Florida Images - !Bandwidth Warning!

As a follow up to the "Florida, what not to miss" thread, I'm posting my pics from where we ended up. There are many pics, so I created this new topic in order to keep all that helpful information accessible to the bandwidth deprived.

Also, right off the top, let me suggest you not do this in a week. There was far too much driving involved (and far too many toll roads!). Pick one area and enjoy yourself.


Heading to Homestead, we found this guy at the side of the road:
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Along the highway, just north of Homestead by Dave E, on Flickr

And when stopping for a restroom break, this guy landed in front of us, as were we backing up to drive away:
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Just off highway, just north of Homestead by Dave E, on Flickr

We did visit Robert is Here. We skipped the smoothies due to the length of the lineup (and the announcing of orders being ready meant the lineup wasn't the end of the wait). Bella picked up a coconut turtle, and Magda bought a bunch of fresh fruit. The avocados are like 4x the size of what we get up here in Canada.

We then went to the Alligator Farm:
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Alligator Farm, south of Homestead by Dave E, on Flickr

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Alligator Farm, south of Homestead by Dave E, on Flickr

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Alligator Farm, south of Homestead by Dave E, on Flickr

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Alligator Farm, south of Homestead by Dave E, on Flickr

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Alligator Farm, south of Homestead by Dave E, on Flickr

And did the Airboat ride. While we did see some baby gators, herons, and iguanas in the brush, it was a bit too dark and/or obscured for a nice shot. Once we got out into the more open space, we picked up speed and scared some birds into the air, where I got a few silhouette shots.
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Airboat Ride, Alligator Farm, south of Homestead by Dave E, on Flickr

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Airboat Ride, Alligator Farm, south of Homestead by Dave E, on Flickr

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Airboat Ride, Alligator Farm, south of Homestead by Dave E, on Flickr

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Airboat Ride, Alligator Farm, south of Homestead by Dave E, on Flickr

Just in case you weren't aware of it... there are palm trees.
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Palm Trees! by Dave E, on Flickr

We didn't get to the Anhinga Trail, due unexpected circumstances.

Next stop, Miami Beach:
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Miami Beach by Dave E, on Flickr

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Miami Beach by Dave E, on Flickr

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Miami Beach by Dave E, on Flickr

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Miami Beach by Dave E, on Flickr

Next up, Merritt Island. First, a bit before the Blackpoint Wildlife Drive, there's an Osprey Nest platform, and a little roadway beside it. These are some shots from there:
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On the right, just before Blackpoint Wildlife Drive, Merritt Island by Dave E, on Flickr

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On the right, just before Blackpoint Wildlife Drive, Merritt Island by Dave E, on Flickr

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On the right, just before Blackpoint Wildlife Drive, Merritt Island by Dave E, on Flickr

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On the right, just before Blackpoint Wildlife Drive, Merritt Island by Dave E, on Flickr

Then into Blackpoint Wildlife Drive proper (bring a pen in which to fill in the payment envelope details!):
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Blackpoint Wildlife Drive, Merritt Island by Dave E, on Flickr

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Blackpoint Wildlife Drive, Merritt Island by Dave E, on Flickr

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Blackpoint Wildlife Drive, Merritt Island by Dave E, on Flickr

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Blackpoint Wildlife Drive, Merritt Island by Dave E, on Flickr

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Blackpoint Wildlife Drive, Merritt Island by Dave E, on Flickr

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Blackpoint Wildlife Drive, Merritt Island by Dave E, on Flickr

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Blackpoint Wildlife Drive, Merritt Island by Dave E, on Flickr

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Blackpoint Wildlife Drive, Merritt Island by Dave E, on Flickr

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Blackpoint Wildlife Drive, Merritt Island by Dave E, on Flickr

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Blackpoint Wildlife Drive, Merritt Island by Dave E, on Flickr

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Blackpoint Wildlife Drive, Merritt Island by Dave E, on Flickr

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Blackpoint Wildlife Drive, Merritt Island by Dave E, on Flickr

We accidentally turned right and skipped the section with some tower on it (section 9 I think), which looked quite large. Don't tell me about all the awesome stuff I missed...

Next, just Northeast of that, was the Haulover Canal with a manatee viewing area (and Southeast was a Sea turtle area we never got to). There were no manatees to be seen (though locals expected to see them, so they *are* there), but we did catch a few pelicans. I was excited to see them though there were much better sightings of them later on in the trip.

