January 11--Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary

Boardwalk at Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary.

Because the drive to Fort Myers Beach was a reasonably short one from Naples, we planned on spending much of the day at Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary, just outside of Naples. This National Audubon Society Sanctuary is a delightful place full of interesting sounds and fascinating plant and animal life. We walked most of the 2.25-mile boardwalk, which meanders through pines and a wet prairie, around a marsh and finally into the largest old-growth Bald Cypress forest in North America.

One of the beautiful scenes at this sanctuary.

Swamp lily (a member of amaryllis family).

These cypress trees are really amazing! The oldest ones are 130 feet tall and 25 feet in circumference. They stand majestically over the swamp with their ring of knees jutting up through the water. Wading birds like ibis, egrets, and herons hop on the low branches and wade through water, some of which is covered with swamp lettuce. We could hear songbirds and hawks along with the occasional squawk of an anhinga and grunt of an alligator. And the swamp lily is in bloom. This place is truly magic!

White ibis.

White ibis closeup, showing beautiful blue eye!

I loved that a sign at the beginning of the trail encourages visitors to walk quietly so as not to disturb either the wildlife or other visitors. For the most part, we found that people we passed were being very considerate of each other and the creatures who call this swamp home.

Adult black-crowned night heron.

Juvenile black-crowned night heron.

Little blue heron.

Closeup of little blue heron's feet as it walks through the swamp.

A mid-afternoon rain storm caused us to seek cover in a rain shelter along the trail. From the railing, we watched the raindrops falling into the swamp, thinking that the resurrection ferns hanging in trees all around us must have been most happy to see the rain.

If you are in the Naples/Fort Myers area, add Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary to your list of places to see. We think you will be most happy you did.

From Corkscrew, Fort Myers Beach is about an hour's drive. We arrived at our motel, the Dolphin Inn Resort, just as the sun was setting. Travis is the owner/manager of this small "old Florida" type motel, located across the highway from the beach. I told Travis I liked his place as soon as I walked in and saw the wall of books in his small reception area. He explained that visitors left books with him all the time when they had no extra room in their luggage. He told us to take all we wanted. I chuckled as I looked through the shelves. Most were in foreign languages!

Our small room opens onto a waterway on the bay side of Fort Myers Beach. Tomorrow morning, we'll walk across the highway and down a short path to the beach. Not too far down the beach is a favorite gathering place for shorebirds. We'll be taking binoculars and cameras!

By the way, yesterday's photos have been added. Take a look!

--Shann

January 10 -- goodbye Keys, hello Everglades

This morning we packed and said our reluctant good-byes to the lovely lagoon, the pelicans, the egrets, the great blue heron, and our cozy apartment on Long Key. We had a really nice week. Our regret was tempered somewhat by anticipation of returning next year!

Anhinga Trail's namesake.

After leaving the Keys, our first stop was the Anhinga Trail in Everglades National Park. Smoky and I were there many years ago, and we were both wondering what we might see this time. The Anhinga Trail consists of concrete sidewalks and a raised boardwalk around and through Taylor Slough, a freshwater sawgrass marsh. This popular self-guided trail provides visitors with opportunities to see alligators, cormorants, egrets, anhingas, and other animals, all of which come to the slough in greater numbers during the winter dry season.

A park ranger mentioned that the anhinga dries itself after swimming as much to warm up its core temperature as to dry its wings. This makes a lot of sense, but we had not thought of it before. Always good to learn something new.

Today, in addition to the more commonly seen birds and animals, we saw a couple of wood storks and several purple gallinules, the latter being a reasonably illusive bird that is rarely seen. We felt like the nature gods were smiling on us today with these viewings. And, of course, Smoky was in heaven, shooting photographs galore!

Purple gallinule walking on lily pad.

Wood stork.

Great blue heron in a beautiful seeing at
Taylor Slough.

Cormorant head shot. Love the green eyes!

