Mating season

Apparently it's mating season around here. We observed for the time it took for me to get a decent picture, and then she wanted to touch them. They didn't take to that idea very well and separated and ran their separate ways.

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

Miami Seaquarium mammals and mating turtles!

We attend a homeschool class at Miami Seaquarium, bu I generally don't stay in the homeschool class with the little girl, and often end up going the the Top deck show to observe the dolphins. After the show, the trainers tossed some balls into the pool for the dolphins to play with. They were able to toss them pretty well.

Later I ended up at the tropical birds section, which include some tortoises. Some were a bit busy.

After the class Cowgirl has time to see the killer whale show, and it's always a game to see whether we sit in the splash zone or not. The water from this tank is cold!

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.

Biscayne National Park Family Fun Day

Biscayne National Park has a series of Family Fun days with different themes. Today's theme was invasive exotic animals. They had different activities such as iguana catching, a Lionfish dissection table to see what they're eating, and a plant identification table. Plus there was a cute little show with the Swedish Chef cooking Lionfish. And a big dead python. Do you think Lionfish is a big deal here? The majority of the park is underwater, so an invasive fish like the Lionfish that eats everything is a big deal!

Iguana Catching

Caught one!

Swearing in as a Junior Ranger

Boca Green Living Festival

We went to this festival in Boca Raton that is all about green living. There were some cool activities and displays from local businesses and organizations, include a fun maze representing the water cycle.

From the animal rescue unit.

A lovely boa to touch.

Chickens are grown up!

The chickens are starting to crow. It's not a good thing. I think both are roosters. We have to find them a new home...

We have these curly tailed lizards all over the place. Too bad they're too big for the chickens, they're invasive exotics.

Knight Anole

Found this Knight Anole at the data center. It's so cool and pretty big, too bad they're invasive exotics.

More geocaching and too cold for the iguanas!

We do more goecaching in the winter time, it's just nicer to get out, but it's been unusually cold for a longer period. We found one geocache, and not another but a dead iguana.

Putting the geocoin in another location.

Too cold!

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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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.