Camping, Part 1

I decided that since I just did a post about camping two weeks ago, I would make this post an "educational" one. I know, I know, I can hear the groaning now, but wait....it's very interesting and you'll impress your friends with all you have learned about the Everglades. OK? Besides, how many times can you look at pictures of my kids playing in the mud?? lol So, here goes....

We don't actually go out into Everglades National Park. We go into the Big Cypress National Preserve. This is basically an extension of the Park and a place we can come and go freely (pretty much), with no entry fee, no official entrance or exit, and where we can camp in unspecified locations. Hunting is also permitted in this area and this is the area in which Nicky normally hunts.

We camped at a place called Ellis Head. A "head" is a clump of trees or bushes in the middle of an open meadow area. There are also specific kinds of "heads". There's a palmetto head,

a cypress head,

or a pine head. Ellis Head is a pine head.People who frequent a specific camp site, usually name it. Some of the sites have signs stating the "unofficial" name and some are just passed around to those who spend time in the area. Nicky and his hunting partner, Steve, named one of the camps they stay at often. It's called Meteor Camp because of all the large rocks around that look like meteors. One that we visited this weekend during a buggy ride is called Camp SadAss. Everyone got a chuckle out of this one! lol

But, I digress...back to the education! When we first got to camp and were setting up the tents, Savannah spotted this in the tree.

I don't know how well you can see it, but it's a barred owl. (I probably should have lightened up the picture!) He was just sitting there quietly, watching all the activity. He was about 25 or 30 feet up in a pine tree. They are usually about 21" tall, with a wingspan of 3'8''. They have dark bars on the upper chest, giving them their name. About dusk, he let out two loud hoots and flew away. We didn't see him again, but it was so neat to see him!

Saturday morning, we went out for a buggy ride and startled some deer. There wasn't as many in this area as there were a couple weeks ago, but we did see at least two fawns and one with it's mama. This is the tale end of the mama, as she ran. I actually got a decent shot this time, even if it is a little blurry.

This is a white-tailed deer. Did you know they can run 35 mph, clear 8' obstacles, and leap 30'?? If you want to see one up close, well part of one anyway, you can look on our living room wall. We have two! lol Ok, don't freak out now, stay with me.

The next thing we saw, in our camp, was this bug. Can you see it??

It's called a Palmetto Walkingstick. This one is actually two. The female is the longer, thicker one on the bottom and the male is the shorter one on the back half of the female, on the top. Sorry that I caught them "in the act", but what can you do?? lol Anyway, the females are usually about 3" and the males about 2" and they look just like sticks, thus the name. What you don't know, is that they stink, too. Nicky calls them stinkbugs. Shewww!

While we were out and about, we saw lots of "sign", which is another word for footprints or tracks left by animals. Down the path, right near our camp, we saw some large (old sign) footprints from a Florida Panther and smaller bobcat. Those were pretty cool. I was very relieved that the sign was old, since it was only about 30 feet from our sleeping place!! lol But, while we were on the buggy, I saw some bear tracks and tons of deer, raccoon, and bird tracks. It was really cool. This is actually a really good time of year to be able to see sign, since there's hardly any water. Within the next month, the rains will come and the Big Cypress will begin to fill up with water. The mud and tracks will all be covered and all the animals will be walking through water or tall grass. The picture below is of some deer tracks we saw.
In case you think I'm just the smartest thing ever or that I'm a walking encyclopedia of the Everglades, let me just tell you that even though I do know a lot, I have a wonderful field guide I use all the time. I think it was the best $20 I ever spent! It's called National Audubon Society Field Guide to Florida and it's wonderful and chock full of info about everything from stars to animals to flowers to fish and tons more of great info. When we go camping, I take this book and we have "science" right there in the woods. It's great!

I think you've had enough education for today, so tomorrow I will teach you about some of the wildflowers and other plants in the Big Cypress. For more info about where we spend our spare time, check out this Big Cypress site.