After two and a half hours of flying and another hour or so looking at the Fort Lauderdale - Miami landscape we arrived at the Hampton Inn in Homestead, Florida. Susan, our course Leader for this year's excursion gave us a little down time. So after checking in to our rooms and donning bathing suits we hung out in or around the pool until dinner time. After an enjoyable meal of tacos, rice and beans we started out for our first "science tour".
At around 8PM, Donna, David and I, along with 38 middle school students stepped off the bus in Everglades National Park. For Florida it was a somewhat cool, breezy and not-too-humid evening as we watched the sun move closer to the horizon. The students and their parents were warned that this section of the Everglades was "mosquito heaven". The mosquito is one of the lowest organisms in the "River of Grass" food web and therefore the primary food source for all sorts of organisms from the fishes that inhabit the slough to the birds that fly above it. So before we left the hotel, the students dutifully applied bug spray, changed into long sleeved shirts and pants and some, like myself even had head nets. On previous trips when our bus pulled up to the visitor's center at Anhinga Trail biting insects (including a few deer flies) were already hovering by the windows look at the potential for fresh blood. Not so, this year! To my amazement it was quiet as we departed the bus into the park. No whine of mosquito wings in my ears. No slapping of exposed skin. No mosquitoes????
After a brief lesson about the Everglades and "observation etiquette", we started our hike along Anhinga Trail. One of our first interesting finds was the lubber grasshopper...always a favorite target of mine for photographing. So as the group of kids, led by Susan moved further away from me, I was happily focusing and shooting, focusing and shooting and yes focusing and shooting looking for that perfect close-up of an insect that I had to dissect in college.
As dusk settled into night, a nearly full moon started to become visible in the night sky. The hushed voices of the students (not so hushed as I would like...but not bad for middle school kids) ahead could be heard. But so too were the unforgettable sounds of frogs. Among the night sounds we heard the grunts of pig frogs, the chirps of cricket frogs and more calls from pickerel and carpenter frogs as well as the southern toad. Later the distinct call of the green tree frog and southern toad made our list.
At this point in our hike, more and more flashlights started to illuminate the darkness, most beams being directed toward the water as we looked intently for two beady red eyes peering out of the sawgrass. The American alligator was at the tail-end of breeding season so we didn't expect to hear the bull roar of gators looking for a mate. But we did expect to see these large reptiles...and we weren't disappointed. As the trail made a turn, maybe a quarter-mile into our hike, we encountered two rather small alligators sitting quietly under the bridge. They didn't seem at all interested in us, even with excited voices and flashlight beams focused on their faces. After a few photos we moved on looking for some big gators. I was busy taking night photos along the way so again the group got pretty far ahead. There were just too many things to see in such a short time. I photographed pond apples, saw grass, more lubber grasshoppers and the trail itself with the flash on and sometimes just by flashlight. Night photography is a bit of a challenge so I'm always working at improving this. I heard that some kids found a pair of mating walking sticks (stick insects) but I missed them. At times I just watched the gar swimming below me in the clear waters of the slough.
We did see those big gators we were hoping to see...first the red eyes in a distance, and the movement of water little closer, but a few ventured close enough to the excited students that we got some neat pictures...in our minds and in our cameras. We continued the hike until around 9:30 and then headed back to our bus and eventually the Hampton Inn. A few more photos of lubber grasshoppers, a couple of shots of a Cuban anole and a failed attempt at recording some night sounds rounded out the evening. All-in-all it was a good start to our science trip. And amazingly no mosquitoes.
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