The trail starts at the Royal Palm Visitor Center. A lake just in front of the center had several nesting pairs of anhingas, each with its own resident alligator lurking beneath it. A park ranger explained that the alligators were waiting for the young birds to hatch and fledge in hopes of having an easy meal.

Another bird commonly seen on this trail is the black vulture. They hang out in a gang and have developed a bad reputation for attacking cars in the parking lot. Apparently they are pecking and clawing at any part of cars made of rubber. The park even provides tarps with bungee cords to cover your car. We took our chances today and thankfully came away unscathed.

Smoky and I agreed that this was the best visit to the Anhinga Trail we have ever had.

Shortly before dark we headed out of the park and on the road to Naples, where we are spending the night. Tomorrow we head for Ft. Myers Beach by way of Corkscrew Swamp.

-- Shann

January 9 -- our last full day in the Florida Keys

Drifting with the current
in Long Key State Park.

After our busy day in Key West yesterday, we thought we would take it easy today. However, when we checked the water in the lagoon outside our door, it was calm, just perfect for canoeing. Then we glanced down the lagoon and saw several brown pelicans sitting in the mangroves just a stone's throw away. This combination of calm water and several nearby birds was more than we could resist, so we grabbed the paddles and life jackets and scooted the canoe into the water.

Brown pelican.

First we paddled against the current beyond where the pelicans were perched and then let the boat drift with the current back past the birds. A couple of times, several pelicans flew right over our heads, emphasizing just how large these birds are. With a wingspan of between 6 and 8.2 feet, these were quite impressive. We saw more pelicans today than we have all week!

We marveled again at the rich marine life among the mangroves. What fun to paddle the canoe into a small inlet, drift with the current, and look at all the different fish. Yesterday we discovered a jellyfish that settles upside down on the bottom of the lagoon in Long Key State Park, with tentacles reaching up. At first we thought these were some kind of plant, but when we upset one by accident with the canoe paddle, we discovered it was a jellyfish. When you look closely at these creatures, you can see them pulsating. Pretty cool!

As we paddled through a new section of the mangroves today, we came upon a fairly shallow area that had lots of starfish, some of which were pretty small. We decided it must have been the starfish nursery! Smoky used his GoPro camera to take some videos of the magical underwater world we were witnessing.

Yellow-crowned
night heron

While we were exploring along the edge of a section of mangrove, we noticed a yellow-crowned night heron sitting right at the edge of the water. This was our first spotting of a night heron this trip. Smoky had a great time photographing this bird.

We both decided that paddling a canoe in such lovely, clear water where you can see to the bottom is a very calming activity. We were quite sad to think that this was our last day here.

Reluctantly, we hauled the canoe out of the water and stored it away. Time for a late lunch.

Lazy Days Restaurant outdoor seating.

Today we decided to head north toward Islamorado and the Lazy Days Restaurant. This place is right on the ocean in an area that actually has a sand beach. The open air building takes great advantage of this location, with tables on the sand overlooking the ocean. What a great way to enjoy their featured dish -- lionfish cooked Lazy Days style: lightly coated with Panko bread crumbs, pan fried and then topped with diced tomatoes, scallions, parmesan cheese and Key lime butter! We had heard about the lionfish invasion of these waters, where it is doing a lot of damage. Here is an excerpt from an NPR feature story in December 2014:

"It's believed aquarium owners first dumped lionfish off the coast of Florida in the mid-1980s. Since then, the fish have spawned at a rate that would make rabbits blush. Lionfish are now devouring reef fish from North Carolina across the Caribbean."

Our waiter told us that there is no limit to the number of lionfish you can kill, but doing so is a bit tricky, since the fish is poisonous. However, once the venomous spines are removed, the fish are not only safe to eat but quite tasty. It is a light, moist, very mild-tasting fish. Try it when you get a chance! You'll be doing our coastal reefs a great favor.

