Cycling in Florida – Anhinga babies and young alligators

Today, while John was doing some final packing, I jumped on the bike once more and pedaled over to the Anhinga Trail for one last visit. Part of the trail from the campground passes over some limestone sections that are the common rock formation just below the surface of the Everglades. Highly porous, it allows the ground water to seep through as a sort of underground river.

The rest of the route is on good pavement and passes such facilities as the Boy Scout Camp. This route is less traveled than the highway route and therefore safer for cyclists and provides a sort of back entrance into the Anhinga Trail area of the Park.

The Anhinga Trail once again provided opportunities to photograph a variety of bird life and this time under somewhat better lighting conditions.

The night before, I had seen some baby Anhinga in one of the nests and wanted to try and get some better photos in daylight. Had lots of fun watching the young with their snake-like necks poking out from beneath the mother and hoping fro some food. I succeeded in getting a number of shots but while I was there, the young got no food despite their efforts.

The alligators were once again present in numbers and I was lucky enough to see a mother alligator with her young stretched out over her head.

There was a busload of students heading out along the path as I was about to leave so I considered my timing to be just about perfect. Not sure how the Anhingas and Alligators would react to the arrival of 20 or 30 excited children but after they went by, the vultures didn’t seem to even notice and went right back to spreading their wings to dry.

Rather difficult to say goodbye to the alligators (they have such cute smiles -:)) but we left without shaking hands and were soon on our way to Ft. Lauderdale.

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