Shark Valley Visitor Center 3

On February 1, 2018, we drive from Florida City to Venice Florida. We stopped again at the Shark Valley Visitor Center in the Everglades. As before, we got closeup photographs of many birds that might otherwise be hard to approach. The first image is of a Black-crowned Night-Heron. The second is a sleeping Yellow-crowned Night-Heron. Both herons often feed at night, but also during the day. They ambush prey at the water’s edge, and take about anything they can spear, including fish, arthropods, amphibians, and small mammals.

Anhingas also fished along the Shark Valley wildlife loop. These birds are able to spear relatively large prey, flipping them up into the air, and swallowing them whole. You can see why a folk name for Anhinga is Snakebird.

Limpkins are wading birds similar to herons and cranes. We were surprised how common they were this year, since on previous trips they have been hard to find. Peterson and Fisher, in their epic book Wild America, compared the Limpkin’s call to a woman’s being strangled. I think it is louder and more raucous. Limpkins are also odd in that the eat almost nothing except for Apple Snails, which definitely limits their distribution.

During our first visit to Shark Valley, Turkey Vultures abounded. On this second trip, we found both Turkey and Black vultures. Both species have featherless heads, so that their plumage does not get messy while the birds consume roadkill delicacies. This photo is of a Black Vulture.

We saw only one dragonfly on this second visit, a Blue Dasher. These are abundant dragonflies across most of North America. They can usually be identified by their striped thoraxes The blue tail and eyes cinch identification of the males.