After lunch, we walked along the beach front and onto a short pier to see some preening cormorants perched on the posts. Smoky was able to get really close to these birds without disturbing them.

Female cormorant

Male cormorant

Rather than having dessert at Lazy Days, we opted for ice cream. We had read about Mrs. G's ice cream parlor on Islamorado just a couple of miles from our lunch spot. Mrs. G. had 40 flavors of ice cream from which to choose. Smoky picked vanilla with sea salt caramel and I had butter pecan. Both were really good. I asked for the smallest serving they had, which was a "kid's size," and it turned out to be two scoops! Smoky had a "small," which was almost three generous scoops! We were so full that we could hardly eat dinner. You know I'm serious when I tell you that we passed up the last two pieces of key lime pie in our refrigerator!

Tomorrow morning means packing and heading north toward the Everglades and on to Naples. We have a lot of great memories from this week. Who knows what the next few days will bring.

Before I close, I want to add a few more of the great bird pictures Smoky captured today.

White egret.

Great blue heron.

Little blue heron.

And last a couple of underwater shots from just off our dock:

Stoplight parrot fish.

Sting ray.

--Shann

January 8 -- sometimes things just don't work out!

Since we couldn't go on our ferry trip,
Smoky decided to go fishing! (ha, ha)

We set our alarms for 4 a.m. this morning so we would have time to get dressed and on the road to Key West to make the 7 a.m. arrival time for the ferry to the Dry Tortugas. We actually left our apartment at 5:15, just 15 minutes later than we had planned, and we pulled into the parking lot at the ferry terminal right on time.

Just as we started to check in, the captain of the ferry announced to everyone that the seas were very rough this morning. He said that this trip was going to be very difficult even for him. He encouraged us to reschedule or cancel. Smoky talked to him personally and found out the swells were likely going to be between 6 and 10 feet, both going to the Tortugas and returning. He also said that the seas would be too rough (not to mention the chilly weather) for snorkeling. We decided to postpone this trip to a later time.

That left us a whole day in Key West. Smoky's photos do a great job of painting our day.

Breakfast: Oops, no photos of breakfast. We found a coupon in a handout at the ferry terminal for Two Friends Patio Restaurant. The coupon provided free orange juice or key lime pie with an entree. The OJ was fresh squeezed; I wanted that! Smoky picked the key lime pie. My entree consisted of the house special hash browns (which they described this way: "shredded potatoes, cream cheese and cheddar pan fried golden brown with sour cream") topped with smoked salmon, eggs, and wheat toast. Smoky's entry: french toast. Mine was delicious! Two Friends also has a karaoke bar, in case you are interested!

After breakfast, we walked through "Old Town" headed for Ft. Taylor, a sister fort to Ft. Jefferson (located on the Dry Tortugas). On the way, we walked by the Truman White House and saw a number of the facilities (from the outside) used during the Truman administration. Many are privately owned now, but the White House has been used through the years by various Presidents.

Smoky had a great time photographing the bottom level of the fort. I love the colors in the walls, floors, and ceilings, and one can't help but wonder what caused them. Was it simply the activity at the fort during its use, were the walls painted, or has time and moisture caused the variation? I'm not sure we'll ever know. Perhaps a combination of all these and more.

We glanced out of one of the small windows in the lower level and found a flock of blue-winged teal dabbling and feeding in the moat around the back of the fort. Be sure to click the image to see the larger version. These little teals had been startled out of the water and were settling back in when Smoky clicked the shutter.

Reasonably close to the fort is the Florida Keys Eco-Discovery Center, a large facility dedicated to increasing awareness and appreciation of the need to protect and conserve the ecosystem of South Florida. Visiting this center is free (one of the few free places we found in Key West!) and very well done. This center is operated by NOAA and National Marine Sanctuaries. One of their many exhibits was a 3-D movie of various scenes around the Keys, including Ft. Jefferson and the underwater world around the Dry Tortugas. At least we had a small taste of what snorkeling there would have been like!

