The REAL Alligator Alley!

We've heard that the interstate highway 75 is "Alligator Alley" but we can't vouch for that. What we can vouch for is the stretch of highway 41 heading east towards the Everglades. After leaving Naples and driving east, about 20 miles out, start looking to your left at the Everglades canals and waterways and you'll start seeing them.

Last year about this time, we saw one right after another. This year, because the water is so high from all the rain they've had earlier this fall, the banks are not there for the alligators to sun themselves. We had to drive much farther east to start seeing them. And see them, we did!

One of our favorite spots to stop and learn some new things is the H.P. Williams boardwalk/park. There's usually a naturalist or two there and we always learn some new things we didn't know before...Did you know the ibis has a nickname--"Chokoloskee chicken"?  They move their heads like chickens when they feed...Chokoloskee is a town/island in Florida. How the two go together, I'm not sure, but the Calusa Indians and locals use to eat ibis as a source of food.  And drum roll, please!....They taste like....CHICKEN!

Did you know alligators never sleep?  They have a highly efficient thermal regulating system that shuts down their organs when it's cool, they go into a sort of coma state...BUT THEY'RE AWAKE. Did you know they don't eat humans unless they perceive them as food? Well, DUH, Sparky! What is meant by that is, if some dumb tourist (and it AIN'T Sparky!) throws some food to them and nothing happens, it's the next person who comes along who might be in trouble. If the alligator views THEM as a food source--they might come after you. The naturalist said they can run VERY fast for only a couple of seconds...BUT at speeds up to 30 m.p.h.! But most of the time, they are very docile. Are you SURE, guys? This one doesn't look like it, although he does look like he's smiling!

Alligators WOULD go after a little dog, because it's low to the ground, moves like prey so it would be viewed as a food source. A person swimming would be viewed as a food source....If something is in the range of its ground level viewing, all bets are off! So consider yourself forewarned! Hm-m-mm..I wonder if a kayak is perceived as a possible food source?

Next, we stopped off at the Big Cypress Information Center....it's got a nice boardwalk where you can see manatees, alligators sometimes, and various birds...the manatees are just starting to come in from the gulf waters. As the gulf cools down, the manatees moved inland....There were three, one of them a baby, but we just saw one...There's somewhere in Florida where you can swim with the manatees, I'd love to do that! It's probably not an ecologically sound idea, but it still sounds cool!

Wanna see some BIG alligators? Head to the Oasis Welcome Center....there are always big gators in the canals right outside the boardwalk at the visitor center...Here are some BIG BAD boys.....The one laying his head on the other just cracks me up with his expression! Sort of like, "Duh, what's up, people?"

Then we saw something else really cool at the Oasis boardwalk...a female anhinga (brown heads/necks are females, black heads are males) was swimming underwater at our feet under the boardwalk..Up she pops out onto a branch with a fish! And we watched her flip the fish several times until she got the head first into her mouth, then she swallowed it whole! That's how they eat fish--gotta have the head first go down.

After her tasty meal, she spread her wings to dry.....anhingas don't have oil in their feathers for buoyancy like ducks do...so they have to "hang out" to dry.....

On the way home, we saw some wood storks...I think they are endangered....but there seemed to be quite a few in the waterways and marshy swamps along that same highway 41...I'm so glad I got to see them and they didn't fly away as I approached!

It was quite a spectacular nature show today.......You can't beat the Everglades for some wonderful viewing experiences!

Gators Galore and More

Air boat in the Everglades

Freeloaders, uh, birds, along for the ride

You'd think we'd had our fill of alligator sightings, but nope! Not yet! We're still seeing them and not always looking for them either. Today we wanted to see more of the Everglades. There was a reasonably priced boat tour, a catamaran that goes out from the Everglades National Park. When we got to the park, the boat was very full and it was going to be an hour's wait. We decided to head down to Speedy's airboat tours. They claim to go thru the grasslands instead of just the water, unlike some of the other tours. Well, they don't call themselves "Speedy's" for nothing! These guys LOVE their jobs as demonstrated by the way they pilot the boats. We were expecting a sedate boat ride, a naturalist's commentary on the Everglades, and a slow boat to China type tour. Wrong! (That's the national park tour) This was the hang onto your hats and seat rails, as you are going to be swung around every open marsh pond, leaving a monstrous fan-tail swoosh behind you, each one bigger than the last! It's a good thing they provide ear protection because these boats are LOUD!  Even with ear protection...No commentary to speak of, just a fabulous ride into Everglades country, seeing gorgeous scenery, marshlands, mangroves, and beautiful birds. We saw pelicans land on a competitor's boat, (they obviously must feed them.)  Bet that can get messy sometimes for both boat and passengers! We saw an osprey tear into some fresh prey...we saw a gator about nine feet long, but nothing like the ones we've been seeing along highway 41 around Everglades City and highway 29....

Mangrove tunnels

There had been quite a bit of rain a couple of days ago, so the water level was good for the ecosystem....we drove quite a bit through heavy mangrove tunnels that were just absolutely gorgeous. They seemed very healthy and were growing like crazy.  It was a beautiful sun shiny day, in the 60's, but you actually needed a jacket to stay warm today. At some points, they drive the boats FAST! which adds a little wind chill factor in, lol...At the end of the tour (about an hour) we got a great tip from the captain to go see gators safely. Instead of gawking along highway 41, which is a dangerous stretch of road with no place to pull off, pull into the Big Cypress Bend Nature Preserve, and check out the Turner River Road Scenic Drive. It's a left turn off highway 41 South past state road 29.

This drive has a boardwalk at the beginning of it, and we saw some incredible things...the usual gators, a BABY alligator that tried to crawl through the observer fence into the parking lot but then backed his way out after getting stuck for a moment, many herons, and an anhinga (the black bird that spread its wings constantly to dry them out before he can go fishing again). It was beautiful!

Where's my mama? I know she's in here somewhere!

But nothing tops the five or six alligators that we have seen every day in the same spot sunning themselves along the canals along highway 41 just north of state road 29 as we drive back to Naples. Nor can it top all the herons, ibis, egrets and hundreds of variety of birds that camp out on that same stretch of canal around the Everglades City area.  For some reason, this is the right time of year to see all the alligators and birds on this highway, and there are a TON of them. You just need to make sure the driver isn't doing the sidelines watching, you are! Either way, highway 41 or the Big Cypress Nature Preserve, it's truly awesome to see all this nature for free!

Cool bird seen at the Big Cypress Nature Preserve

OK,  I've saved the best "baddie" for last...thank goodness there was a fence between us..this is only about a 4X zoom in at that! And I DO mean it this time, see you LATER, alligator!

The baby alligator's mama, we think!