The Wetlands Preserve

When we visited Brent's sister Melissa in the Palm Beach area, she took us to the Wetlands Preserve. She knew I'd never been to Florida, so it would be the best way to see the fauna and flora of Florida in one place without risking my life (hi, gators!), and I'd be able to get some nice shots. I hadn't read about the preserve before my trip, so I'm very grateful to her for suggesting it. 

We took the long walk around the preserve, and I kept stopping to observe birds and shoot flowers. I don't know much about wildlife anywhere, and much less about the species native to South Florida, so most of those animals were new to me. 

I was, however, familiar with the common moorhen, 
because there were dozens on my campus in Kent.  

I always thought moorhens were ducks, 

but it turns out they're just duck-like waterfowl.

The fall colors were very unexpected. 

A cold spell a few days prior had apparently 
just turned the leaves red. 

If anyone knows the name of that tree,
I'd love to find out.

We spotted a young sleeping alligator. 

I decided to stalk an anhinga. 

Inside, we interrupted a turtle's yoga session. 

so we moved on to the alligators. 

We also improvised a photo shoot so Brent and his sister would have more recent photos of the two of them together for their mother to frame. 

Many more photos from that day at my Flickr.