Florida : Ryan's Wetlands

I had long wanted to bring our grandson Ryan to Florida.  Ryan, even here at the age of five, is a seasoned naturalist and experienced globe-trotter.  Malaysian school holidays fall in November and December, so when we returned from Malaysia in late October 2012 we brought Ryan with us.  His arrival, sadly, coincided with the passing of my father.  It was a sad group that brought my mother to her winter home in Florida a month later, on her own for the first time in sixty-seven years.  In retrospect the timing of Ryan's visit couldn't have been better - he brought us a much-needed ray of sunshine, and just as I knew he would, he had a wonderful time.

 

Most children of five, on arriving in Florida, would want to head either for the beach, the pool or Disney World.  Ryan wanted to see wetlands.  As readers of this blog will know, there are some splendid - if entirely man-made - examples near Boca Raton, and we ended up making repeated visits to Wakodahatchee Wetlands and the Green Cay Nature Center.  Here are some of the things we saw.

Reptiles top any child's list of nifty wildlife.  Even for a child from Malaysia, home of the largest crocodilian on earth (the Saltwater Crocodile (Crocodylus porosus)), American Alligators (Alligator mississippiensis) are pretty wonderful creatures.  At Green Cay Ryan first got to meet a litter of babies...

...and later, much to his delight, a particularly large adult.

After alligators, turtles come a pretty close second in a child's eyes.  Ryan is very particular about getting names right, so he would want you to know that these animals, perched on their favourite basking log, are Florida Red-bellied Turtles (Pseudemys nelsoni). 

Well, to be honest, I'm the stickler on the scientific names, but Ryan would never be content to simply call this a "turtle".

Florida Red-bellies, like many turtles, are quite variable in appearance.  I had no trouble telling Ryan the name of this brightly-marked individual...

But this one, with its head-stripes almost gone and the pattern of its shell obscured by a growth of algae, gave me some pause for thought.

Snakes can be even more exciting than turtles, even if they are, like this Florida Water Snake (Nerodia fasciata pictiventris), entirely non-venomous.

Like his Grandpa, Ryan enjoys watching birds...

...especially when they are as tame and approachable as these White Ibises (Eudocimus albus).

We'll see more birds in my next post, but here is a ibis portrait in the meantime.

Ryan was content to let Grandpa stop at the bird feeders at Green Cay to watch these female Painted Buntings (Passerina ciris)...

...though admittedly these much sought-after birds were less exciting here than in my mother's back garden, where we could watch a stunning adult male as we ate breakfast.

Ryan did his best to be patient while Grandpa stopped for less obviously thrilling creatures.  These Rambur's Forktails (Ischnura ramburii) were certainly pretty, but perhaps a bit unexciting after the alligators.

Rambur's Forktails come in a range of colours.  The males look like the insect in the upper photo, but females can be either male-like, mostly orange, or olive-drab as shown here.  I think these are, in fact, both females.

Ryan was a bit more interested in the butterflies.  This is a White Peacock  (Anartia jatrophae).

Here is a Zebra Longwing (Heliconius charithonia), a common but apparently nervous butterfly that seldom holds still long enough for a decent portrait.

Ryan's luckiest find: a River Otter (Lontra canadensis).  Otters live at Green Cay, but seeing one by day is a rare event (you are much more likely to find their droppings on the boardwalk).

Alligators, turtles, snakes, birds, insects and otters - more than enough to make a young naturalist eager for new adventures!