Morning and Mrazek in the Everglades

Monday January 27, 2013
Flamingo Campground
Everglades National Park

We have been at Everglades National Park for 10 days with no phone or internet. This is the 4th in a quick series of posts about those days. I wrote them while I was there and am publishing them three per day until I am caught up.  Although 3 per day may be optimistic since the internet here in Big Cypress is taking a very long time to post anything.  If you’d like to see #2  A Fabulous Day on Florida Bay, or #3 Not Such a Great Idea: Bear Lake trail and more, published earlier today, click their titles.

 

 

 

It’s a fog shrouded Everglades Morning.

 

 

Connie Troops puts it perfectly when she says in her book on The Everglades, “ On many mornings in the stillness of the dawn, fog shrouds the landscape, lending a remote and mysterious appearance to the Everglades.  Before the first breath of wind swirls the mist, vague silhouettes of gnarled trees and roosting birds drift on a featureless grey backdrop.”   This seems even more true with each morning I go out at dawn as the days get hazier, hotter and more humid.

 

Thursday will be the new moon so this morning there is only a sliver in the deep blue sky.

 

 

 

 

Early fishermen in boats and on wings are out early as the sun begins to burn off the haze and color the world before it rises over the horizon..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As I walk away from the shore and toward Eco Pond, I see neither the hawk nor the kestrel are in the scag tree.  Today it is a trio of diversity.

 

 

One last look over my shoulder shows the blaze of light that will soon heat everything up to 80 degrees they say.

 

 

The sun hasn’t gotten to Eco Pond yet so the haze remains.

 

 

 

How about these bookends???

 

I go a little over board with the roseate spoonbills.  I’m so happy to see them.  I know Carrie won’t mind and I’ll bet you won’t either.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As I walk around the pond through foliage, I spy this Gulf Fritillary butterfly.

 

 

Roseates aren’t the only birds at the pond this morning.   The double-crested Cormorant, white ibis, tri colored heron and little blue heron and great blue heron are also here.

 

 

 

 

Here’s my latest entry in the attempt to get a picture of the lightning fast kingfisher.  He  really is there if you look closely.

 

 

 

 

 

The conditions rule out the hiking and kayaking trails we were hoping to do today.  So now what?

 

By mid morning it is H-O-T and H-U-M-I-D.   That of course means mosquitoes and not a day for a hike or a paddle down lined trails.  Instead after reading for a while, we drive up to Mrazek Pond one side of which faces the road and is away from the mangroves and hopefully the mosquitoes.  We take our chances in short sleeves and shorts so we won’t melt.  82 degrees seems much hotter here with the 110% humidity.

What we find is a bonanza of birds.   The pond is full of coots and moorhens, green winged teals, blue winged teals, reddish egrets and more.

 

 

 

For the ducks it’s “bottoms up”.

 

 

 

Lots of those bottoms up are coots.  They are so cute.

 

 

 

I wish my camera and I were good enough at dealing with the light to pick up the details of these feathers. 
They are just gorgeous.

 

 

 

Wish I could see the pictures this guy takes with his mega lens.  I’d think you could see every feather on the coot’s back.

 

 

We see anhingas in the water fishing, their snake necks peeking out every once in a while.  And then they strike a pose while drying their gossamer looking wings.

 

 

Roseate Spoonbills are in the water and in the air.

 

Reddish egrets dancing around stirring up the fish so they can catch them.  These birds are among the most fun to watch as they prance and dance around.

 

 

I’m not sure if these moorhens are now called Gallinules or not.  “They” keep changing the name but they are moorhends to me and I like their candy corn colored bills.

 

 

The stars of the show for us are the blue and green winged teals since we have not seen them here before.  In my Florida bird book, only the blue wing with their white face stripe are listed so perhaps the green are rare down here but they are quite spectacular.

I learned that the blue winged teal is one of the smallest ducks in North America and one of the longest distance migrating ducks, with widespread nesting as far north as Alaska.  Obviously they prefer Flamingo in the winter time, we do too.

 

 

 

The green winged teal male has a brown head and a dark green patch that shows in the sunlight.  It looks black in the shade. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Clearly the little ducks are no competition for the food of the great egret but when a great blue heron flies in squawking, the egret moves to another spot.  

 

 

 

 

The tri colored heron is much easier to spot along the shore than is the little green heron who blends in so well with his surroundings few of my pictures of him are in focus.

 

 

 

 

 

Time to head home for dinner so we say THE END to Mrazek Pond.  We will definitely return before our time here is up.

 

On the way back, we stop at Eco Pond to see if the mosquitoes have lightened up.   Not much we find but we do stay a short while to watch the Reddish Egret dancing around.   I love his colors including his partially pink bill.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And finally we stop by the scag tree when I see someone new is there.   It is the red shouldered hawk I had been expecting to see when we arrived here.  Such beautiful beautiful creatures on this amazing planet of ours.   It was definitely a great day for birds including Florida’s state bird, the mosquito.