Southern New England Outdoor and Nature Site: Florida Wildlife without Feathers

I had multiple goals for this trip. Florida has/had more things on my bucket list than any other place on Earth. It was torture counting down the days over the last month. Many of the things on my list were easy. Some examples were getting a Key Lime Pie while in Key West and ordering a drink in a bar that Hemingway drank at. Others required a little more time commitment and out of pocket expense such as snorkeling at the coral reef.

But if you know me, then you know many of the things on my bucket list are nature related. I wanted to go birding at two of the most famous birding spots in the world ( Ding Darling NWR and Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary)

Three of the things on my list didn't involve birds. I wanted to see and photograph an alligator and I wanted to see and photograph a Key Deer. I also wanted to see and photograph an American Crocodile. I have seen gators before and lost photos of them from my childhood. But I wanted to get some decent shots. I knew I'd see the gators. They are as easy in Florida as Bison are in the Badlands. The Key Deer would require some luck and time that I really didn't have. More on them below. As for the croc, I knew there was really no chance, but it was on my list and I was going to try. More on that below also.

I saw other wildlife in my travels and thought it would be a good idea to put all of my non-feathered friends in one group.

As expected, I saw gators n multiple places. I am sure you will see them in multiple blog posts

Big Alligator in the Everglades

Baby Gator near the Shark Valley Visitor Center

Key Deer are the smallest subspecies of White Tailed Deer in the United States. They are an Endangered Species. The population ranges from 600-1000. Hurricanes can wipe out large portions of their population. Right now the population is about 700. Their main enemy is cars. They have absolutely no fear of cars or people. Collisions are the main reason their numbers have not rebounded despite years of protection. Most of the Key Deer live on Big Pine Key. A few other smaller islands not connected to the Overseas Highway have small populations.

On our way to Key West we went looking for them. We drove down Key Deer Blvd. (I'm not making that up). We took a couple of short trails recommended by the Wildlife Refuge staff. We didn't have any luck. While on our way back to the Overseas Highway I spotted one eating on the side of the road. We pulled over and got a few pics. Being roadside we didn't want to spook it so we gave it some distance.

We moved up the road. We saw another one in a lawn of a church. This one was no where near the road. I took pictures edging closer to it. It never stopped eating. I know the pictures below look like the deer is jittery, trust me it was not. It lifted its head one time and I snapped one picture. I kept getting closer and it just kept eating. I was within 15 feet when I gave up. I knew I was too close to an Endangered Species. I backed off and went back to the car. I'm pretty sure I could have pet it if I tried. I understand now, that they really have no fear of humans and that is probably a bad thing.

Three photos below of Key Deer

American Crocodiles are another Endangered species in south Florida. Unilke American Alligators, they are shy and stay far away from people. They are not like the famous man-eating crocs of the Nile. Seeing one is almost impossible. There are only about 2000 in South Florida. That includes the Everglades, Florida Bay, and the Gulf of Mexico.

None the less we gave it the old college try. There is a Crocodile National Wildlife Refuge on Key Largo. However it is closed to the public so nesting crocs aren't disturbed. We drove up the road that is the perimeter of the refuge, but it was all forest edge and we couldn't look in.

Then we drove down Card Sound Road. This is one of only two roads connecting the Keys to the rest of Florida (Route 1 being the other). As we were crossing a bridge, I saw a manatee swimming down river. We pulled over and looked for it. We saw it on the other side of the bridge. To my amazement we saw a crocodile sliding down the bridge embankment. If I'd have seen it first I'd have gotten killer shots.

Instead, I got one photo. There are many differences from alligators and crocodiles. I learned them before we went down. They have different shaped snouts, and the teeth that are visible with their moths closed are different. One obvious difference is color. Gators are black or dark grey. Crocodiles are greenish. That is tough to tell if the light is bad or if they are covered in mud. Luckily I had good light. You can see this guy is greenish with black checkers on the tail. I Googled American Crocodile, and they have the checkers on Google Images. Besides the Antillian Palm Swift (more on that later) this crocodile was the best thing I saw in Florida. Cropped image on top, original below.

Laurie mentioned she wanted to see an Armadillo, I realized that the state park we were staying at between the Everglades and Corkscrew was a sandy soil so we went hiking and looking for them. We really didn't expect to see one, but sure enough, one came walking down the path until it heard us.

Thanks to a tip from a birder at Corkscrew Swamp I got to see this raccoon that was feeding on berries in a Palm Tree

I didn't see any sharks snorkeling. However I did see this 8 foot Nurse Shark at the marina of our motel.

The snails below are Apple Snails, they are the main food in a Limpkin's diet. Corkscrew Swamp

There will be a full post about where and how to swim with Manatee. Until then, here is the best photo I took of one

This Peninsular Ribbon Snake was sunning itself right next to the boardwalk at Corkscrew Swamp

Thanks to the sandy soil at Koreshan State Park, not only did we see the Armadillo we saw this Gopher Tortoise. He was on a mission. Being in front of him taking pictures did not slow him down. He knew right where some taller greener grass was and I had to get out of its way