

Ok, one more.  You can find this guy by looking for the tree he’s right up against.  It’s amazing how they are so well hidden, but in the open!  It suits their hunting style very well.  And, to be sure, Jeff and I were both very careful as we exited the Jeep, always looking down to make sure a gator wasn’t lurking just off the road in the brush.

Even gators were somebody’s baby once!!  This is the first time I’ve seen a baby gator off on his own.  I looked very carefully to try to spot Mom, but I couldn’t.  I purposely took a wider angle on this shot so you could get an idea of how little he was!  I’m guessing he was maybe a foot long from his head to the tip of his tail.

Can you see this guy under the water?  He was at the surface, but when Jeff closed the Jeep door rather loudly, he seemed to semi-startle, turned and then dove for the deep, or as deep as this area got!  I did manage to catch this image of him before he totally disappeared – about 10 seconds later!  Jeff and I were wondering what the substance was floating on the top of the water…..and then we decided we really didn’t want to know!

The rangers at the Visitors Center say that gators generally eat once per week.  The gator in the previous image clearly wasn’t hungry, as he dove to hide from us when we made a noise.  We may have encountered the gator in the image directly above, though, on his eating day.  As soon as he saw us get out of our Jeep, he quietly turned and began to make a beeline for us!  All the more reason to learn how to spot them ASAP!

I thought I’d end this post with this image.  It’s actually one of my favorites from the day.  This guy was a good distance away from us, and just content to lie in among the leaves of what I believe were mangroves growing in the area.  I really like how the leaves reflect below him on the water.  He’s so low in the water, you really have to look closely to see the small reflection he cast in the water.  I find alligators both beyond intimidating and fascinating at the same time.  Hopefully, you now have some idea why I feel this way!

Enjoy!

Birds of Loop Road Scenic Drive

There is wildlife on Loop Road, and this visit, we saw a lot of birds!!  It’s probably just me, but I think the tropical birds we found here are really cool.  Now, some you will recognize from other areas of the country, too.  Perhaps they just over-winter here!

I remember seeing these when I lived in the Midwest, at a rookery I lived close to – it’s an egret and this morning, he was searching the waters for food!  I just happened to capture him in between bobs into the water!

The anhinga is a very cool bird.  In this shot, a male anhinga was sitting on a branch drying his wings.  One of the things that make him so cool is that he doesn’t just bob his head in the water looking for food.  He actually dives into the water and swims through the swampy weeds incredibly fast!  Then, as you see here, he dries himself in the sun!

Here’s another bird I used to see from time to time in Illinois – a great blue heron.  I love this shot of him, standing rather majestically.

And, right after I captured that image, he turned and noticed something up higher than he was.  I was lucky enough to still have him in my sights and captured the somewhat awkward grace of a heron taking off.  He sort of leans into it and then gives a little hop before his large wings provide the lift to get him airborne.  He actually just settled in a new place, with his eye still on whatever it was that captured his attention in the first place!

My last image of my casual bird watching of the morning was this little guy.  I have no idea what type of bird he was, and when I asked the rangers in the Visitors Center, they didn’t know either.  We poured over all the known birds that inhabit Big Cypress, but he wasn’t there.  His coloring is similar to what’s called a purple bunting, but their beak isn’t nearly as long as this guy’s.  I thought he was really pretty, though!

Enjoy!

Cypress Strands along Loop Road Scenic Drive

One day while at Big Cypress National Preserve, we decided to drive the Loop Road Scenic Drive.  It’s a great way to see all sorts of nature and it’s free!  Well, except for the gas for your car.  No tickets or tour guides – you are your own tour guide with a flyer to help you along the way!

The beginning of the Loop Road seems like any other dirt road in any other part of the country, but it will be very cool in just a few minutes!!  This post will focus on the wonderful “forest” that can be seen, called a cypress strand.  When I looked up the definition of the word “strand”, it refers to strands in Florida as being swamp strands and it’s a type of swamp.  Another requirement is that the tree that predominates must be a type of cypress.

I love the look of the cypress reflection with other greenery growing alongside.  It just looks like the temperature is very pleasant and perhaps cool in the shade of the strand.  However, you wouldn’t want to be in that water…..

I think of this scene as a watery forest.  To me, it looks like many other forests I’ve seen in my life, except for the types of trees and the fact that it’s not dirt that is on the forest floor, but water!  Still, it’s such a peaceful scene….

When I stood on the edge of this part of the strand, I felt like I was looking into a very deep forest.  I kept expecting some deer to peek out at me from behind some of the trees.  But, that won’t happen in this forest!

