Today we headed to Fish River canyon, the second largest canyon in the world here we would not only see spectacular views but unique desert flora and fauna.

The trip to the canyon took about 30 minutes from where we stayed and was very bumpy on approach to the canyon. on arrival our guide said that there were two main viewpoints that look over the canyon, both could be accessed by a short walk. we immediately set off towards the closest observation point and boy was the view amazing even after seeing the Grand Canyon last year this canyon was just as impressive and unique in its own way, unlike the Grand Canyon which was covered in lush green vegetation with the Colorado river flowing quickly at its base. