3/04/2010

Somedays I Feel Like A Fish Out of Water

  While jetliners used the sky as a canvas to practice calligraphy, we discovered the Everglades of Florida by boat. First shock? That it wasn't the tropical jungle I'd imagined, where Tarzan swings from vines, yodelling for Jane...it's a massive wetland filled with grass!


And intrepid tourists can spend $25 for a high speed ride through the water lanes, the wind in their faces, at their backs, and bouncing off the earplugs provided by the driver. We opted for the more sedate tour...


In this flat bottomed boat, there were about 8 rows of seating, and a good view of the everglades provided for everyone. The driver, Earl, promised he'd find us an alligator, if we were really nice to him...

So we were, and guess what Earl did? He found us a 'gator!

In fact, he found us several!
But while people were oohing and awing over these guys, they missed the best show of the day ( I think). Dinner time for the Anhinga, fish on the menu:

The catch of the day is over a foot long!

It took him several whacks, stabs and dashes and dabs to get dinner into the proper toss and swallow position.(Sorry it's blurry, he was a little too busy to sit still.)

But he succeeded! See the big bulge former fish in his neck?

Now THATwas worth the price of admission!


See more interesting parts of our world at  http://skyley.blogspot.com/



10 comments:

Jim said...

Wow! Great tour.
Sydney - City and Suburbs

Dave said...

I saw an Anhinga swimming, barely above the water, with a giant fish once...they must be real pigs!

A human kind of human said...

That 'gator looks a bit coy with his "hand" up his cheek like that, giving the camera a shy smile. (lol)

Amanda said...

I love the criss-crossing of the sky in your first photograph!!! Looks like you had a lot of fun =)

Hilda said...

Wow. I came because of Skywatch and got a fantastic and interesting post! Love your Anhinga dinnertime series!

Happy Friday and have a wonderful weekend!

Felicia said...

Wow, I've never seen an Anhinga tackle such a big fish before; he must have been quite proud of himself! Down here, people who live near the water think of air boats as a noise nuisance, since there's a portion of the population that enjoys zooming around in them making a ton of noise in the middle of the night. You took the right choice for your transportation!

Susan Ellis said...

Felicia..I suspect you feel the same way about the airboats as we do about seadoos,they make a lot of noise, doing a lot of nothing except disturbing the shoreline and all of its inhabitants!

Wolynski said...

Spectacular tour. All those things eating other things - wonderful vacation.

FAB said...

Ahh that brought back some old memories. An airboat ride with a difference once the 'Captain' noticed I had bins and a camera. He then slowed right down and got me close to many, many species. FAB.

Johnny Nutcase said...

whoa! awesome that you saw the anhinga grab that huge fish! very cool, great shots - so glad you we were watching that guy. Cool!