Loxahatchee Wildlife Refuge

How do you "do" Florida in just 10 hours? That's the aggregate amount of daylight time I had to myself on my trip to Florida in early May (everything else was dedicated to a business conference). How do you fit most of what's amazing about that state's wildlife into a basically one-day sightseeing period? Well, you start by doing a month worth of planning. My plans included a detailed hour-by-hour itinerary starting from when the plane landed to when my business conference began. I triangulated all of the nature preserves by their proximity to the airport, the hotel, and the richness of the wildlife. I planned the road routes carefully to maximize the availability of coffee (my day had started at 4am) and minimize traffic light stopping times. While I had a nibble at the airport, proper lunch was going to have to wait until the sun went down. After all, a May day in Florida is not to be wasted lightly!

The result is the series of pictures that follows, in this and several future blogs. Each one highlights a particular park. These are from Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge (basically, a big swamp between the Everglades and Lake Okeechobee). Enjoy!

I think any show of Florida wildlife has to start with the alligators. My long lens makes it seem like I got closer to it than I did in reality, but it was still an awesome sight:


Baby gator in another puddle:


I saw the biggest grasshoppers I've ever seen there:




This is the Great Blue Heron that was modeling for so many visitors there:


You can see how close you could actually get to it:

A typical hot lazy Florida afternoon sight:


Common Moorhen:


Painted Turtle:


Little Blue Heron. Why not blue? It's a first-year bird. It's actually just molting into its adult colors - you can see some blue feathers starting to peek out.


Black-Hooded Parakeet. Not native to Florida, but a bunch of escapees have made it their adopted land. Now they nest, raise families, and support themselves there fully independently.


A curious Tricolored Heron:


Some more various wildlife: