Current Everglades Conditions

You gotta love the variations we get year to year that keep things interesting. I spent most of my weekend in Everglades National Park and present my latest findings. :)

Anhinga Trail - Extraordinary quiet with just a couple herons and anhingas putting on a show. Watch for American Bittern which seem to be fairly thick in freshwater marsh throughout the park. This time in 2007 I photographed the stage guage on the trail and it was a 2.6 feet. One year later it sits at 3.8 feet. Amazing how an extra 1.2 feet of water will spread out the critters! Soon enough the dry season will take hold and change the equation. My predication for Anhinga Trail is a much weaker Nov/Dec than 2008, but a stronger Feb-April than we saw last season.

Mrazek Pond - A small assortment of waders, a few spoonbills, and a fairly large collection of coots and various ducks (wigeon, teal, etc.) A croc or two if you are lucky!

Eco Pond - Quiet, quiet, quiet! Lots of water so watch for ducks if the water stays high...if it dries down watch for all the waders and sandpipers.

Loop Road in Big Cypress is once again open...but be ready for occasional puddles, lots of mud, and deep holes.

Thanks for the updated, Judd, very much appreciated.

Thanks for the update Judd Much appreciated !!!

Anhinga has not had a good for for the past six or seven, seems like it has been going down hill. Hope this will be a good year !!! Last year we had a fairly good Jan but that was about it !! .... again during the season when its slow still is plenty good !!

Hi Judd,

I hope things will pick up in a week :D, I'l be in the area!!

Thanks for doing this man...

Thanks for the update Judd! I'll be down there in jan regardless. You'd better get some birds rounded up by then for me!

Went out today to waste some time, at anhinga, there is one pair of anhingas actually getting a nest going. The male was bringing in sitcks, right behind the structure with the picture of all the animals on it.

Cool Paul!!

Thank you!

Just got back from Bosque and it was slow there too. I am hoping for a good season at ENP this year. Green Cay has a few hawks now. Any ongoing updates on ENP will be appreciated.

Filemon

Hi,

we passed Shark Valley and the Loop Road.
Shark Valley presented a posing hawk next to the tram station. Looks like he/she/them are collecting nesting material and they were flying back and forth. I can't really tell whether it was one single hawk or two as I got distracted from several herons wandering around. There are several baby alligators in one of the ponds. Any other than that is was pretty slow on activity.
The conditions at the Loop Road were not too bad - being a former offroad driver made me smile a little but not too much going there either.

Peter

Quote:

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Originally Posted by PeterGruener

Hi,

we passed Shark Valley and the Loop Road.
Shark Valley presented a posing hawk next to the tram station. Looks like he/she/them are collecting nesting material and they were flying back and forth. I can't really tell whether it was one single hawk or two as I got distracted from several herons wandering around. There are several baby alligators in one of the ponds. Any other than that is was pretty slow on activity.
The conditions at the Loop Road were not too bad - being a former offroad driver made me smile a little but not too much going there either.

Peter

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These hawks have been there for years. Look like they've returned.

Hi,

we enteres ENP yesterday afternoon around 2:00PM. At the Anhinga Trail there are several Anhingas already nesting (or at least sitting quietly in the trees) as well as 3-4 Little Green Herons wandering around close to the boardwalk. The Eco Pond was quite busy with several Great Egrets - in the far distance - and a couple of Red Shouldered Hawk were flying around.
The Mrazek Pond provided good looks to small waders, ducks a woodstork, two Great Eagrets, several Kingfishers, Comorants and Anhingas.
Unfortunately we are flying back to Germany tomorrow and I caught a cold that needs attention. Therefore, we decided not to drive into the Everglades earlier this morning but to stay in the hotel and get rested.

Peter

thanks for the update Peter.

I went there on Sunday morning for sunrise shoot and drove as far down as Paurotis Pond.

Saw a lot of hawks between Pahayokee and Paurotis.

At the pond, you can see quite a few spoons in flight but they were pretty far away.

Also saw a few kingfishers along the road to the overlook at Pahayokee as well.