Returned late last night from a three day trip to the Fakahatchee / Everglades. The trip was supposed to be five days, but the weather was really weird and my partner had to return to town.
Sunday and Monday were record highs with 99 reported in most of the state. I am willing to bet that the temperature had to be at least 102 - 103 in the swamps (plus humidity). The thermometer in our tent read just under 100 degrees at around 11:00 PM Sunday night.
But, the Fakahatchee was rewarding us greatly. Sunday we decided to just start walking through a big slough and about a mile or so in we came across a huge strand of Royal Palms. In this area we found tons of orchids, if I had to make a quick list off of the top of my head, I recall seeing all of the usual suspects: Rigid, Night Scented, Clamshells, Ribbon, Ghost, Vanilla, Butterfly, Dingy, and one I had never seen before (was not yet blooming) - the Tall Twayblade (Liparis elata). It looks like a nice terrestrial and I would like to photograph it one day. The flowers have a lot of nice color.
We spotted this, which was such a site to see:
A beautiful Butterfly on a Royal Palm. There were probably a dozen on this palm. Talk about a snakey area - there were years of dropped palm fronds that you had to walk through. They were probably a few feet deep and it was pretty spooky.
After photographing this, we checked out the Ghosts, which were beautiful as always. I wanted to find a Vanilla that I could photograph the following morning, so we were going to journey to an area I knew had Vanillas, and on the way, came across a beautiful specimen that looked like it would be blooming the next morning. We made a point of heading there just after sunrise. On the way we found about 8 Manatees hanging out together. As suspected, the Vanilla was in bloom. You could see that huge bloom probably 150 feet away! As soon as I caught site of it I started running to it... I have wanted to see a fresh flower for so long. The flower was only about 8' up, so after rearranging some logs and adjusting my tripod, I snapped this:
I have a few more shots of the Vanilla that I will put up later. This is such an amazing orchid...
Yesterday we spent the day in the Everglades. I really wanted to find the Oncidium floridanum, which grows in hardwood hammocks. We trail blazed through some hardwood hammocks near the Long Pine Key area, and let me tell you, that is some tough travelling. Almost all of the trees in those hammocks have thorns. We came across quite a few Poisonwood trees, which are bad news as well. To top it off, there were sink holes everywhere. You had to watch every step or else you risk falling into a chasm. It was awesome! We came across tons of Butterflies, some nice bromeliads and what I believe was a family of Dingys, which I thought was odd to find in that area. We never did come across the Oncidium.
After that, we went down towards the Flamingo area. I have suspicions that there is a huge orchid population in that area, so we started looking where I thought it may be (I had never been there, only researched it). We found dozens and dozens of Butterflies and some really cool bromeliads. Then this freak storm came in... We of course got drenched, but it was terrifying because there was lightning striking all around us. I mean close. I dropped to my stomach more than a few times. The hair on my head would stand up right before the lightning struck. I laid on my stomach in the middle of a depression for a while to stay low. The depression filled with water pretty fast and within about 10 minutes was over a foot and a half deep or so. It was amazing being in the middle of such a storm and to see what makes the Everglades so special, but I really was afraid for my life. We planned on searching the area again the next day (since it was pretty much dark by the time we got out), but we had to return to town a little early. I will be going out there again during winter when the weather will be a little more predictable and while the Mule Ear won't be in bloom, we have a better chance of seeing the Dollar and a couple others in bloom.
More photos to come later! I hope you enjoy them.
Best Regards,
Justin Parkkonen
Fakahatchee / Everglades
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