Fort Myers and Everglades

Late last month, Russel and I drove down to Ft. Myers to spend the weekend with my sister and her hubby.  We were lucky enough to also get to see Dee and Bob for a day trip into the Everglades.  We took Dee and Bob’s little doxy Greta along as bait for alligators.  Lucky for her, the gators were uninterested!  

At a great walkway off of US 41, we saw lots of cool birds, gators, etc.  At another walkway, we saw more gators, including babies, and an eagles’ nest.  The ranger said eggs had been laid in the nest a week or so before we got there.  Be sure to click on the pics for details, especially the baby gators and eagle.  In no particular order . . .

Here’s an anhinga drying his wings.  They don’t repel water like a duck.

An anhinga swimming underwater hunting for fishies.

  

Gator babies sunning on a log.

Good mama with a baby on her back.  Ranger said babies feed themselves from day one, but mama watches over them to keep greedy dad from eating the babies.

Gators sunning in river next to US 41.

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Sunning turtle.  Laying around in the sun seems to be popular.

Smack in the middle is a bald eagle sitting on a bare branch.  He or she is able to overlook the nest from there.

 

Eagles’ nest.  It was huge!

Snowy egret with very last of his breeding plumage left.

Only pic I have that shows Greta, our bait.  Brother-in-law Steve in back with Dee, Bob and Russel sitting with Greta.

In the BBQ restaurant in Everglades City, was this stuffed gator.  First is Dee’s dismount, brave Steve, ladylike me, and sister Betsy hanging on for dear life.

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Here’s me, Steve, Betsy and Russel in front of the Bubble Room, a cool Christmas-themed restaurant on Captiva Island.

We did a lot of driving for a week, what with going to and from Sarasota and Ft. Myers and the Everglades, but a good time was had by all, even the bait!

Thanks for stopping by. Comments always welcome.

(-: ¸.·´* .·´*¨¨)) –:¦:- *** ((¸¸.·´*~Kathy~.·´*)****¨¨)) -:¦:- ·· ((¸¸.·´* .·´*((¸¸.·.·´ *-:¦:- ... :-)

Gorgeous Sandhill Cranes!

Pam and I went on a road trip yesterday to Mt. Dora and Winter Park, getting good and lost, but the highlight of the day, besides finding the new Penzey’s spice store, was running, almost literally, into these two Sandhill Cranes. We were on a busy road after leaving my upline’s house in Mt. Dora and saw one crane on one side of the road and another on the other. Stopping traffic, they were, thankfully, and not getting their idiot selves hit by cars. I stopped and so did other cars. Once they were both on my side of the road, I pulled over to take these pics. As they were poking along, they went into a nice yard, so I pulled into the driveway to take these pics. A man working down by his garage was oblivious to us or the birds. Click on the pics to see details.

One of these days, I will make it up to Payne’s Prairie in the winter to see them gathered by the thousands. But until then, I will catch glimpses, hopefully with a camera in hand, of them wandering here and there. I have never seen just one Sandhill Crane, always a mated pair, sometimes several pairs.

For more info, you can go here.

That’s it for now. Comments always welcome.

(-: ¸.·´* .·´*¨¨)) -:¦:- ***
((¸¸.·´*~Kathy.·´*)****¨¨))
-:¦:- ·· ((¸¸.·´* .·´*((¸¸.·.·´ *-:¦:- ... :-)