February 6, 2004 - Gulf Islands National Seashore, FL - 2

From Marathon on the Florida Keys, we went to Flamingo.  Flamingo is at the southernmost tip of mainland Florida, and is the campground, hotel/motel/marina for the Everglades National Park.

Can you say, "'gator bait"?  Well, not really (that's Barb after all).  These guys are pretty used to people, but there's enough of us "know-it-all" types around that anybody attempting to feed them or harass them would get yelled at.  We're at the Royal Palm stop inside the Everglades National Park (Florida City entrance) on our way to Flamingo where we'll camp.  I think this is the first time we've played tourist with our motorhome in the parking lot with the Jeep still attached.  Usually we'll go set up someplace, and then hop in the Jeep and go exploring. But this is our fourth time to the Everglades, and the third time to Royal Palm, so we kind of knew what we were getting into.  And each time we've been here, there have been some 'gators hanging out in this same spot.  Right by the visitor center with plenty of people gawking at them.  The last time we were here at Royal Palm was probably in the mid-'80's, and it was a lot dryer than it is now.

While it didn't wink at me, I think it was grinning at me.  And because I know how fast they can move, that's all the closer I'm getting, thank you very much.  And inside a kiosk with information I spotted this humungous mud-dauber nest.  It had to have been 8" long.  Mud-daubers are those big wasps with the real skinny middle.  They're the ones that stick spiders into the hole with their eggs so the baby will have something to eat when it hatches (I think I mentioned this before).  Anyway, they're sort of a nuisance to us RV types, because they can get into real small places and build these hard mud nests.  Places like furnace exhausts, refrigerator vents, and one time I left a life jacket laying under the trailer for a few days and when I went to get it there were several nests in various stages of completion in the folds of the jacket.

Went back to check on those earlier 'gators, and the big one was fussing at another smaller one who was climbing on him.  Opened his mouth and growled at him.  Sounded more like a big long belch than a dog's growl, but no mistaking its meaning.  The smaller 'gator simply ignored him.  Then off onto the Anhinga trail, which is a boardwalk through the swamp.  Spotted some turtles stacked against each other sunning themselves.

Little Blue Heron spotting its lunch.  Part of the trail takes us through a grassy area, and there in the middle was this flower, so you know Barb had to have a shot of it.  Sort of arresting with its brilliant white in this sea of grass.  Appropriately, it's a swamp lily.

Yeah, more flowers, but this time a Great Blue Heron sharing the honors.  Kind of funny to see just its head sticking up above the grass.  It was in full mating plumage, too.  We really love the GBH's as we refer to them.  There was a highway in Auburn, WA, being built, and one of the areas it went through was a wetlands, so the builder made a new wetland to meet the state/federal requirements, and it became a GBH nesting site.  We loved to go watch them building their nests, and could hardly wait for the fuzzy heads of the youngsters to pop up over the edge of the nests.

Several of these little guys were in evidence, so the population of 'gators here must be stable, if not growing.  And a little green heron working its way through the marsh, looking for chow.

Seems the big 'gators growl about having a young one climb on them, but that's about all that happens, near as we could tell.  And an Anhinga.  Or "snake bird" as it's sometimes called.  The bird the trail is named after.  These birds will "fly" underwater to catch their dinner, and are often seen with just their necks out of water likening them to snakes. 

This younger 'gator was lying about 6 feet off the trail, and we got to see some real detail.  There's something about having webbed feet and not using them that I find interesting.  I'm still much like a 4 yr. old, constantly asking "Why?".  See, when the 'gator is in the water swimming along, it doesn't use its feet.  They just dangle alongside its body.  And that begs the question as to why the feet are webbed.

