Grex Nature Conference

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Grex Nature Item 67: Everglades visit
Entered by mcpoz on Sun May 25 21:12:43 UTC 1997:

I just got back from a few days in the Everglades.  Although I have driven
through before, I had not spent much time there.  Here are some things I found
interesting:

- They have hordes of 3" grasshoppers - they are brightly patterned in yellow
  and orange.

- The backroads are made by scooping "borrow pits" or canals along their
  entire length.  The result is a canal running along each road.  This canal
  is full of life, most noticably alligators.  These move faster than I ever
  imagined, both in the water and on the ground.  They say the gators can 
  easily outrun you, and I believe it.  They are very cautious, moving away
  upon sight of you.  BUT - a 8 footer would have had to eat probably 5000
  pounds of critters to attain his bulk of (750 lbs ?)

- Most pools are filled with gar pike - about 2-1/2 ft long.  There must be
  at least a thousand in some pools of 20 x 40 ft.  (These guys will gladly
  eat the 3" grasshoppers if you toss them in).

- There is a new concern - Burmese Pythons.  A local privatly owned "nature
  center has 4 pythons captured locally.  The largest was 14 ft long.  The
  owner of the "nature center" had a local news article talking about the 
  finding of the large snakes (can get to 20-30 ft).

- There is a frog called a "pig frog" which makes a groan very similar to 
  the noise an aligator makes.  Thus when you are walking through the bush,
  you never really know . . . 

- The few remaining virgin timber cypress trees are really impressive in 
  size.  I could not estimate their height - maybe 120 ft.

- There are lots of alien tree species which are threatening the ecology. 
  There is an Australian Pine, a Maleluca, and a Brazilian Pepper Tree.  The
  first two have eradication programs.  The Brazilian Pepper Tree is a 
  major concern and it spreads so effectively that they do not know how to
  stop it.  (My daughter is working with AmericaCorps cutting down Malelucas)

- Tiny black mosquitos are thicker than I have ever seen anywhere.  We had
  to wear headnets when we went back in the remote areas.

- There were lots of beautiful birds - it is a birder's dream.

- There is an endangered panther there - rarely seen, but evidently footprints
  are common.  Even so, they estimate there are only 40 or 50 left.

- There were huge horseflies which everyone said were attracted to exhaust
  fumes.  This seemed doubtful to me, but everywhere we drove on the backroads
  we had a "tail" cloud of these flies.  They remained around the rear of an
  idling car, also.  

- I took some pictures of some swamp pools with cypress trees.  Anyone know
  what purpose the cypress "knees" serve?  

- That's it!

3 responses total.

#1 of 3 by srw on Sat Jun 14 05:39:43 1997:

My father-in-law lives in Delray Beach, not far from the Everglades. We can
easily get to the Loxahatchee wildlife preserve. You're right about the birds
down there. This is a great place for birds.

#2 of 3 by mcpoz on Sun Jun 15 02:20:15 1997:

Have you seen the "10,000 Islands" area?  We stayed in a motel on stilts at
the edge of this area and I would like to go back and explore it in a small
boat.

#3 of 3 by srw on Sun Jun 22 06:26:13 1997:

No, we haven't been there. It sounds interesting.

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