phipps@garth.UUCP (Clay Phipps) (06/05/90)
In article <May.28.14.43.18.1990.779@paul.rutgers.edu>, pratt@paul.rutgers.edu (Lorien Y. Pratt) writes: > >Trip report to the Everglades and Florida Keys >==or-- how to see 165 species in 8 days. > >We did lots of both bird- and fish-watching >and did our first scuba diving since we were certified (NAUI) last fall. >This information should be of interest to birders and fishers (?) alike ^^^^^^^ ^^^ Whereas a "birder" is a watcher of birds, a "fisher" is a catcher of fish. Although there is a weasel-relative whose common name is "fisher", the term is increasingly used as a less verbose replacement for "fisherperson". >who are interested in doing the same kind of trip that we did. >We wanted to extend our bird-watching to underwater, ^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^^ >so last fall, we both took scuba certification. Divers out here in California sometimes observe cormorants zooming past at surprising depths--on the order of 30 (maybe 60?) feet. I grew up around anhingas (fresh-water cormorants, more or less), which (as your posting later acknowledged) also inhabit the Glades, but the lake at which I lived had water so murky that I never saw an anhinga underwater, although they do spend lots of time below the surface. >[Saturday 4/21[?] >We arrive at the Flamingo Lodge, still amazed at the lack of mosquitoes. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Shhhh! Actually, it's late in the spring, so the absence of mosquitos may be explained more readily by periodic malathion spraying (if not prohibited in the national park) than by the season. >All over Florida are these little brown lizards, about 4 inches long, ^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^ >and with a very distinctive semi-circular throat patch, which is red >with yellow on the edges. They extend this in a breathing motion. Those are locally called chameleons (but more properly "anoles"), for their ability to change to any color you want--as long as it's brown or lime green. >The water level seems much lower than it was a year ago >when we were here, and there are fewer birds as well. Another consecutive year of drought in the extensively modified South Florida ecosystem. -- [The foregoing may or may not represent the position, if any, of my employer, ] [ who is identified solely to allow the reader to account for personal biases.] [This article was written and posted before normal business hours around here.] Clay Phipps Intergraph APD: 2400#4 Geng Road, Palo Alto, CA 94303; 415/852-2327 UseNet (Intergraph internal): ingr!apd!phipps UseNet (external): {apple,pyramid,sri-unix}!garth!phipps EcoNet: cphipps