The prettiest coot is the Purple Gallinule.  Still a coot with its behavior and calls though.  And then at long last, a "real" fishing trip.  We chartered a boat, complete with Captain, bait, and gear.  All we had to do was bring money.  And since Bill and Carol went along with us, we got a 1/2 day trip for a tad over $100.  Yeah, we could have gone on a party boat for less, but what fun is that?  Bill and I are avid fishermen, and have taken plenty of party boat rides, and each of us have owned boats and gone into familiar waters with them and caught fish, but a charter boat was a new experience for Barb and I, anyway.  Here the Captain is sloshing a citrus bag full of frozen fish parts to attract some bait fish.  I'd mentioned I'd as soon spend my time fishing for Tarpon as anything else, and he was trying to accommodate that by having some live needle fish for me.  The depth of the water here, a mile or so from land is about 3 to 4 feet!

Captain John flung the net, the weights around the perimeter settled to the bottom, he pulled it up by the string in the center, trapping several little bait fish for the tarpon.  And I kept at it until Bill caught this Black Drum which weighed about 20 pounds or so.  We'd been told they were real good eating, and we'd decided to keep a few for dinner.  Barb had been catching small fish that were being tossed back, Bill had caught a sea trout that we kept, and I think Carol (who isn't all that excited about fishing) caught a blue crab which none of us had seen before (it has blue claws).  All I'd been doing was killing bait fish, and when Bill caught this I too became a convert.  We'll have to come back to Florida another time to catch the tarpon I guess.

Barb had caught a bunch of lady fish, a lion fish, and some others that weren't worth keeping, when she hooked something that was pretty heavy.  Turned out to be a stingray.  Turned it loose too.  The Captain had this nifty hook remover like I'd never seen before.  Worked real good, too.  Didn't have to handle the fish, and the hook was quick and easy to remove.  Took me a few tries before I got the technique down.  Another advantage of a charter boat is that the Captain will let you do as much or as little as you like.  I wanted to learn how to use shrimp as bait (something new for me) and he was patient with me, showing me how to bite the tails off and put them on the hook without killing them immediately.  Both Bill and I got pretty good at it, although I never did see him bite the tail off.  He'd just break it off. (grin)

Yeah, it was chilly at 8 AM with the wind caused by the boat running to a fishing spot, but we were fishing!  And the women didn't complain any either.  Maybe they were enjoying their husbands having a great time of it.

There's usually something hanging around these markers, and sure enough, Carol nailed what was probably a huge grouper.  We never got the chance to see it, as it broke the line.  But it was exciting to see the line running out like that anyway.  And yeah, there were birds all over the place, like this perching pelican.

Heading back into the marina, on the left is one of the blue tour boats my late brother Bill was the Captain of when we was working here.  Tied up to the pier, cleaning up things and gathering our stuff, and guess who discovered the bait tank had its lid off!

Shooing it away by yelling and swinging our arms at it, drove it clear over to the railing.  Sheese!  And there we are, fillets in the bag I'm holding in front of Carol.  And it obviously had warmed up a bit by noon.  And I'm here to tell you, black drum is a great tasting fish!  Capt. John cleaned all the fish (3 Black Drum and one Sea Trout) for us as part of the deal too.  Great time, and would recommend it to anybody who wants to make sure they get to catch some decent fish.

Around the campground were all kinds of fun wildlife.  A butterfly bush, full of them, and then the daily morning routine of a flock of Ibis.  No, they're not grazing the grass, they're after bugs hiding in the grass.

You've heard of the old man and the sea?  Well, this is the old man and the tree!  I'd better be careful here, as I'm about 10 days older than Bill.  That water in the background is Florida Bay where we'd been fishing.  And another shot of the butterfly bush, only this time it has something other than just the Southern Whites on it.

If we were to spend a full season down here, this is the kind of boat I'd be looking at.  Shallow enough to get into most the flats, tall enough tower to see the sandbars easily, enough power so you'd not be spending all day running to the good fishing spots, and, most importantly, an enclosed head!  Having a nice cabin for light cooking and a bunk or two for naps is good too.  So, if charting a boat is good, what's better?  Taking a rental boat out, that's what!  And that's exactly what we did.  Barb and I had been down this canal on a tour boat before, and we'd picked up some pointers on how and where to fish, so it's off to poke around and do a little fishing in the process.  As you can tell by Bill's attire, it's not real cold today, either.