Saturday March 19th 2022

Today was a mostly dry hot and humid day with a high temperature in the mid to upper eighties. The wet part of the day came as a ten minute burst of very heavy rain about 9:30 this morning. It created puddles around the campground that remained most of the day. More rain is in the forecast for tomorrow. Another cold front is moving through the area.

I spent the day wandering around the campground and the Flamingo area of Everglades National Park. The Flamingo visitors center and marina area is about a mile away from my campsite. A combination of park roads and trails makes it easy to get there. There is also a loop trail nearby called the Eco pond trail. The half mile loop around a small freshwater pond was the most disappointing part of the day. I expected to see a few water birds, but I didn’t even see one.

The Osprey nest on the trail to the visitors center area and the second nest at the marina made up for the lack of birds on the other trail. Each nest contains a nesting pair with almost full grown young. The nest at the marina has three young Osprey that are probably only days from leaving the nest. They seem to be very comfortable with all the people hanging around below the nest taking pictures.

The Florida Bay side of the marina has a family of manatee that call it home. I saw at least one today, but only got a picture of its brown back while it was near the surface. The American Crocodiles that live in the brackish waters on the other side of the marina were not visible while I was there today. A park ranger indicated there are at least three that usually hang around that area. There are ninety minute boat excursions from the marina into the bay and another into the back waters. I plan to take them during my week here.