Dagny Johnson Key Largo Hammock Botanical State Park could use better signage; we missed it on the first drive by, thanks also to an unhelpful location from Google Maps. It resides “on land bought up in 1982 after the financial demise of Port Bougainville, a project which would have included 15 hotels and over 2000 condos.” (wiki) Its entrance has a large archway fitting for a housing development, and visitors walk on pavement that is beginning to crumble and other bits of construction from that earlier intended use. Some interesting history of Key Largo, including the changing of hands and various land use, is recounted here.

The stones used here are made from keystone, a limestone thick with fossilized corals. (photo by quoderat)

Several signs, and more importantly tags on the actual trees, identify notable species along the trail. The tropical hammock here is very dense, with the trees often arching over even the two car-widths paths.

Trunk of a blolly tree (by quoderat)

Wild coffee (by zanna)

Where the tidal waters reach, the hammock turns to mangroves. We were there during high tide, and the outer loop of the trail was submerged. Quoderat found a millipede near here. (photo by zanna)

We saw a couple of grebes and many fish in an excavated channel in the middle of the loop trail. (by quoderat)

On our way back, we watched while a white ibis wrangled and snapped at and eventually ate a huge, wriggling and very unappetizing looking (to us) centipede. (by quoderat)

Immediately outside the city areas of greater Miami, the agriculture starts. Lots of squash and tomatoes — the fresh produce that stocks grocery stores in the winter months. A few minutes beyond and you reach Everglades National Park.

As with all of Florida, a few inches difference in elevation completely changes the ecosystem. From the Long Pine Key day use area, the short Three-in-One Trail covers pine rockland, tropical hardwood hammock, and freshwater marsh. As we are here in the dry season, the marsh had no standing water, allowing us to cross the grasses dry-footed to the Long Pine Key Trail.

We saw several halloween pennant dragonflies patrolling the marsh grasses and pinelands. (by zanna)

Quoderat spotted and photographed this red-banded hairstreak while I was trying to get more red-breasted woodpecker shots.

In the dense tropical hardwood hammock, we entered deep shade accompanied by a several degree drop in temperature. (by zanna)

Backlit gumbo-limbo bark. (by quoderat)

Though thistles are everywhere, we aren’t familiar with this particular kind. (by quoderat)

Ours was the only vehicle when we first pulled into the easy Pinelands trail. Signs explained that the tree snails in the Everglades developed distinct color patterns in isolated hardwood hammocks where they eat lichen in the (even more) humid summer months and estivate (hibernate) through the dry months. In the past, collectors had sometimes burned down hammocks after harvesting the snail shells in order to make their collection more valuable. (by quoderat)

We visited Lee County’s Manatee Park last winter and liked it so much we came back today. Although only 17 acres, the park was thoughtfully laid out to attract all kinds of wildlife. The manatees and other marine animals congregate in winter for the warm water in the discharge canal from the power plant across the street. But there is also a butterfly garden and areas planted for several common Florida habitats. (All pictures are by quoderat except for the pirate manatee, which zanna took. Quoderat also did the photo processing.)

The Gulf of Mexico is starting to warm up again, but there were still lots of manatees and fish in the canal during our visit. The younger manatees surface for air more frequently than the larger ones; perhaps they can’t hold their breath as long yet. Many of the older manatees have propeller scars on their backs. They seem so relaxed, drifting up to the surface, raising their nose just into the air, and then drifting back down with a wave of their broad tale.

There is a fenced walkway that runs the length of the canal, letting the humans get close enough to watch, but not bother the manatees. There are lots of informative signs describing manatee behavior and biology along the path. Here is the donations box:

There was a huge old tarpon in the canal as well, probably over five feet long. It didn’t come near the surface of the water often, so it didn’t get its picture taken. Neither did the leaping mullet. This school of gar fish did though.

There are lots of birds at the park as well. This red-bellied woodpecker seemed interested in a bee flying around this tree’s flowers.

White ibis, common in Florida, but always striking with their bright salmon colored skin and blue eyes.

So far, this still feels much like a weekend adventure, just with more stuff and more free flowing. We are still deciding where we will go tomorrow. This morning we chose Six Mile Cypress Slough Preserve near Fort Myers. It has a 1.2 mile boardwalk with several viewing platforms looking out at ponds. We gave ourselves two hours (parking is $1 per hour or $5 for the day) and had to take the shortcut to get back in time, but we were also really ready for lunch by then. After working so hard on moving, this short walk seemed like it was long enough for today and we rested up during the afternoon.

This was the second use of our new Canon 70-300mm DO lens, and the first while using its lens hood, which makes a huge difference with this lens. We are quite pleased with the results. While not quite as good as our Canon 100-400mm L lens (the lens quoderat shot with) and obviously without as much reach, it’s looking like with its compact size and lighter weight it will be well suited for our purposes. Quoderat converted all of the photos below to blog format.

There were lots of other birders and photographers around, and several kindly let us know where a creature had recently been spotted. Several volunteers were guiding groups along the boardwalk as well.

Gator bike rack at the Preserve parking lot (zanna)

Looking back at the amphitheater across a lake formed when soil was removed for building a nearby roadbed. (zanna)

These cypress were planted in 1990 as 8 year old trees. (zanna)

When the cypress balls (seeds) drop into the water, they release oils that shimmer on the surface. (quoderat)

One of many small birds we saw, perhaps a palm warbler? (zanna)

The water, flowing slowly towards Estero Bay, was quite clear. As in all of Florida, the mosquito fish are everywhere there is a few inches of water. We saw several larger fish as well.

This lovely black crowned night heron stood stone still for us quite near the boardwalk. (quoderat)

Boardwalk (quoderat)

Looking into the ferns (zanna)

There were bromeliads everywhere. (zanna)

Mushrooms circling above the water line (quoderat)

We’ve really done it; our trip has begun. We’ve handed back the keys to our previous home, taken our last load to the storage unit and driven off with all the items which we want to have near us for the next year loaded into the pickup.

Much of the stuff I am glad to be rid of: a computer chair that was falling apart but wasn’t worth replacing for a few months of use, an annoying alarm clock, a lawn mower brought from our prior home that sat unused in our garage for a year.  Without a next home to go to, we couldn’t just throw everything in random boxes to be sorted later (without getting a house sized storage unit anyway), so every item had to be looked at and weighed for utility, sentimental value and packability.

We’re still tired from moving (yay for not having to move that TV stand again), so we’ll be taking the next few days slowly, in addition to just figuring out how to do this long term traveling thing. We’ll clearly need to do further reorganizing to make our stuff easier to access and transport, and swap out things that don’t work out well. So far, staying hydrated and having paper towels available have been most important.

It is a good beginning to the many adventures ahead of us.