3:00 snapshot #1488: The edge of the everglades

[urbpan]

Second day in Florida, reddening up nicely. We left our friend and started heading back up toward Sanibel (our only planned destination).



This road sign is warning us that an animal estimated to number about one hundred might cross in front of us.


Enjoying the back patio at Joanie's Blue Crab Cafe.


We stopped a few times at roadside hiking trails to get some more nature viewing in on foot. This battered warrior is a white peacock Anartia jatrophae.

I saw many orchard orbweaver spiders along the trails, but unfortunately they could also see me. When I got close enough for a photograph they would scurry out of their webs to safety. One of these times we were hiking along a creek, and as I went to the edge to try to get a spider pic I joked to my dad "Watch out for alligators for me!"


That's when I saw this little guy a few feet away from me. Good thing they're not aggressive! This was a youngster, about a meter in length.

Comments

[drhoz.livejournal.com]

wouldn't want to be that close to a crocodilian in Australia - the freshies are shy enough, but the salties most certainly aren't, and have long experience at considering humans prey.

[viridian5.livejournal.com]

In 2001 I had a close encounter with a small, young gator while kayaking on Bayou St. John in New Orleans, something that surprised our tour guide since she'd never seen gators there before. It approached making a sound like a whistling tea kettle and grabbed an end of my kayak between its needle-toothed jaws. At one point he pushed the kayak up onto the bank. The other kayaking tourist paddled hard in the opposite direction. *g* I managed to get a few pictures.