This looks like a larger river or small lake or pond.  In fact, this is called Sweetwater Strand.  This is one of the deepest strands along this road.  It’s actually just a tad cooler in this area, due to the deeper water.  Such a relaxing scene.

Air plants, or bromeliad, which is its more formal name, abound in this area!  It’s rather refreshing to see these plants just sprouting up all over this area!

And, I will end this post from Loop Road with, of course, another lovely peaceful scene of this swamp.  Funny, I always picture swamps as damp, smelly, semi-scary places, but, truly, they can be quite beautiful!

Enjoy!

Nature at Kirby Storter Park

Kirby Storter Park is a little jewel in Big Cypress National Preserve.  When we visited it a few years ago, the cypress strand was full of water and birds.  But, this time, the lack of water was, per the ranger, actually rather normal if not slightly more wet than normal.  It’s not yet the wet season here in Florida.  A good rainfall could, however, cause the strand to fill with water almost immediately, which must have been what happened prior to our last visit.  Still, there were some natural treasures to be seen in the mostly dry (for Florida) area.

I do love the look of this section of the cypress strand without them sitting in several feet of water.  It allowed me to get a look at what I think of as their feet, where they grip the swampy soil to maintain their towering stature. 

It was nice to see this air plant situated on top of a fallen tree.  If the level of water was higher, I doubt that I would have seen it – it would have been underwater.

This orchid was another treat that would have been submerged if the water was at the level of a few years ago.  It doesn’t really look like most orchids I’ve seen, but the information board at the start of the boardwalk trail was very clear this was an orchid!

The last time we were here, this glade was full of birds, both in the water and the trees.  Although I was a bit disappointed that we didn’t see the birds, I have to admit, I really liked the peacefulness of the glade as is!

There were, however, a couple of gators in the glade.  Can you find them in this image?  It’s amazing how they can sort of hide in plain sight.  It’s a good thing the boardwalk we were on is high enough above the swampy ground that they cannot reach us.  Hint:  One is on the shore line at the top of the image and the other in the midst of the water lilies close to the bottom of the image.

These seem to be a very tiny variety of water lilies.  I don’t recall seeing them on our last visit, and as I think about it, I’m not certain there were as many water lilies around the last time we were here.  I just loved how the fresh, new blooms look against the partially submerged tree branch.

Less than a week before our visit, they had a prescribed burn in this area of Big Cypress.  The signs of the burn were very easy to see.  The point of a burn is to clear out the underbrush and allow new plant life to surface.  I know back home in New Mexico, prescribed burns are often done to reduce the chance of a wildfire.  It’s hard to think of a swamp as a place where a wildfire could occur, but maybe so.

And, here’s some of the new growth that we saw on our walk.  Love the small wildflowers and that spring green color is just wonderful!!

Enjoy!

Big Cypress Visitors Center

Sometimes, Visitors Centers really are just the places to get maps of the park and maybe pick up a postcard or two, but at Big Cypress, there’s some interesting things to see just along the boardwalk in front of the Visitors Center building…..

It doesn’t always happen, but today was our lucky day – the gators were out, sunning themselves on the shore right out front!  It kind of gives “gathering around the water cooler” an entirely different meaning!!

I thought this was a rather cool shot of a submerged gator.  He was hanging around down there, and the water was clear enough I could get a decent shot of him, and also capture the reflection of the clouds.  It gives it sort of a weird effect, but I like it!

I never noticed these fish in this pond before either.  I don’t know what kind they are, but they seem to have very long noses/snouts.  I wondered about them existing with the gators, but gators are a fairly opportunistic type of hunter.  They often will wait until the prey is going by in front of them and then quickly snap it up (except when tempted by idiotic humans, of course!).

Surprise!  This is the first time I’ve seen a turtle in Big Cypress!!  She’s called a Florida Softshell Turtle, and from the size of her, I’m guessing she is a female.  Males are generally half the size of the females and this was quite a large turtle.  She can live up to 20 years out in the wild, such as Big Cypress.  These turtles are carnivores and can snap and claw when cornered.  Gators are their primary predator. 

Enjoy!!

The Gator Story

We had an entertaining thing happen when we were in Big Cypress National Preserve.  Here’s a bit of background information – the campground where we were camping is in an oval shape, and a small lake sits in the middle of it.  It’s a nice walk around it, and people walk their dogs (or themselves) around the lake all the time.  However, as is true with most of Big Cypress, there can be gators in the lake or around the lake.  There are many signs warning folks about the gators, so everyone should be aware.  (Spoiler alert – there’s no bad ending to this story!)  Let’s get started with the story…..

