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