Anhinga Trail

We spent the afternoon of 31 January 2018 at the Anhinga Trail in the Everglades National Park. As I mentioned in my last post, we did not find much to photograph. Here is a sample of what we did find. The first photo is of a Purple Gallinule. This rail is found in the southeastern United States, parts of Mexico, and in Central America. Northern birds are migratory, southern ones tend to be resident. These gallinules often wander from their known breeding areas, as far as Europe and the Galapagos.

This Double-crested Cormorant appeared to be intent to nap. This bird may well have been asleep. Birds often sleep with one eye open—see, for example, my previous Brown Pelican post. Along the Anhinga Trail boardwalk, a Corn Snake slithered across our path. Corn Snakes are common across much of the southern United States. They grow to be quite long, so this one must be young. They spend most of their tie underground or under things. They are active during day and night They eat small mammals, birds, and reptiles (University of Georgia).

In the late afternoon, we continued own the road to the Pinelands nature trail. We met a couple searching for Florida Tree Snails. We searched and searched to see a snail. Later the couple pointed one out to us. After that, with a search image in place, we found about a dozen snails. These snails inhabit woodlands of southern Florida and Cuba. Populations suffer from deforestation. The snails come in a variety of colors and mostly eat lichens, fungi and algae on trees. The are hermaphrodites. Individuals have both sexes. After about three years, the mate in the late summer. They lay eggs at the base of trees. The eggs do not hatch until the next summer, when the young crawl up the trees (Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Committee).