Winding down

Another fun winter season volunteering is coming to an end.  We have really enjoyed our time here in South Florida.  We met some wonderful people, seen some new birds, ate some great food, found some great hiking paths, was able to enjoy the ocean and the gulf and enjoyed wonderful weather.

Last year we had a lot of rain but this year it has been very very dry, thus we have been having a lot of wild fires.  This latest fire has shut down our Highway for a few days.  We did have a little smoke on one day from the fires in our campground. The campgrounds west of us had to be shut down because of the smoke and fire.  In fact when we came back on Tuesday afternoon the road was closed but they let us pass.  Others have not been so lucky. One of our volunteers went to Naples for the day, on the way back they had to go 135 miles out of there way to get back here.

We had an opportunity to go on a Flamingo Quest with the Audubon Society of the Everglades.  They have permission to take tours to a restricted area where Flamingos have been seen in the past.

There were about 40 people participating in the tour

In 2014 they seen 147, in 2015 they seen 8 and last year they seen 16 in late May.  We did see 44 birds but not One Flamingo!  Oh well, it was a fun day, met some nice people and made a good memory.


A Red Shouldered Hawk feeding young

A Caspian Tern

Sunday we completed our final packing, laundry, walking around the campground and visiting with our friends.  It is always sad to move on and knowing we are not coming back next year makes it a bit sadder but it is time to go home.

Monday March 27: time to go home.. Goodbye Big Cypress National Preserve hope to see you in a few years.