Park Ranger-led Events

This is a summary of some of the programme that we attended, available to all park visitors. Apologies if even the edited version is a bit long-winded.

1.      The Mosquito talk.  43 species of mosquito in the Park. Only the female bites. 13 out of the 43 bite humans. If I don’t use repellent, all 13 will bite me. It’s the low season now, but in summer, in ideal condition, one square metre of shallow water can produce one million mosquitos. The Park reduces to a skeleton crew after the end of March because of the increasingly immense numbers and extreme irritation of these insects.

       There are other biting insects my can of repellent claims to deter, like “chiggers” and “no-see-ums”, whatever they are, and obviously you won’t spot them to find out!

2.    Manatee Talk. A large aquatic mammal (approx.1 ton weight). Gentle sea  grass        feeder. Nearest relative: the elephant. We didn’t see it.

3.    Dawn Bird Walk. The ranger pointed out some interesting birds in the dawn bird walk. Some, like the osprey, are rare in the UK but common here. This one’s caught a fish and is eating it on a dead tree. My picture was taken through the ranger’s bird scope, hence the wedding-photo halo.

Vultures are common throughout Florida: the turkey vulture and the black vulture. They do a grand job of clearing up any dead creatures or holidaymakers. However, you do wonder how the fallen manage to support such large numbers often seen wheeling in the sky.

 It won’t be of general interest to detail the many smaller birds we saw, but here’s a couple of quite nice photos. First one’s a black-necked stilt, then a cardinal.

5.   Different Habitat Areas. Another ranger took us to several locations some miles apart where various micro habitats existed. The most unusual was called a hammock, a kind of small island rising only about a foot above the swamp, but high enough to support a mini forest of tropical hardwood. This is the raised walkway to Mahogany Hammock that shows the hammock’s slight elevation.

 

Inside the hammock it’s a tropical jungle. But no monkeys. That’s Jane in the red trousers.

The hammock contains the largest mahogany tree in America. It’s big, but a more interesting tree is the gumbo-limbo tree, or the tourist tree as it is known locally because the bark is red and peeling.

The name gumbo-limbo comes from its Caribbean origins and refers to the locals’ ancient practice of using the sticky sap to catch birds. It has some medicinal properties: the bark is anti-inflammatory and antiseptic. So you could presumably use it if you fell foul of the manchineel tree.

A more sinister tree is the strangler fig. It slowly engulfs its host, which then dies and rots away, leaving just the strangler fig.

The Everglades was a magical place. All wildlife is sacred, apart from mosquitos. Now to Pine Island, 250 miles north on the Gulf of Mexico.