Today I spent the morning at the Shark Valley portion of the park and then ventured into Big Cypress National Preserve along Loop Road. Loop Road was loaded with wildlife but to me the highlight was getting off of the road and into the swamp. I found an interesting looking spot to stop at and put on my chest waders and ventured out into the cypress swamp. After making my way through the sawgrass I ended up in a dense thicket of small cypress trees that were host to a large flock of wading birds ranging from Ibis to Woodstorks to a number of herons and egrets. A pair of Red-shouldered Hawks flew over and mated in one of the trees nearby. To me, getting out and finding places like this are so much more rewarding then walking down Anhinga Trail or taking a tram along Shark Valley. I was only a couple hundred yards away from the road but I was in complete isolation. I spooked a couple White-tailed Deer that went tearing through the swamp. Moments later my euphoria was interrupted as I realized that my next step would have placed my foot directly on top of an alligator's tail. I never saw the rest of the animal but the eighteen inches of tail that I could see didn't appear to be widening out into a body anytime soon. My guess is there was at least six feet of alligator hidden below the rushes two feet in front of me. I slowly moved away from the animal and headed back towards the road with my heart beating very quickly.
I returned to Shark Valley to take the final tram ride of the day and see what that portion of the park had to offer. My tour guide, Edgar, was very informative and had a number of suggestions on places to go and things to look for, especially regarding some of the rarer species such as panther.
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