Where is the Okaloacoochee Slough State Forest, you may well ask? You drive out of Immokalee on highway 29 toward LaBelle. On county road 832, turn right. Basically, the park is in the middle of the state of Florida. One web site comments, "visitors can still walk in and observe pre-Columbian Florida."
Here are a couple of pictures to give you an idea of a Florida forest. For those used to the alpine forest, there is quite a difference.
Along the east side of our favorite dirt road is private property. However the water and grass prairie in the private property is prime water fowl territory.
We saw a number of birds on our outing. The first was a turkey vulture.
A red shoulder hawk
This bald eagle was a looooooooooooooong ways away
White ibis in tree. The spotted bird on the right in an immature white ibis
Snowy egret
Pied billed grebe
Loggerhead shrike
Common moorhen
My personal favorite wading bird - the little blue heron
An anhinga, drying it's wings
A great egret stalking
Great blue heron
Finally, it wouldn't be a trip to Okaloacoochee without an aligator.
We were very happy with our trip to Okaloacoochee. Since we had forgotten to take a picnic lunch....again...we headed out to La Belle to look for a restaurant. On the way, we had two wonderful surprises. First, Robert saw a crested caracara on the side of the road. We had been looking for one for five years. Second, was a huge flock of wood storks, an endangered species.
Crested caracara, which is a member of the falcon family
Wood storks
After a very exciting outing, we found the KFC/Taco Bell in La Belle. Of course, this was followed up with a cone from McDonald's. Hey, Team Finnegan knows how to live large.
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