After checking out of my hotel, I grabbed lunch at the dolphin mall, then headed down to Florida City where I was staying for the evening. FYI, Florida City is a pretty good cost-effective place to be based out of, as its close to the Keys and Everglades, with lots of hotels and restaurants. My hotel was the cheapest of the trip, although strangely had little in the way of power outlooks. I crashed in the room for a bit, not heading back out to the Everglades until around 3. There really was very little reason to bird midday in June in South Florida. You won't see any critters and will just sweat your @$@$ off. Of note before leaving, more common mynas were foraging around the hotel strip, and my first Northern Curly-tailed Lizards were hanging out in an otherwise fairly bare parking lot. These would be, going forward, one of the most common lizards I would see.
Heading off to the Everglades, my major target wasn't actually birds at all, but I was hoping to slowly road-cruise my way back, as conditions should have been good this evening for herping. The road through the Everglades is considered to be one of the premiere herping destinations in the country, and a good evening can net 13 species of snakes, including some really cool species such as Scarletsnakes and Burmese Pythons (the latter obviously not native, and a good reason why the south end of the park is relatively poor for mammals.
My first stop was the visitor center, which I took a quick look around. This was the only destination on my trip where a mask was required, although they did provide them. Stormy weather seemed on the horizon, and a veritable swarm of Common Nighthawks were hawking over the area. Also of note was another Loggerhead Shrike as well as I think my only green anole of the trip, kind of sad given the bazillion brown anoles that are now by far the most common lizard in southern Florida. I then headed down the road, stoping in at the Anhinga trail. My main goal here was to see some wading birds, particularly Purple Gallinules. However, as I would find on this trip, water bird density pretty much everywhere was poor. The Everglades, like the rest of south Florida, were well flooded, and the presence of water everywhere meant there was little reason for aquatic critters to congregate in any one spot. While I did see some waterbirds, numbers were much more limited, consisting of a lot of anhingas (at least the trail is well-named) one of the few Great Blue Herons of the trip, and several green herons and great egrets. I also had what would be one of my only alligators of the trip! This was utterly bizarre for me: Alligators are practically abundant in Florida and especially in the park. I must have seen dozens on my last trip. But nope, this would be it. Also of interest was a nice relatively low-flying Swallow-tailed Kite and my first White-eyed Vireo of the trip. Wisconsin is really too far north for the species for the most part, so this was my first one since living in New York.
Next up was Long Pine Key. The habitat here is more upland and supports pine forest, so a different suite of birds than what are found in the rest of the park. This turned out to be a productive visit, and walking along parts of the road and the picnic area soon allowed me to add Pine Warbler, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, Brown-headed Nuthatch, Downy Woodpecker, and another White-eyed Vireo. I had one main bird target here though, and after some effort I did luck upon a few: White-eyed Towhee, the Florida subspecies of the widespread Eastern Towhee. I had seen this species as a kid but not since then, although obviously I have seen many Eastern and Spotted Towhees through the years. I also had one of my more interesting mammals here, with Hispid Cotton Rats, with several seen, many quite tame. This caused me initially a great deal of excitements, as I thought they could have been woodrats, but sadly that species is absent over the southern peninsula, except for the Florida Keys.
Continuing on my merry way after this productive visit, I made my way down to the Flamingo Marina and campground. A few days earlier a Shiny Cowbird had been found associating with the flock of Brown-headed Cowbirds here, with the area being one of the better and more reliable sites for this largely Caribbean bird. Turning into the Marina I had a quick flyby of a lifer I wasn't expecting until tomorrow: White-crowned Pigeon! Wasn't able to relocate the bird, although I did see a few commuters. My understanding is that they prefer to roost on offshore islands, presumably to avoid predators, and commute back and forth to the mainland. The Flamingo area ended up being another productive spot, and I soon located a large mixed flock of starlings and cowbirds. Sadly, no matter how much I tried to turn the normal cowbirds into one, no Shiny Cowbird was detected. However, I was alerted to a cooperative American Crocodile, which was basking on the boat ramp. Flamingo is probably one of the best places to see this species in the US, and this specimen certainly was a good lesson in the differences between crocs and gators. While looking for cowbirds I also happened upon my only Pileated Woodpecker, hanging out in a tree that seemed a bit short for it.
I drove a little more onward, visiting the campground area. The recent storm had flooded this area quite a bit, resulting in a grassy marsh that was a magnet for all sorts of shorebirds, and indeed I think this was my only spot where I got any. Shorebirds seen here included Black-necked Stilt, Semipalmated Plover and Sandpiper, Black-bellied Plover, Willet, Ruddy Turnstone, and Lesser Yellowlegs. I almost certainly missed some, as I didn't have a scope and the grass was effective at concealing the peeps. I also had a good size flock of Black Skimmers here, my only ones for the trip.
It was getting late, but the sun still hadn't set. Still, I didn't plan on being out here all night (although my eventual herp "haul" would have probably been better. The plan was to slowly drive back out the park, looking for critters along the way. once nightfall started, I soon got my first cool herp, and one I wasn't expecting. Eastern Musk Turtle, with the teeny turtle spotted along the roadside against the border stripe. You are not allowed to touch any wildlife (otherwise I would have probably helped him across). Musk and Mud Turtles are often quite hard to see compared to other turtles, as they are more aquatic and seldom leave the water, so this was a great sighting.
I continued on. Southern Toads were relatively common on the road, common enough that after my first few I stopped stopping, so I might have missed some amphibians. The next most common was another one of my main targets. Cottonmouth! Overall, I ended up having three live Cottonmouths and one DOR on my cruise out. They are pretty cooperative, as when exposed to light they tend to freeze up. They also are pretty chunky, so stick out against the flat road. They are also of course highly venomous, being the US's only true aquatic viper. Roadcruising of course can let you see other wildlife beyond herps, and while my secret hope for Cougar didn't pan out, I did have several cooperative Chuck-wills-Widow on the road. I had previously encountered this species on my last roadcruise through the park, but I was never quite sure if I misidentified it and it wasn't a Whip-poor-will instead. I got better looks this time however, and it helps that the only summering nightjar is the Chuck.
However, as it turned out, I didn't have much other luck on the road. I did find another snake, a sadly recently killed Florida Brownsnake, a recent split from Dekay's Brownsnake. This was in part because the weather stayed nice. Originally there was a forecast for thunderstorms, and the rain would have likely brought more aquatic snakes and frogs out. I will say however this was a surprisingly relaxing road cruise. There were few cars making it easy to drive slow with my high beams on, and the road is smooth and almost perfect for spotting things on it. I suspect I would have logged more species If I had done another pass through the road system, but being up at 6:00 am that morning meant I wasn't eager on being out until 2 in the morning. Eventually I got back to my room at 10:30 pm, shoveled some leftover Lo Mein from lunch into my maw, and went to bed. Tomorrow I would begin my journey into the Keys!