Along the Tumiami Canal

We went for a drive today along the Tumiami Canal on Highway 41 with a detour along the Loop Drive (which turned out to be closed partway through the loop so that we had to back track...). Part of the drive was in the Big Cypress National Preserve. I was quite surprised to see so many air plants in the trees --

 I know that some of these are in the bromeliad family, but that's about as much as I know about them!

I've often seen them in conservatories and plant stores, but never in the wild --

There were many of them in bloom --

The whole area was pretty swampy with lots of waterways. These water lilies were plentiful --

We thought we saw a Great White Egret off in the sawgrass, but when I looked at the picture and saw the beak, I realized that it was a white Ibis --

Tucked way back in the trees was this Little Blue Heron --

 This picture is a good shot of the swamp. You can see the cypress trees with lots of cypress "knees" (the short portions sticking up in the water...); air plants; and even an ibis --

Here's a Great White Egret and a White Ibis hunting together --

And then we saw a whole mixed flock of the white birds -- plus a Double-crested Cormorant drying its wings. It was early in the afternoon, but they may have already been gathering for their night's roosting --

We caught this gentleman relaxing on an old cypress knee at a house along the canal --

A Crested Caracara and WOOD STORKS!

We made a Costco run today to the warehouse over by Fort Myers. I convinced Forry that we should take the back road (Hwy 29) through the countryside rather than the four-lane highway. It was a good choice as we came upon a strawberry vendor with his pickup of berries alongside the road. This is the second batch of scrumptious Florida strawberries we gotten -- the smell is heavenly! The fellow said that last week's frost hadn't gotten their berries.

Then to our surprise, Forry spotted a Crested Caracara sitting on a fence post alongside the road. We saw a lot of these critters in Texas, but were surprised to see one here in Florida where they are considered "scarce." My bird book describes them as "as tropical member of the falcon family, but shaped like a hawk and feeds like a scavenger." It's too bad the picture is blurry, because it is a striking bird.

Then a little further down the road, he spotted this Wood Stork hanging out with a Great White Egret.

Then we saw what was probably its mate!

The Wood Stork is our only native stork. Forry has been looking for one for some time. It's another new Life Bird for both of us! It has really long gawky dark legs and a rather ugly naked gray head.

They spooked when a big truck came by and flew up into the trees.It was neat to see the black edges of its wing feathers. This huge (40 inch) bird flew up -- with those long legs dangling behind -- and perched right on top of an old snag.

The Fort Myers Costco was one of the most crowded warehouses I've ever been in! It might have been because it was Saturday, but it was really busy. We restocked our coffee supply for the Kuerig (paying a premium for one case of Starbucks) and loaded up on Forry's cereal (though they don't carry the pumpkin and flax seed one he really likes down here in the south). We had an early supper so that Forry could have his favorite Polish dog.

We stopped at a fruit stand on the way home and picked up some more oranges and grapefruit. We are enjoying Florida's citrus!