Key West rooster

After this stop, we headed back toward the busy part of Old Town, looking for a place to have lunch. Our cousin Stephanie had commented last week on Facebook that the roosters in Key West insisted on waking everyone very early in the morning. We found a number of those colorful roosters today as they wandered the streets looking for food. The hens seem to stay better hidden; their mates, however, were on every block and still crowing!

These roosters show their colors all around Key West!

Angel statues decorate the top of a crypt in the old cemetery,
Key West

After lunch we walked several blocks over to the historic Key West cemetery, having seen a particular monument in a brochure about the city that piqued our interest. This cemetery was intriguing. It is built on a parcel of high ground (for Key West) -- 12 ft above sea level! The cemetery dates from the mid 1800s up to the present time. It was most interesting to walk through and look at headstones and crypts. Sometimes old cemeteries have a forgotten feel about them, but not this one. Even the oldest graves felt cared for and revered. Each family also fixed up their plot as they wished, for example, surrounding it with fencing, decorating with angel figurines, hanging beads on statues.

Jewish sector of the old Key West cemetery.

The sign out front had explained that early on there had been separate sections for the Catholics, the Jews, veterans, and several other groups. We found the Jewish section just beyond the monument that had interested us so much. I was intrigued by this Jewish section. Each grave had random stones on top of it, and inside the fence was a large urn of stones that appeared to be placed handy for visitors. Just looking at the urn and the graves with their stones, it seemed to me that visitors must have acknowledged their presence by placing a stone on each grave they visited. It was a beautiful, touching scene.

And last, but not least, here is the marker that we thought was so great. This makes me wonder what the rest of the story was.

At the top of the building was another one that I loved. It reminded me of my mom, who used to say the same thing whenever I thought she was taking a nap.

"I'm just resting my eyes."

Life is good! (enlarge to see
fishing pole!)

On the way out of town, we drove by the beach and couldn't resist stopping for a quick walk. By this time it was late afternoon. The light was beautiful. On the beach near the water was a man stretched out in a chair with his hat pulled down over his eyes. In front of him was a fishing pole, set into the sand, with the line extending out into the surf. He seemed to be saying that it didn't really matter whether he caught anything or not; life was good regardless!

We headed for home with less than an hour left before dark, wondering if we could get to Big Pine Key to see the Key deer again. Just as the sun set, we turned into the drive toward the Key deer refuge. That meant we had about 30 minutes of light left. Right after we crossed onto No Name Key, we spotted four deer going down a side street. Driving further down the road, we pulled over when we saw another doe. As soon as we slowed down, she headed toward the car. Smoky got several really nice photos of her and another female before night fell.

Aren't they beautiful!

I'm including a photo showing a lady who stopped behind us to photograph the deer. See how tiny these deer are!

This photo added to show the size of Key deer -- 24 to 32 in. at the shoulder.

Home at last. Another really nice day in this lovely place.

--Shann

January 7 -- 'tween day

Yesterday was our dolphin adventure and tomorrow is our trip by boat to the Dry Tortugas National Park, so we decided today would be a rest day. That didn't turn out to be quite the case because we also wanted to try the canoe trail in the Long Key State Park, which just happens to be accessible across the lagoon from where we are staying, and today the wind was very light.

It has been a while since we canoed. However, the biggest obstacle was figuring out how to get into the canoe from the dock at low tide! It was a bit tricky, but Smoky managed it. We had found a small take-out point just beyond our driveway, so he picked me up there. In fact, if the path around the house had been wider, we would have tried carrying the canoe to that take out.

Regardless of the drama getting the canoe in the water, we had a great paddle through the mangroves. We saw a number of little fish and jellyfish, and the weather was beautiful. Later I'll post some photos of this trip, so check back. I wish I could tell you we saw a lot of birds, but that wasn't the case.

Tonight we are getting to bed early so that we can get up at 4:30 to drive to Key West to catch the ferry to the Dry Tortugas.

