January 23, 2008 - Shark Valley to Big Cypress - Part 5

A few miles west of the entrance to Shark Valley on US41 is the turn off to the loop road in Big Cypress National Park and Preserve.  The first half of the road is paved and has houses on one side and some of the cypress swamp land on the other.  Then it becomes a dirt road and the bald cypress swamp is on both sides of the road.  It was late in the afternoon so the light was low, but there are plenty of birds here.  Luckily there was not much traffic so we could stop a few times for photos.

This photo on the south side of the road shows a great egret on the left, a great blue heron in the middle and a little blue heron on the right (slightly blocked by branches).

The great blue heron.

The little blue heron.

A great egret just crossed the road in front of us (this photo is through the windshield).

A great egret on the north side of the road.

We stopped just before the curve where the road heads north to again connect with US41.  There were many birds here and some alligators.

A great blue heron here.

Looking south on the slough.

An alligator in the water.

Video of the alligator showing how quiet it is (640x480 WMV format, 1.14MB)

It was worth taking the loop road.  We saw more wildlife and completely avoided the construction. 

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