2023

Everglades National Park, Florida

Yup, the Everglades. During this trip, we only visited the Anhinga Trail, but I was wildly successful with the pictures I was able to get there.

When we first showed up, the pond in the front was populated with all kinds of fish. I'm a big fan of these ones with the yellow rings around their eyes.

Here's a nymph of an eastern lubber grasshopper, or R. microptera! I never would have imagined to see such a colorful and large insect here. They're just adorable!

When we first walked across the boardwalk, we missed this huge alligator snoozing beneath us. There were a good number of the beasts when we visited, and I was also able to identify at least one crocodile too. During my stay at Fort Lauderdale, I remember a resident telling me about a supposed alligator reserve somewhere near the Everglades, where hundreds of them can be found.

Here's a swallow-tailed kite. After we had came back to the start point of the trail, we saw two of these circling overhead.

Fish crows! They were also found where we started. Virtually indistinguishable from the American crow visually, they're most easily identified by their more nasal caw.

The eponymous bird of Anhinga Trail. I had to take this picture from really far away, but these birds have astonishing detail from almost any distance.

Cormorant time! There was saw a family of about three of them in total, all situated on their own little trees.

This little dragonfly caught my attention, and it took ages for them to finally calm down from all the flying so that I could take their picture.

I don't really know what most of the fish in the water were, but this was definitely a gar.

Lastly, here's another anhinga, in the process of landing on a tree as if it were a great airplane.