2/24/23. The last trip to Anhinga trail

On the way to the Everglades, we stopped on the side of the road to take a pic of a field of sugarcane.  We also took a pic of a panther sign even though we never saw one.  It was very quiet on the trail this morning. There were only 3 other cars in the parking lot.  All the usual characters were in attendance.  gators, green herons, Great Blue herons, purple gallinules, American egrets, palm warblers, Anhingas, yellow-bellied sliders, and a huge group of vultures overhead.  We did our two loops on the boardwalk and headed back to town.  We dropped off more books to the library (cybrarium) and then filled up with gas for the drive to the airport tomorrow morning.  We packed up everything except out clothes for tomorrow.  We will walk across the parking lot and have dinner at Cracker Barrel tonight.  We will leave early in the morning to catch our flight back home.  We have been storing solar energy and warmth so that we can last until Spring.  It will be nice though to be home and to sleep in our own bed.

2/23/23. Downtown Homestead

 Dave felt tired this morning even after a full night's sleep (he is only a week away from infusion) so we decided to have an easy day today.  We had a leisurely breakfast and then took a ride to the small downtown area of Homestead.  I was able to find a parking spot on the street on the second block and we took a stroll.  The downtown area is sad though - probably about six blocks long, but there is little retail to bring people here.  About a third of the storefronts were lawyer's offices - injury, immigration, family law and another third were medical - family clinic, urgent care, dentist, optometrist.  There were two churches, only one of which is active, a 100 year old theater for special events, a newish movie theater, one tee shirt store, one small hardware store, an antique store, a Mexican restaurant, and a police station.  There were a number of empty storefronts.  When we were done walking around we went back to the hotel and read by the pool until lunch time.  We will stay in for dinner again tonight.  Tomorrow will be our last day to take a few laps around the Anhinga Trail and then we will have to pack as we will be leaving early on Saturday morning to get to the airport for our trip home.  No pics today.

2/22/23. Shark Valley

 We finally got our walk down the right side of the loop road at Shark Valley.  We had a lovely 3 mile walk and saw lots of anhingas, a raven, cormorants, several yellow-bellied sliders, beautiful swamp lilies, an unknown flower, a dragonfly sitting on a lily pad, several green herons, many thistles (most of which have gone by), several gators, a few Great Blue herons, some American egrets, lots of gas and two little blue herons.  The highlight of the walk was hearing a bull alligator deep in the bushes by the side of the path.  I should have thought fast and recorded the sound - it was loud and eerie.  They roar to mark their territory.  We hit the restroom and headed back to town for lunch in our room.  As soon as I got out of the car, I realized I didn't have my cell phone.  It didn't take me long to remember that I had taken it out of my pocket and set it on the t.p. holder when in the restroom and it was a porta-potty and I wanted to make sure it didn't fall out of my pocket into it.  So . . . after lunch, I left Dave to take his nap and I drove an hour up, picked up the phone from lost and found, and then drove an hour back.  I am just thankful that someone turned it in.  I will not make that mistake again!  We will eat in tonight.

2/21/23. Anhinga Trail

Note from yesterday: The key lime pie I bought yesterday was certainly better than the first one, but cannot compare to daughter Laura's recipe that we use at Thanksgiving!!

After our day in the car for many hours yesterday and because of the heat expected this afternoon, we decided to go early to Anhinga Trail.  There is always something new to see and this trip did not disappoint.  When we got to the parking lot, there were only a few cars so we practically had the place to ourselves.  It was actually quite beautiful.  The water was clear as glass and the park was very quiet. Because of a heavy dew set, I was able to take a few very nice spider web pics.  I chose my favorite to start today's blog.  We also saw many American egrets, Great Blue herons, cormorants, anhingas, purple gallinules, yellow-bellied sliders, lilies in the sawgrass and gators.  The new thing that we saw were two soft-shelled turtles.  Unfortunately, light was not conducive to taking any photos of them.

We came back go the "digs" about 10:30 and went to read by the pool until the room was cleaned.  We had lunch and read/napped until a little while ago.  We haven't decided what we are doing for dinner tonight.  I think tomorrow we will head out early to Shark Valley to walk part of the loop road to make up for our dud day.  

2/20/23. Audubon Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary

 We got up early this morning for our 2.5 hour trek to Corkscrew.  It was a lovely morning - 71 degrees and sunny - a perfect day for birding.  On the way we stopped in Big Cypress for a break and looked around the boardwalk.  The baby anhingas were still there and we also saw a green heron.  We continued on and when we got to Hwy. 29 going north, we saw 3 panther warning signs lit up.  Unfortunately we didn't see one.  When we got onto the back roads we passed a pond where there were about 100 American egrets either perched in trees or wading in the pond.  Unfortunately there was no place to safely pull over to take a picture, but it was a sight to see!  We got to Corkscrew in time for our tickets and started out on the boardwalk.  The main walk is 2.5 miles, but I figure we did 3+ as we took most of the spur walks as we came to them.  Dave spotted a caracara, but was not able to get a pic of it.  We also saw three downy woodpeckers who were also camera-shy.  I did take a pic of an unknown heron.  I thought it was a night heron, but when I looked at it on the computer, I was not so sure.  I did catch a pic of a little blue heron and a green anole (native) and a brown anole (an import from the Caribbean).  There is also a picture of a red-bellied woodpecker and a lovely white swamp flower.  At the farthest part of the boardwalk we saw a white ibis and two juveniles - one in the water and the other perched in a tree.  There is also a pic of an unknown little brown bird - some type of wren?

I also took a pic of a small butterfly on the flower of a pickerel weed, an American egret, a black vulture, a gator, an anhinga drying his wings and finally a cardinal silhouetted in the sun near the visitor center.

As we were nearing the end of our walk we ran into a volunteer ranger who told us that when he was out earlier in the morning, he came upon a 10 foot gator trying to eat a rather large turtle.  He had in in his jaws and bit down and the ranger heard the shell crack.  He worked it a while, but finally let the turtle go as it was too big to eat.  Lucky turtle!  We were quite hot as we finished our walk.  When we got to the car we saw that the temperature had risen to 87.  Thankfully we had our water bottles with us.  We headed back and had a late lunch at our favorite restaurant in Everglades City.  We both had the shrimp again and it was just as good as it was the last time.  I bought a piece of key lime pie for takeout. I will try it tonight.  Hopefully it will be better than the last one I tried.   All in all, we had a wonderful day.   Dave got a snooze on the way home.  We stopped at our favorite gas station a mile up the road ($3.17 a gallon) so we will be ready for drives the rest of this week.  We will have lunch for dinner tonight as we are still stuffed.