This gator patrolled a pond near the Big Cypress Swamp visitor center.
 
 

.....
Do you find these flowers appealing?  A butterfly did.
 
 

The dry season in south Florida.  I soon abandoned hiking boots in favor of Teva sandals.
 
 

Pines and palms growing together??  I splashed through puddles in my Teva sandals (so much for the dry season).
 
 

Seeing big (1 inch) and small (1/4 inch) hoofprints together, I wondered if I was following a family of deer.
 
 

But instead I rounded a corner to these find wild piglets!  (mom was near the treeline, luckily she didn't see me)
 
 

I tried to stay at a campground where this lizard was inside the map enclosure, but mosquitos chased me away.
 
 

When I left the swamp, this tree frog must have hitched a ride out.  This was at a gas station - frog held on while I went 60mph!
 
 

My one day of a more orthodox spring break was spent at South Beach.
 
 

Coconut palms at the Fairchild Botanical Gardens.
 
 

Striped butterfly.
 
 

Part of the orchid collection.
 

A rainbow eucalyptus tree.
 
 

Cormorants near an Everglades visitors center didn't mind people nearby at all.
 
 

The anhinga, in classic wings spread pose.
 
 

Great Blue Heron.
 
 

A crowd of orange striped crickets on the paved path.
 
 

Sawgrass as far as the eye can see.
 
 

I believe this was the record-size Mahogany tree.
 
 

Lucas (above), my friend who I was visiting, and me (below) canoeing through a mangrove tunnel.
 
 

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Little crabs like these two crawl up and down the mangrove roots.
 
 

I paddled a rented kayak around Lignumvitae Key.
 
 

Mystery marine invertebrate (size of a gerbil) - what is this thing?
 
 

Great White Heron in flight on Lignumvitae Key.
 
 

Parent and young osprey.
 
 

.....
On a ranger-led tour of the island (I was the only visitor), we found this outgoing hermit crab.
 
 

The lignumvitae - an understory tree with very hard wood and a crazy growth pattern.
 
 

This little tree snail crawls along a lignumvitae.  Once each island had its own color morphs.
 
 

The biggest tree snail the ranger had ever seen (~3 inches), with green racing stripes!