As I hiked back along the loop trail at Shark Valley, I put my hat low to keep the sun out of my eyes. Here the land is as it would have looked a century ago. But I began to think about how it might have been different. I think about the small changes in the stream that ebbs–moving slower than a quarter of a mile per hour south–through and under the tall grass and sapling cypress and the rocky soil.
Last but not least, here is the Male Painted Bunting, the most colorful of songbirds: 
UPDATE: This post was picked up by the industry news Web site Dredging Today after it was posted on this blog. Virginia Key Park’s North Point is the targeted site for excavated debris drilled from the billion-dollar Port of Miami project. The North Point proposed dumping site is located on the northern stretch of the mostly-undeveloped 1,300-acre barrier island adjacent to a state-designated critical wildlife area.
This is the third in my series on how Everglades Restoration would change the wildlife and landscape of South Florida’s River of Grass: A 2010 study overlooked by the media shows that the overall number of Roseate Spoonbill nests in the Everglades watershed was more than 60 percent lower than wildlife officials had set as a threshold for the Spoonbill’s recovery at the time. A copy of the report can be found here on the Web page for the South Florida Ecosystem Restoration Task Force (SFERTF).
I’m always glad to see one of these endangered wading birds gliding overhead.
Wood Stork at Yamato Scrub Natural Area
My goal has been to sight and photograph another Wood Stork at LNWR since we saw one of the endangered wading birds a few weeks ago. I saw this one when coming in from kayaking the refuge’s kayak/canoe trail.
On Sunday February 20th, the Virginia Key Mountain Bike Trails will finally be open to the public. Located on North Point, Virginia Key, this trail system features spectacular views of Fisher Island and downtown Miami. The word I’ve heard is that about half of the trail system is designed for beginners, while the remainder is for intermediate or expert riders.
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Local bird sightings as reported to eBird:
“In wildness is the preservation of the world.” — Henry David Thoreau.
