The park greeter was there for us when we arrived at the first trailhead.
Pickerel weed was in bloom.
The walk to this cache and the cache find were easy.
The hut has seen better days.
We must have been more focused on the trail sights on the walk back from the cache.
It was time for the main event. Two visits last year brought us no closer to even the first stage of the ghost orchid multi. We were hoping that would change this afternoon. The warm weather made leaving the tramway and entering the swamp much easier.
We somehow came up with not just the first stage, but the first two stages.
The long walk to the next stage would need to wait for another day.
There are birds everywhere in the area. It is interesting to spot them while actually in the swamp. Some are very skittish and leave long before you are near. Others are peacefully there in the quiet surroundings of the swamp.
Little green herons are very sensitive to humans. This one seemed oblivious to us as we stopped to watch.
We decided for another walk on a tramway before leaving Fakahatchee for the afternoon.
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We've spotted orange trees on previous hikes. I had ignored the fruit, but really wanted to be able to say I've tried an orange from Florida. We spotted these trees along the tramway.
With our day in the swamp over early, we had plenty of time left for a second visit to the Ten Thousand Islands National Wildlife Refuge. We both enjoyed the bird diversity on our first visit so we were eager for a return. Spotting an eagle on the walk back to the viewing area was a sign of the multitude of birds to come.
Breeding plumage was plentiful in the mangroves.
The sheer number of birds was awesome.
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