March 25, 2014

Florida continues to be a surprise.  We visited the Everglades National Park yesterday - I always envisioned a palm tree studded swamp - well it is a swamp, but there's a lot of prairie grass.  It was a quick drive through for us so I'll just show some pics and short explanations.

 Didn't see any panthers but seeing signs weird.  Heard on radio today they had to trap and move a panther back to a more remote area of the glades.

 Crazy - vultures apparently eat tires and rubber around windows!!  No vulture trouble for us.

 This bird is called an anhinga.  It's fascinating.  I love its blue eyes.  I watched one swim under the water for several minutes searching for prey.  It's called a water turkey too because of its tail feather which looked really cool fanned out under the water.  My battery was dying and the light wasn't right for me to film that.

After swimming the anhinga spends a lot of time

                 drying its feathers with wings extended.

Gator gathering place!!!