Jim’s Dad is visiting this week and let me borrow his nice telephoto lens to take these shots of adorable baby anhingas during our most recent Everglades excursion:
So fluffy!!
I’m spoiled now that I’ve seen how much this lens improved photos of far away subjects – If only I could find an extra $600 in the budget to get one of my own. Someday …
Saturday night I drove up to Wellington to watch the FEI World Cup Qualifier Grand Prix!
When I arrived, I had no idea what to expect – I was just excited to see some horsies. So imagine my shock when I looked at the order-of-go list and recognized the names of many Olympic riders including Beezie Madden, Mclain Ward and Rodrigo Pessoa!
I knew I was in for a real treat.
In the above photos:
Daniel Deusser & Cornet d’Amour won that night – I just so happened to snap a nice photo of them in the schooling ring before he went out:
Look at this fence they cleared during the jump-off!
Crazy.
They’re building a new marina and yacht club (of course) right along the Intracoastal Waterway – Right now there is a big gap in the buildings where the (hopefully not temporary) parking lot is. I love it because I get to see this beautiful view every time I drive to and from lab:
I never tire of looking at it.
Yesterday Jim and I went hiking around the Pinelands in Everglades National Park:
Milkweed, Everglades square-stem and thistles dotted the grassy fields.
Rainwater dissolves the limestone rock that underlies the Everglades to form solution holes – We found a pretty big one that contained a growing mangrove tree! It’s amazing to think that this whole area is under water during the wet season.
A little scorpion (!) crawled by while we stopped to eat lunch on the trail:
Birds were out in full-force! We spotted lots of cormorants, baby anhingas, vultures, great blue herons and even a red-bellied woodpecker: 
For more information on the Pinelands, click here :)
As busy as it was with our revolving door of visitors this month, it was nice to carve out some time for an Everglades trip – I forgot how much I really need the occasional breath of fresh air away from the city … 
I’m so happy with the first photo in this grouping. I find it difficult to capture and explain the enormity of this giant, moving wetland – But I like how this picture gives insight to some of the more subtle hydrological aspects of the Everglades.
