Shark Valley

Monday, February 20, 2017

After an air conditioned evening at Midway campground, we were up early and on our way back east about 20 miles to Shark Valley. Shark Valley is on the northern edge of Everglades National Park and is very popular. It has a 15-mile paved trail along a canal in one direction and winds through the glades in the other. A tram ride is available on the trail and the trail is also used by lots of cyclists. It has a great reputation for birds and the best place to see Limpkin in the National Park.

It also has a very small parking lot which fills before 10 AM. We arrived at 7:30, about an hour before the parking lot opened. This was on purpose. We wanted to get a start on the trail before the crowds descended on a holiday Monday (and one where the admission was free). We parked along the Tamiami Trail which is where the overflow parking goes anyway.

On our previous trips, we have bypassed Shark Valley because of the crowds. It is located on the very northern edge of the Everglades and is very popular with people who don't want to drive out into the park.

This morning there were already a few photographers. They seem to arrive before sunrise; we weren't that driven. There is about a two hundred yard stretch between the gate and the entrance kiosk. It runs along a canal. This turned out to be our most productive part of the walk and we certainly wouldn't have seen many of the birds we found had we waited until opening time.

As we entered the park, we found Great Blue Herons and Black-crowned Night Herons awaiting us. Right after that we saw a Limpkin next to us on the canal. Then a Purple Gallinule popped up and pranced across the big water lily pads. It looked like he was walking on water. Then there were Green Herons, Little Blue Herons, Tri-colored Herons and Great Egrets, all in this first two hundred yards. It was definitely worth our early morning start.

We took about an hour to walk as far as the entrance kiosk and then the cars started pouring in. We could see them lining up behind the gate from the time we started up the road and there were at least twenty waiting for the lot to open.

The road splits after the entrance kiosk and the autos go off to the left and the canal path continues straight ahead. We continued up the canal, seeing more and more birds. There were certainly more Green Herons and Black-crowned Night Herons than we had ever seen in one place. We also saw several Anhingas on nests right across the canal. One of the nests had three little bald nestlings all trying to get mom's attention by sticking their heads down her throat to feed.

And there were, of course, plenty of alligators of all sizes. We even spotted a pile of baby alligators hiding out in the weeds. It was easy to see why they and the birds liked this canal. The water was quite clear and there were lots of fish to be seen, from three- foot-long gar down to two-inch heron food.

We turned around after about two more hours as the sun got higher, the crowds got thicker and the birds retreated. In our walk of about two miles, we saw 31 bird species, 129 birds, about a dozen alligator, innumerable fish, one turtle and one swimming Water Mocassin (yikes!).

After leaving Shark Valley, we turned west again and stopped at the place we call the Snail Kite parking lot. This time we really did see a Snail Kite, a beautiful gray adult bird flew almost up to the canal behind the parking lot before turning and heading north over the prairie. We had a very good view. The Osprey from yesterday also came back and was successful catching a fish this time. We also saw a Short-tailed Hawk soaring well above us among a kettle of Turkey Vultures and a Red-shouldered Hawk cruised by. There were the usual Great Blue Herons across the canal with Great Egrets and even a Cattle Egret on the grass just at the end of the parking area. And there was also a solitary starling nesting in a hole in a telephone pole by the building next to us. It was a good stop.

We continued to Collier-Seminole State Park with a lunch stop at the Big Cypress National Preserve Visitor Center. It was pretty warm by the time we got to Collier-Seminole, but we have electricity once again and we took advantage of it to cool Speedy.

Collier-Seminole has not been one of our favorite parks. It has the advantage of being the nearest park to Marco Island and Naples, but that has been about it. Until now, we have always found it a bit muddy and worn out, but it was closed last year for renovations. It is much better now than before. It has a new restroom and shower building, all of the sites have been graveled and are not muddy, and a bit of fencing has been installed between sites. Before this campers would just spread out and take as much space as they could get away with. The last time we were here the campers in the site next to us took about half our site including our picnic table while we were out for the day. We had finally retreated to the parking lot at the dock in the day-use area, a quarter-mile or so from the campground.

It is still not our favorite park but now it is at least a decent one. We have a deep site (#87) this time with trees on three sides that makes it fairly private and we are just far enough from the new facilities. There are some mosquitoes (the entry gate called it "blood donor" level) but not nearly like at Flamingo.

Ellen went off for a shower before settling down with her camera and computer to upload her photos from the last few days (to be posted soon when we get better Internet access). I strolled over to the dock to give my Tenkara rod a try. The fishing rules here are a little strange. The water is brackish and supports both salt water and fresh water species. If you have a salt water license, you can catch and keep salt water species. If you have a fresh water license, you can catch and keep fresh water species.

I assume that "keep" is the keyword. I have a fresh water license and wasn't planning on keeping anything anyway. The question is whether or not you can fish with no license if you only want to catch and release. Somehow I don't think a fishing warden would buy that argument.

I didn't catch anything except a tree which took my Wooly Bugger fly. I did spy a few fish near the dock and one even took a passing interest in the fly but didn't nibble enough. After I lost the fly, it was time to head back to Speedy and try the showers.

In the interim, Harry and Sally arrived. They had been able to secure a site for tonight (and tomorrow as well). We got together in air-conditioned Speedy for dinner and compared notes on last night's campgrounds.