More pictures of our ongoing Everglades adventures.
We went to the Everglades National Park on Saturday. I know, same old story, only we know every day in ENP is different. It is why we keep going back. Anyhow, we started out at Paroutis Pond, a main rookery, to have a picnic snack. While there an alligator swam up on us. We, the alligator and us, were equally startled by the other. Another family was having lunch a few yards away so I went over to tell them of the alligator. Turns out the were from Korea and this was their first ever alligator sighting. Fun stuff.
Next was Anhinga. There we watched an Anhinga kill and eat a South American Walking Catfish. Check out the picture of that! This particular fish is an exotic so the native birds have had to adapt to how they eat them. The other notable event was seeing our first Wood Stork. We also talked with Ranger Jackie, she coordinates the Park’s volunteers. We learned from her that our experience with the alligator at Paroutis Pond was good news. Turns out we people feed the alligators they lose their fear of people. That could be very dangerous where we were because help is a ways away. To paraphrase Ranger Jackie, ‘”alligators don’t take kindly to no.” In fact an alligator had to be captured and relocated to another area of the Park because people had been feeding it.
It was a fun day all around.
