Everglades National Park - Everglades City

We drove to Everglades City, FL on the western side of Everglades National Park.

We arrived in the late afternoon and went out to the boat dock to look at the sunset. We found a few birds while waiting.

The next morning, I went for a slow 5K run around town and saw a number of birds, a Black Vulture, Pelican, Osprey nest, White Ibis, Red-breasted Woodpecker and Belted Kingfisher. I didn’t run with my nice camera, only my cellphone, so no photos. It was 65 F and 95% humidity. You pretty much loop through the whole town on a 5K, it isn’t that big.

We took the 90 minute, 10000 Islands boat tour.

There are dolphins that live in the bay. It is shallow, as little as three feet in places. The dolphins here are smaller than ones that live in the ocean. We got to see them, and they surfed the wake of the boat for a while, often jumping sideways.

Our guide hadn’t seen an osprey chasing another osprey off a nest before.

White Pelicans fish in a large group. They circle over a group of fish using their shadows to herd the fish into a tight bunch. Then they dive in and grab a fish. A lone white pelican can’t hunt that way and may starve to death, as they eat up to four pounds of fish a day.

There was a brown pelican diving for fish repeatedly. It extends its neck at the last moment before impact with the water. Brown Pelicans are a little smaller than the White Pelicans, but they still need to catch a lot of fish.

After lunch, we went to Janes Memorial Scenic Drive in Fakahatchee Strand Preserve State Park to see some more wildlife.

Then we drove along highway 41 into Big Cypress National Preserve. We stopped at the Welcome Center briefly and then went to HP Williams Roadside Park, which is a small boardwalk along a canal. It was rich in wildlife.

The Anhinga doesn’t have much oil on its feathers, so must dry off after diving for fish before flying.

And of course, you can’t visit the Everglades without seeing an Alligator.

This Little Blue Heron posed so nicely for us and the late afternoon light was really good here.

To end our day we went to Chokoloskee to see the general store and see if that was a good place to watch a sunset.

We ended up returning to the boat dock for sunset.