If you go west from the Soth East beaches of Hollywood and Ft Lauderdale you arrive at the wilderness area known the world over ……….the Everglades. As a visitor you can get a flavour of the area at the Everglades Holliday Park and Sawgrass Recreation Area, In the las few days we have had an extreme amount of rain and the drainage canals have a lot of water in them. The oxygenated water has created some excitement amongst the wildlife and today we watched a dozen or more Double Crested Cormorants fishing by a fresh water sluice gate that was pumping gallons of new water in to the system. Swirling amongst the fast flowing water were some massive Tarpon who from time to time breached like ocean going dolphin. As I watched a large Alligator, at least 10 foot long, slowly but surely moved in to the deep pool. The Cormorants exited in the other direction to a safe distance.

There was a certain amount of regret that the ‘gator didn’t grab a ‘take out’ but I suppose that would have been expecting too much. Florida and Aligators go hand in hand and my annual trip to the Sunshine State is not complete without at least one sighting.
Back to the Cormorants who before they were sent packing were not too worried about me and I got some nice shots of them swimming and bathing.
 

I have been seeing Loggerhead Shrike since I got here but the opportunity for a good shot didn’t really happen until today. If nothing else then this photo shows the importance of two basic principles of successful bird and wildlife photography. First, get as close as you can and then hope that there is enough light.

Eentually if you are here long enough and you have a bit of luck you are bound to get mean and close up to an Osprey. This one was eating in trees by the canal at Sawgrass.