Back from the airboat ride. I didn’t bring my adapter to load pics from my camera to my pc so I can’t show ya anything yet. I picked up an $8 adapter at Wal-Mart to download my pictures to my pc.
Didn’t see a gator at all. They say that they’re not as many here this time if the year because the water is low and that allows saltwater to enter the everglades which the gators aren’t too fond of. They’re much more prevalent in the summer. I’ve seen them on a previous trip with my granddaughter.
We did however see 3 raccoons and another airboat captain feeding them. He also let them drink right from his Mountain Dew bottle.
The pelicans are constantly landing on and hitching rides on your airboat.
The airboat ride is always fun. Our captain, however, left a lot to be desired. He said his family invented the airboat and he is one of only two airboat captains that were born and lived in the Everglades. I think he was just bored with the whole thing, because he didn’t spend any time telling us many of the things that I learned the other few times I’ve done the tour. The only thing he did was point out were two unique birds that we probably wouldn’t have seen on our own. He was not a good guide.
So what do the gators do to get away? Fly to the Okeefenookee Swamp in Georgia?
I got the impression, but I’m not sure, that they go a little farther inland in the swamps… a little farther away from where we were. They said there was an 8 footer there an hour or so before our tour.
So…what were the unique birds you saw?
Blue Heron and osprey. The osprey was up in a tree eating a fish he’d just snagged.
Looks like you were at Captain Doug’s in Everglades City. We did the airboat tour in late January and had Capt. Randall, an 8th generation Floridian. He gave us a great tour with lots of facts, some of them true when I checked on them later. The most fun to me was that I hadn’t heard so many conspiracy theories since growing up in north central Florida where airboats and gators on your porch were normal. The real value of the trip was in learning how much the government doesn’t want us to know.
I have never seen a web footed bird balance like that! It looked like a pelican. Our pelicans are white more than black.
How’s Aunt Iva?
If you want to see a gator in South Florida, go play a round of golf somewhere, but don’t go into the water to retrieve a lost ball.
The St. John’s River is the place to go. They have them all over the place. Last ride I saw about 20. Brevard County, FL is the place to go.