Time Flies....

Time flies when you're having fun...This week we canoe with the alligators, look for more birds, dog sit, visit all the ponds, ride 25 miles, search for the elusive Mangrove Cuckoo, get blasted by rain and say goodbye to Harry and Sally.

One of the more interesting ranger-led programs here in the Everglades is a canoe trip though the mangroves—and it is free. The park service provides the guide, canoe, paddles and life jackets. You provide the power.

The trip starts on Nine-mile Pond. I don't know why it is called Nine-mile Pond (and I forgot to ask). It isn't nine miles long and it isn't nine miles from any other point of interest. The canoe trail crosses the pond and goes into a mangrove thicket, in which there are water trails marked by numbered posts. It crosses several other ponds within the mangroves and eventually ends in the middle of the wilderness. There is then a return route via an old airboat route, a bit more mangroves, a couple of more ponds and, finally, back across Nine-mile Pond. 

We didn't do the entire route. There is a shortcut between the outbound trail and the inbound trail at about the halfway point. The trip is shortened to accomdate the inexperienced and get us back before lunch.

The guide was a park volunteer who has been doing this trip a couple of times a week for the past few years. He guides the canoe tour two days a week and his wife works in the visitor center for about the same time and they get to winter in the Everglades for free. Not a bad deal.

The trip got off to an interesting start. We paddled across the pond to the entrance into the mangrove swamp, which was blocked by an alligator. This meant a bit of waiting around until it moved out of the way. We're not supposed to annoy the gators. Finally, he moved aside and we headed into the mangroves. 

Unfortunately, the guide immediately made a wrong turn and we all had to back up (not enough room to turn around). This coincided with an alligator bellowing right next to us behind the mangroves. This, in turn, started more alligators bellowing all around us. It is the beginning of alligator mating season. This was the first trip where they were heard bellowing. It sounds much like the roar of a lion. Needless to say, Ellen was not reassured by the guide pointing out that they weren't really interested by us as we weren't other alligators. I mused they were just planted speakers like some Disney World ride, just something to spice up the trip. Ellen didn't buy that, either. 

This definitely made the travel through the mangroves a bit more tense as the trail is not much more than a boat-width wide, and there were many tight turns. The Park Service canoes were big wide aluminum boats which handled more like barges than canoes. The guide had a kayak so he just spun thorugh the corners as we crashed and banged along backing and filling to get around some of them.

Eventually we came out a more open area which was a marsh with a couple of feet of water over it. There were small islands of trees where the ground had built up an extra foot or two to provide footing for trees other than the mangroves. As we paddled through the grasses, we noticed that they were coated with a tan spongy material. We were told that it is call periphyton, an algae that forms a mat surronding the grass blades. It absorbs a lot of water, much like a sponge and is the base of the food chain for the snails, tadpoles and little fish, which are eaten by the bigger fish and the birds, etc.

We'd reached the shortcut. It was now downwind along the old airboat path. They don't allow airboats in the park any more and this route showed why. The bottom growth was very sparse compared to the rest of the route. It went in a straight line and was about 30-50 yards across. We just coasted down the trail with the wind, occasionally touching bottom.

It is the dry season in the park and, as it does every year, the water levels are falling. They will probably be able to run the canoe trip for only another week or two before it is too low to paddle through it.

As we entered the mangroves again, the guide pointed out that we would be passing though another series of small ponds and there would probably be a large, 14 foot-long crocodile, which they have named "Croczilla" on the right side, so we should keep to the left. Ellen misinterpreted this and thought he meant the right side of the narrow mangrove channel. Not being a fan of large reptiles with big teeth, we cleared the mangrove trail in record time. We never saw Croczilla, even in the ponds where he was supposed to be, just a couple of more alligators.

Finally, we came back out onto Nine-mile Pond and quickly paddled across to the landing. The last two canoes tarried a bit and went off to one side. We couldn't see them and one of the people called out that there was an alligator on the shore....and it had a life jacket in its mouth. This caused a chuckle amonst us already ashore. Then they they landed and showed us the photos of the alligator with a PFD in its mouth.  There wasn't anyone attached to the PFD...as far as we know of. The story made it back to the rangers as it was mentioned in last night's ranger  talk. A fitting end to a canoe trip that started with roaring alligators.

The next day Harrry and Sally took the same tour, while I dog sat with Nina the dog. Ellen went birdwatching. They also heard the bellowing alligators. Croczilla was still missing and the alligator with the life jacket was no longer there.

We did a bit of birdwatching in the afternoon along the shore. I got Ellen a spotting scope for Christmas that we hadn't used yet. I played scope sherpa and Ellen, our campsite neighbor, Alan, and I went looking for shore birds. We found them and the spotting scope lived up to its expectations. It was quite clear and bright. With its default lens, it is five times the power of Ellen's binoculars, making identification of the birds a lot easier.

On Wednesday we decided to get an early start with Speedy, accompanied by Harry and Sally in their Roadtrek, and visit all the ponds along the main park road. It was quite interesting. I'd seen two of them, Mrazek Pond and West Lake on my moring bike rides and they teemed with birdlife. Ellen and Sally, the intrepid birders had not. So off we went, to Mrazek Pond, West Lake, Nine-mile Pond and Mahogany Hammock. 

By that point we were about halfway to the park entrance, so we decided to go to the Royal Palm area and walk the Anhinga Trail again. We weren't disappointed. All the usual birds were there...within a few feet of us in many places. We even managed to find the Bittern again for Sally. Since brought along the spotting scope, with Steve as scope sherpa, we got a good view of Anhinga chicks, which look like tan plush toys with pink bald heads.  We even saw a Purple Gallinule, a purple wading bird with yellow legs and a red beak.

Since were already almost out of the park, we decided to go look for a rare vermillion flycatcher (is this birding stuff getting a bit crazy?), which was supposedly at a little county park just outside the park. We looked but didn't find it.

Since we were now out of the park, why not go to Homestead and get a few more provisions? After a stop at Robert Is Here for their key lime milkshake, we went off to the Publix market and a nearby CVS for a few missing things, like milk and bread and cereal (and a valentine for Ellen). It was then back to the park. I couldn't make a convincing case to stop for another milkshake. The key lime milkshake is like a key lime pie (my favorite) turned into soft serve ice cream.

Yesterday, I finally got back on my bicycle and did a 26 mile ride out to Nine-mile Pond and back, while Ellen went birding. When I returned, just in time for lunch, I found out that we were going back out to the Snake Bight trail to look for a Mangrove Cuckoo. One had been seen out on the trail. It was hot and sunny, and I could really have used a shower. But another pair of eyes were wanted, so off we went the intrepid birders Ellen, Sally, Alan....and me. Another four mile walk and we never found the elusive cuckoo, only a rarely seen hermit thrush.

As last night was Harry and Sally's last evening in the park, we went over to the Buttonwood Cafe for dinner. They now had oysters, so it was four plates of fried oysters. They were tasty small oysters, but at $20 a plate, they were about $3 an oyster. At least they tasted good. After dinner we went to the evening ranger talk on bird migration trough the Everglades. Then it was back to camp, arriving only minutes before it started raining...and blowing. It was windy and it rained all night. 

Harry and Sally left this morning. Ellen forgoed the morning bird walk to see them off. They spotted a record 59 species on this morning's walk. It rained the rest of the day. We spent most of it inside Speedy. It is supposed to rain a bit more overnight then start to clear tomorrow and be sunny when we leave on Sunday.