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Haulover Canal, Merritt Island by Dave E, on Flickr

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Haulover Canal, Merritt Island by Dave E, on Flickr

Next up, NASA!
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NASA by Dave E, on Flickr

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NASA by Dave E, on Flickr

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SpaceX - NASA - Day before launch by Dave E, on Flickr

Next up, Indian Rocks beach. Clearwater beach parking was full (it's a tiny lot), so we headed down the road until we found parking that wasn't private. It was far. Despite being told that the Gulf side would be much warmer, these beaches had a constant cold wind and were fairly chilly... Miami Beach, they were not. Due to the chilliness, there were mostly deserted.

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Indian Rocks Beach by Dave E, on Flickr

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Indian Rocks Beach by Dave E, on Flickr

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Indian Rocks Beach by Dave E, on Flickr

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Indian Rocks Beach by Dave E, on Flickr

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Indian Rocks Beach by Dave E, on Flickr

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Indian Rocks Beach by Dave E, on Flickr

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Indian Rocks Beach by Dave E, on Flickr

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Indian Rocks Beach by Dave E, on Flickr

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Indian Rocks Beach by Dave E, on Flickr

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Indian Rocks Beach by Dave E, on Flickr

Next, Down to St. Pete's Beach, where we never actually made it to the beach, but to Dolphin Landings, a dolphin boat cruise. There are several boats available to watch dolphins. None of them seem to leave the little bay. Find a public spot near the southern bridge and watch the dolphins from there, for free. The boat ride did get us near some birds on posts though:
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St. Pete's Dolphin Landings by Dave E, on Flickr

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St. Pete's Dolphin Landings by Dave E, on Flickr

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St. Pete's Dolphin Landings by Dave E, on Flickr

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St. Pete's Dolphin Landings by Dave E, on Flickr

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St. Pete's Dolphin Landings by Dave E, on Flickr

Next up, Ft. Desoto, at the ferry beach:
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Ft. Desoto Ferry Beach by Dave E, on Flickr

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Ft. Desoto Ferry Beach by Dave E, on Flickr

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Ft. Desoto Ferry Beach by Dave E, on Flickr

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Ft. Desoto Ferry Beach by Dave E, on Flickr

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Ft. Desoto Ferry Beach by Dave E, on Flickr

And the Ft. Desoto North Beach:

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Ft. Desoto North Beach by Dave E, on Flickr

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Ft. Desoto North Beach by Dave E, on Flickr

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Tern - Ft. Desoto North Beach by Dave E, on Flickr

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Ft. Desoto North Beach by Dave E, on Flickr

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Ft. Desoto North Beach by Dave E, on Flickr

The florida birds may not quite be tame, but this squirrel was:
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Tame Begging Squirrel 1 - Ft. Desoto North Beach by Dave E, on Flickr

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Tame Begging Squirrel 2 - Ft. Desoto North Beach by Dave E, on Flickr

Great set. Looks like a good trip!

Wonderful!

Great Photos!

Nice trip Dave! It sure looks like a lot for just one week. But it also looks like it was worth it. Thanks for sharing!

Beautiful photos, David! Looks like a trip that I would never want to end!

Thanks guys (and gal). It was fun, but it was a bit much to squeeze into a week. We had fantastic weather the whole time.

I know I posted a lot shots from everywhere. I wanted to get the feel of each place across in case anybody was planning a trip of their own. The gulf beaches were good for pelicans and small shorebirds, but was chilly. The ocean side was good for gators, and larger birds, and down by Miami was quite hot, with nicer beaches. We did see a spoonbill by the edge of the road as were were leaving Ft. Desoto... Oh, and on the road into Ft. Desoto we saw like 5 or 6 Osprey on top of the lamp posts. I'm sure if we had stopped we could have got a nice shot of Osprey catching a meal.

I wish we got to Blackpoint a little earlier. While to me it seems like there was a ton of things to shoot, apparently the migration north had started, and there were relatively few birds. On the other hand, maybe that makes it easier to get an isolated shot.

I know you're not supposed to shoot from your car for the best quality, and I played with that a bit to see how bad it was. 90% of shots taken while the car was running were *very* blurred. I pretty much deleted them right away. Highways shots were actually better than idling shots. I tried with IS both on and off, and it didn't matter, shooting from an idling car was bad. My dad was surprised, as he says he shoots from the car all the time. Next I tried some shots from the car, while the engine was off. I've heard this is also bad, due to heat distortion coming from the car. Sure enough, most of these weren't usable either... The heron w/ fish was one of the few keepers shot from inside the car. For pretty much everything, if we saw something (including gators), I'd hop out, walk a few (or more) steps from the car and shoot from there. Everything was handheld. I had no tripod, and as bird shots are recommended to be high shutter speed due to their jerkiness, a tripod likely wouldn't have made much of a difference. If you've got a big heavy lens, then perhaps a monopod would be good, just to support the weight.