The Everglades - Day 1 - For the Birds

Double Crested Cormorant

The wildlife is quite tame at the Anhinga trail.

Male Anhinga

Great Blue

Cardinal Bromeliad

Vulture - you can see the hair on his chinny, chin, chin.

Wood Stork - once endangered, now making a come-back.

Paddling the Buttonwood Canal to Coot Bay in Flamingo.

Osprey along the way.

A quick stop at Paurotis Pond - Roseated Spoonbills are nesting on the far side.

Sabal Palm - so graceful

Amazing palm symmetry.

Positively Dr Suess-ian.  No?

Snowy Egret - I love his yellow feet!  Unexpectedly brilliant

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Grass lands with the odd Dwarf Cypress

Barred Owl - actually my first owl....

So flat, and a sky that goes on forever!

Seeing the Everglades up close and personal was something I was really looking forward to. We love getting into parks in general.  We chose this destination to see another unique ecosystem in God's great and marvelous creation. A place where fresh and salt water mix in places:Some areas are completely fresh, some are completely salty, and some are brackish, a bit of both.

And when I get there I marvel. 
At how different it is.
How can things grow here.
How do they change and adapt and thrive.
How much difference a few inches can make...entire ecosystems set apart by less than a foot in elevation. 
And I love the birds.

I'm amazed by the intimate glimpses we are so fortunate to have.
Moments here and there.
Moments when the light is great.
Moments that you come across.
None of them planned, all of them revealed.

These kinds of days, are my favourites.