Snakes, sparrows, subway and sprinkles

We had a full day planned so it meant a 6am start. I figured I'd got off pretty lightly so far on the whole early start front so decided not to complain too loudly. It was also time to sample the Travelodge's 'deluxe extended' breakfast so weirdly, I was the first one out of bed and ready to go.

It wasn't a half bad spread as it turned out and the juice didn't come in thimbles either. I admit my choice of English muffins, cinnamon donut and a banana wasn't the healthiest of options but it was better than the waffles and sausage patties in the fridge I think. In contrast, Mr F cut rather heavily into their stock of Danish pastries.

There appeared no limit on how much you could eat but a sign strictly highlighted that the taking of food back to your room was strictly forbidden. I guessed muffins were outside of this rule though by the looks of the number blatantly leaving the premises. I smuggled out my banana with no ill effects either I am happy to report.

The morning was earmarked for more Everglades and the afternoon for a swift drive down to Key Largo. To this effect, we packed the car with water supplies and disappeared down the road between the waving sawgrass. At this early hour on a weekday, I think we must have been the first tourist car in the park as the tranquility was positively screaming at us. A park warden did overtake, stop in the road ahead and proceeded to flag us down though. Oh heck, had they found out about Mr F's extreme 1st rule of biology activities (aka alligator harassing)?

Alas no, but he had found an injured water snake in the middle of the road. It was being harried by crows so he delicately trod on it's head, picked it up and threw it in the bushes. He went on to explain that they 'look out' for native species of snakes. With a plague of pythons roaming the park - caused by people releasing their over-large pets into this near perfect habitat - he indicated that they don't tread on python heads quite so delicately!

Today's first bird species of choice was the Seaside Sparrow. An inconspicuous creature and therefore, damn hard to see, or at least it would appear to be from the glum look on Mr F's face. As he scanned the sawgrass for flighty things, I looked for easier, less feathery photo opportunities. There had been a large Cypress fire in the interior of Collier County and the smoke had worked it's way on the wind for miles around. Not only could we smell it from here but even a distant smokey haze was visible over the swamp. It didn't aid sparrow-spotting but it did look pretty impressive. I reeled off a couple of shots and then turned to the mass of whizzing, zipping, whirring insects hovering over the grass. Hmmm, I did say 'easier...photo opportunities' didn't I?

Huge dragonflies and, what I guess are their smaller damselflies cousins, were all over the shop so finding them was not the issue. The problem was getting close enough to the little swines so they weren't just a tiny blip on a background of green. I soon ditched my macro lens and decided next trip, I'd get a decent zoom lens instead! I still spent the next hour, happily stalking my unsuspecting buzzy prey, with results varying from bad to total pants. I did find a rather gorgeous Lubber grasshopper but even he kept up a constant battle with me, the camera and blade of grass. He did his very upmost to shuffle out of view every time he was in focus. I got him in the end though the tricksy little devil. Sadly for Mr F, the sparrows were not even half as accommodating.

When Mr F had decided anything bearing feathers could go take a running jump, and I'd had my fill of taking beautifully blurred green photos, we called it a day and headed off to the visitor centre. Mr F had an encounter with a Floridian Panther and then we purchased a cuddly manatee - and no it's not for me!

Lunch today was taken at a local branch of Subway. I found that the endless choice of sandwiches on offer had had an unfortunate impact on the employees. It had sadly robbed them of an independently functioning brain. With the queue increasing behind us, I ordered my flat bread chicken ranch sarnie with what I thought was flair and panache. At least I did until it got to choosing the cheese.

All the other options (e.g. type of bread, dressing etc) had an easy to spot sign listing the choices. Not so the cheese. By this point, I couldn't give a monkeys what I had so turned to the guy across the counter. He stood there, my half made sarnie in his hand, and looked at me with a less than interested expression on his face. I smiled my brightest winning smile and said "I don't know...surprise me". Never before have I born witness to such a look of fear. After several confused minutes, he picked grated cheese - coz it was going to be melted he said. I felt like patting him on the head and giving him a biscuit. The resultant sarnie was very nice by the way and I didn't feel the need to sue.

Mr F wanted to do a quick exploratory drive after lunch to Key Largo and of course, throw a couple of birding spots into the bargain on the way. I sat and admired the view whilst I revelled in the air-con and watched the temperature gauge rocket upwards. We got out at Dagny Johnson Key Largo Hammock Botanical State Park for a quick search for today's second bird of choice (the Mangrove Cuckoo) and a damn hearty laugh at the stupidest park name ever. Really rolls off the tongue doesn't it? The park, named after a local environmental activist, is on land bought after the crash of a project which would have built 15 hotels and over 2000 condos. The park is an important habitat for the threatened Key Largo Woodrat and the Key Largo Cotton Mouse, which are found only in this part of Key Largo. We didn't see either unsurprisingly, or the damn cuckoo!

We were pretty pooped when we got back to our room so dinner involved a quick trip round the corner to Dominoes and Dunkin donuts. We did not regret this choice of cuisine as it turned out to be possibly the world's best pizza. The donut selection wasn't bad either and was worth every minute of the huge amount of time I took to pick each and every one. I know what I like and it usually involves sprinkles.

No. of dolphins seen: 0
No. of manatees purchased: 1
No. of blurred dragonfly photos taken by Mrs W: 148
No. of in focus dragonfly photos taken by Mrs W: 2 (just)
No. of americans confused: 1 (at least)