Prefect-at-Large reports: The Everglades, in 12 hours

Aloha, mi amigos. Today, my colleage M.W. Kanagy and I braved the dangers of Florida interstate traffic to attempt a 12 hour blitzkrieg of the natural history of South Florida. Though the adventure did not yield findings as topographically and tropically diverse as those of the Caribbean archipelago, the everglades proved fascinating nonetheless.
Notable birds seen were thousands of bonaparte's gulls, the sandhill crane (just like the one's living in my backyard (very loud)), and wood storks. No alligators! Can you believe it?
The biodiversity highlight was definitely the mysterious Falconiformes with vertical wingbands and mysterious markings on its chest. More to come on this.
Moral of the story: Native Florida is marvelous, vast, and flat. A 12 hour driving survey may have been enough to satiate one's propensity for the 3ft elevation ecosystem.

To the top of the world,
E.M. Keen, Ltd., Prefect-at-Large

Prefect-at-Large reports: Kayaking for Christ!

POST FROM: Malabar, FL. Weather: Cloudless. Temp: 79 degrees.

Greetings, fellow naturalists:
Despite the gaudy imperialistic and ubiquitous presence of the radical capitalism of coastal tourism industry that so consistently causes my countenance to twist into uncontrollable spasms of disgust, the legendary wildlife of the Florida coast survives and at times prevails. A short sunset kayaking outing with my esteemed pater familias yielded the following encounters with some unique coastal fauna (sadly, no pictures):


-We were blindsided by a baby gopher tortoise in my own front yard as we tried to leave for our trip. Luckily, despite my terrible shock, I had the good sense to relocate him to the scrub sanctuary behind my house.
-Birds: Several angry osprey (Pandion haliaetus), too many blue herons (Ardea herodia), white ibis (Bubulcus ibis), several species of tern, ring-billed gulls (Larus delawarensis), Brown pelican (Pelicanus occidentalis), sandpipers, etc!
-some CRAZY spiders (species unknown)
-ANTLIONS GALORE (O. Neuroptera F. Myrmeliontidae) My father and I stumbled upon an island chock full of these buggers, so full in fact that the island was thereby christened respectfully as "Antlion Island"
-Several redfish "FINNING", or feeding in the shallows so that their fins were exposed to the air
-Schools of mullets alarmed by our Dagger kayaks
- A run in with several bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus), who, lucky for us, were not hungry at the time, because we got within 10 ft of them!

Also, a glorious sunset was seen. Sometimes Florida is great.
Tomorrow: A hasty, secret tour of the Everglades! A picture-filled report soon to come.