Everglades National Park

Everglades National Park: Our backyard National Park. We went camping in Long Pine Key camp area and  then hiked the Anhinga Trail. There are so many birds and alligators around now. The ones on the Anhinga trail don't seem to be too afraid of humans either.

Double Crested Cormorant

Turkey Vulture

Alligators

Female Anhinga

The wild child

The girl loves to be in trees. 

More Atlanta area National Parks

We went to two outdoor parks today : Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield and Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area. It was a very hot day , over 100, and we mostly stayed in the visitor center at Kennesaw and did the JR program inside. At Chattahoochee we went in the deliciously cool water.

Canadian Geese rarely make it to S. Florida

Camping at Jonathon Dickinson State Park

We went camping with a few friends at Jonathon Dickinson State Park. Our one mistake was getting a site at Pine Grove. There's no shade there. Apparently there had been fire or storm damage to the trees. It was like camping in a field. But it was still fun, we just spent all our time down by the water(or in it!)

Pine Grove site

This tree had the sand washed out from under it!

Owls out during the day!

Getting a new inflatable kayak ready

Paddling down the river

Daisies Hike at Okeeheelee Park

Our Daisy troup went on a hike at Okeeheelee Park in West Palm. We did the trails around the nature center. The girls brought snacks, water and a nature journal. We saw mostly plants, most animals were probably scared off by the pack of noisy little girls, but we did see some gopher tortoises.

Ducks in the neighborhood

There are lots of ducks, mainly Muscovy, in the neighborhood, our neighbor even feeds them. Hubby dislikes the mess they make, but they are fun to watch.

Staredown...

Monkey Girl

We were out geocaching and she found this palm tree.  What better thing to do than to climb it?

Geocaching at Fern Forest Nature Center

So we visited Fern Forest Nature Center and did some geocaching. We found a nice geocoin and saw birds and a soft shell turtle.

Geocoin!

Such a cute snout!

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Baby woodpeckers

There's a woodpecker nest at my parent's house. I think they are red-belled woodpeckers but may also be downy. I managed to get a picture. You can see the red top just starting. There's more than one chick, but it's hard to take a picture down their nest!

Rescued a turtle!

I saw this turtle trying to cross a busy road, so I had to stop and get it. We moved it to the bank of the canal and took some pictures before letting it go.