Florida Day Three: A Pleasant Late Afternoon Walk Along The Aerojet Canal

Florida Day Three: A Pleasant Late Afternoon Walk Along The Aerojet Canal

Florida Day 3 Aerojet afternoon l (34 of 38)
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After my long, cold morning hike  last Monday in South Florida, I had a nice breakfast at the Farmers market, edited some photos and became  the only person getting some sun at the pool at my hotel. Seems it was too cold for the Florida folks and other tourists.   In the late afternoon I decided to walk along  the Aerojet Canal  that I saw on my  morning hike and discussed in my previous blog post. 

It was  partly cloudy and still cool, for South Florida when I arrived. I found the temperatures in the low 70’s pleasant. However, I am sure the alligators, turtles, lizards and snakes I love to photograph didn’t and I didn’t expect to see any of them on my hike. I parked  at the trailhead, where the Aerojet Canal flows  under  Florida Route 9336 about  one mile from the  Visitor Center in the  Everglades National Park. It actually is the eastern boundary of the park. 

Shortly after starting my hike I heard the familiar song of an eastern phoebe. And then another. Finally I saw one perched on a branch. I often  encounter these  birds and their beautiful song on my hikes  near my home in Northeastern Pennsylvania. 

It was a pleasant walk along the canal on the Southern Glades Trail.  More song birds could be heard singing  trees along the trail as the warm Florida sun began was obscured by some high clouds as it began to set in western sky. 

The Full February Snow Moon was rising in the east. It didn’t snow but it sure was a cold morning  in South Florida. 

A pretty palm warbler landed on a branch as I continued my peaceful walk along the trail. It posed for a few photos. 

A black vulture, one of many I saw on my hike, flew overhead. 

I am trying to learn all of the different plants and flowers on my visits to South Florida. It it hard at my age. As a young child I was fascinated with Nature and my mind soaked up the names of plants and animals, and I still remember them all. Now many of the birds,  trees and flowers I learn this year I forget on my visit the following year.  Getting old has some disadvantages but it is better than the alternative, as I have painfully learned in my lifetime. This  pretty flower my PictureThis iPhone App identified as a flossflower, 

this I remembered from last year was tropical milkweed, 

and this pretty flower I learned was a common lantana. 

I saw this fruiting plant a short distance from the trail. I  had seen it before on my travel and knew it was an edible fruit, 

My PictureThis app confirmed my  guess that it was a papaya.  The fruit were not ripe or I would have had a nice snack on my walk. 

This is a flower on the papaya tree

The sun was getting lower  above the Aerojet Canal  and I was getting tired and hungry. I had hiked 7 1/2 miles on the Southern Glades Trail in  the morning and had walked  about a mile on my afternoon hike. So I started back. 

Along the way I saw one more bird fluttering  in the trees a pretty, tiny  blue-gray gantcatcher I always love seeing, and being able to photograph these birds that rarely sit still. 

The sun quickly approached the horizon and was setting just as I arrived at my vehicle. 

It was a beautiful sunset. A perfect ending to a wonderful, but cold day in South Florida. I had a nice  home cooking style dinner at the Farmers Market and was asleep early after a long day. I was looking forward to hiking on some trail near Flamingo in the southern Everglades early in the morning,  Here is a link to a gallery on my blog with more photographs from my hike along the Aerojet Canal are displayed. Florida Day Three. afternoon hike February 14 2022. 

I had an inheritance from my father,
It was the moon and the sun.
And though I roam all over the world,
The spending of it’s never done.”
― Ernest Hemingway

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