Six days ago, a Horned Lark was spotted in the agricultural fields just outside of Everglades National Park. Apparently it is a mega-rarity for this area, not seen for twenty years or so. I figured it would be long gone by the time we got down there yesterday- but amazingly, it remained in the same location.

We got pretty good binocular and scope views, and I captured this stunning image:


We also paid a visit to the Chekika entrance of Everglades National Park. White-tailed kites have been seen reliably in the past few weeks, but we did not see much bird life of any kind due to a rapidly approaching thunderstorm. We did see a Stinkpot turtle and Florida Box turtle, both crossing the road.

Florida Box (male)


We finally headed down to the main park entrance. Anhinga trail had plenty of alligators but very quiet otherwise.


A big gator was lying close to the boardwalk, under some shrubs. Here is a close up of his "hand"


More shots to come later this week!