Following up on yesterday's experience with the dolphins, here are a couple of Smoky's photographs.

Both these photos show the dolphins doing one of their learned behaviors. In the first one, the dolphins were skimming across the water like a motor boat. In the second, the dolphin is standing on his head.

--Shann

January 6 -- Dolphin Encounter day!

Reminder: click a photo to see the larger version.

Today was a very special day, one we had been looking forward to for quite a while. We found out about the Dolphin Research Center on Grassy Key (close to Marathon Key) from Rachel, one of Smoky's first models. He did some portfolio shots for her when she was 14 or 15, and she modeled for his classes at UT until she went away to college. Now she has graduated and works at the Dolphin Research Center as a photographer!

Smoky gets a kiss from Louie.

Smoky saw a Facebook posting of Rachel with one of the dolphins and that started it! When we decided to travel to the Keys, we knew we wanted to visit the Center, so we asked Rachel which of the visitor programs she would recommend. "The Dolphin Encounter," she said, enthusiastically, so we signed up!

We stopped by the DRC a couple of days ago just to get a feel for the facility and find out what to expect. The people who work at this facility -- in the check-in area, as trainers, as photographers -- are all so friendly and helpful. Best of all, each one we talked with that first day and today really care about the animals here. And they are doing a great job. It costs a lot of money to keep even one dolphin; there are about two dozen dolphins in residence, along with sea lions, birds, and some cats and iguanas! Some dolphins were born in the facility; others were rescued from oil spills or other situations that left them stranded and in need of a home. You can read more about the dolphins and the DRC at their website, http://www.dolphins.org/home.

Cayo had a kiss for Shann.

We arrived at the DRC today late morning so that we would have plenty of time to watch other programs and hear more about the dolphins. Our encounter was scheduled for 3 p.m. Smoky and I were among the first ones at the main lagoon waiting for our session to begin!

First we were assigned our dolphins -- Cayo and Louie -- and then we met our trainer, a young man who had come to the DRC right out of college as a trainer. He explained to us a little about how the session would go, emphasizing that the dolphins could choose to participate or not. The choice was theirs. Turning around, we realized that Rachel would be recording our adventure. The dolphin photos on this blog were all taken by Rachel! What a treat.

Smoky and Louie have a splash-off!

Cayo, an 8-year-old female who was born in the facility, is a bottlenose dolphin. Louie, her partner today, is also a bottlenose, who came to DRC as a rescue from the Exxon Gulf of Mexico oil spill. He was quite young when found after the spill. They estimate his age to be around 5 years. Most dolphins in the wild live 25 years or more, and at the center the oldest resident is in his 50s. So our two are just youngsters.

We had a great time interacting with our dolphins. Each encounter participant had a chance to give both dolphins the correct hand motions and words for specific actions, and we also had a dolphin pull. In our case, two of the other dolphins came over for our pull, since Cayo and Louie had taken a break! Taking turns, each participant swam away from the dock. Our trainer gave the dolphins a signal and they swam up, one on each side. We held onto the dorsal fin of each dolphin and enjoyed a fast ride around the training area! Smoky said this was probably the highlight of the encounter. But then again, he loved holding out his hand and having the dolphin swim slowly by so you could rub his back!

Reece and Santini provide the power; we enjoyed the ride!

Having a chance to interact with these curious, intelligent beings was incredible. Thank you Cayo, Louie, Reese, and Santini for this unforgetable experience.

Layton Trail, from Intercoastal Highway
to the Gulf of Mexico

Earlier today Smoky and I walked across the highway to a short trail through the mangroves. The Layton Trail is part of Long Key State Park. Smoky got inspired as we walked down the path and saw a lot of palmettos and other vegetation growing alongside the mangroves.

You can see some of his interpretations:

Palmetto leaves, by Smoky

Back in our room tonight, we are both tired and elated. What a day to remember!

--Shann