On Monday we made the 1.5 hour drive down to Everglades National Park, where we took a naturalist cruise through the Ten Thousand Islands area and then spent time in Shark Valley (Mary on a naturalist tram tour and Rich and Alan in bicycles). On our way home, we drove along the Everglades Loop Road and then walked the Big Cypress Bend boardwalk in Fakahatchee Strand Preserve State Park.

Ten Thousand Islands

Great blue heron

Brown pelican in a tree
(You would expect the tree branch to bend greatly when this large bird lands, but in fact adult pelicans weigh only about 5 pounds.)

Osprey and one of several chicks in the nest
(Osprey lay their eggs several days apart, and the eggs hatch several days apart. That insures that one chick will be larger than the others, which allows it to fight for enough food in times of scarcity to ensure that at least the first chick will survive.)

Royal tern

Osprey carrying a fish it just caught

Dolphin
(We saw lots of these - including some making baby dolphins! We also saw some manatees. But getting pictures of these marine mammals is tough. I ended up with a lot of photos showing only the rings of water when the dolphins or manatees had just submerged!)

This is typical of the rock in southwestern Florida - limestone which is heavily etched by the tannic acid produced by the mangroves.

Shark Valley

Alan and Rich

Sawgrass - the primary vegetation in the Everglades

Wood stork
(I know it's a lousy photo, but this is an endangered species and this is the only photo I got of one.)

Everglades Loop Road

Alligator

Great egret

Tricolored heron

Big Cypress Bend

We did this walk quickly at the end of the day and didn't bother with any photos because it was similar to other things we had seen earlier.