Jeff and I were relaxing in the rig after a morning’s explorations (more about that in another blog).  I was working on some puzzles and looked up to see a young couple with their toddler sitting right by the shore.  Dad was fishing.  They had 2 camp chairs set up, a white blanket for the toddler, a tackle box and fishing poles, a bait or catch bucket and a plastic bag with perhaps lunch in it.  Their rig was almost directly behind them.  It’s very unusual to see anyone sit so close to the shore, due to the gator warnings.  I wondered aloud if I should wander over to them and remind them about the gators, but Jeff said there were plenty of signs warning them, and if they just decided to be dumb, they’d probably take offense to me treating them like they were, in fact, dumb.  Ok, point taken.

 

After a while, Jeff suddenly jumps up and exclaims that the gator (the lake has 2 gators who frequent it) was up on shore where the couple and toddler were.  Thankfully, they had seen the gator and escaped to the safety of the area in the vicinity of their rig.  In fact, Dad was up on the roof, leaving his family on the ground. (Clearly a very brave man – checking out how close the gator would come to his family from 12 feet up.)  By this time, I had gotten my camera and was standing on the opposite shore from the gator activity along with some fellow campers as we were all watching what the gator was going to do, and laughing at the silliness of the family for getting so close to shore, and at Dad for being so macho.

While we were watching the gator checking out his find, another genius drove by in his truck with his 5^th wheel trailer in tow, and stopped to check out the gator.  We couldn’t believe it when he got out of the truck and got WAY too close to the gator to take a photo with his cell phone.  Jeff said that he was clearly a candidate for the Darwin Award.  In case, you aren’t familiar with that award, it is awarded every year to someone who helped to strengthen the human gene pool by removing themselves from it in some way.  Needless to say, the Darwin Award is always give posthumously. 

Once the guy left, the gator busied himself with the lunch or whatever it was in the plastic bag the family had with them.  About half of whatever was in it fell out when he picked up the bag, but he ignored that to focus on what was in the bag.  He ended up taking the bag into the lake and I’m sure wedged it under a log or something.  Just FYI – that’s frequently what gators do.  They take their kill underwater and wedge it somewhere so it gets waterlogged and rots a bit before they completely eat it.  Ugh.

In any event, he stayed in the water, submerged, and we thought perhaps he’d had enough and was going back out however it is the gators get into the lake.  Jeff and I decided to take Max on a walk around the lake, and off we went.  Well, when we circled around to the area where the gator had been, he was back.  We stayed well away from him, putting cars, etc., in between him and us.  The reason these images look like we were fairly close is due to the zoom lens on my camera.  We were not auditioning for the Darwin Awards!!

By the time we got totally around the lake and were back with our fellow campers on the opposite shore, the gator had taken the white blanket into the water to wedge it someplace, and had returned for the rest of what was in the plastic bag.  He munched on that for quite a while.  We all got the idea that he considered all the items on shore as his “kill”.  He’s a gator, so of course, he didn’t know he couldn’t eat the camp chairs, etc.!

When he finally decided to leave again, I was lucky enough to capture the sequence of him deciding and then sliding into the water.  The sequence goes from left to right, first the top row, and then the bottom.  The final image is of his head just barely surfacing after he was totally submerged for a few seconds.  This entire sequence took about 10 seconds or so – they can move quite stealthy and quickly when they want to.  By the way, the family did get to rescue their camp chairs, tackle box, fishing poles and bait/catch bucket.  However, a few hours later, they were again right up on the shore fishing again.  This time, one of the campground hosts went over to talk to them, and the wife (pregnant, by the way), picked up the toddler and just went back to their rig.  Dad, apparently, stayed out there – another candidate for the Darwin Award??

This image if from the following morning.  As we walked Max around the lake, two people were standing on the grassy area, watching (we think) the same gator, just floating in the water.  His head was turned away from us until he noticed Max sitting next to Jeff, as we came up to the people.  Then, he ever so slowly turned around and “drifted” toward us.  He wasn’t really drifting as there was no breeze and the lake was dead calm at the time.  So, altho he looked like he was just floating, he was really propelling himself by using his feet ever so gently – like I said, very stealthy.  We quickly left with Max.  As we got back to our rig, we noticed he did get out of the water again, but was very uninterested in the people sitting up high on a picnic table a safe distance away.  Jeff wanted to nickname Max Gator Bait, but I told him that wasn’t funny.

Enjoy!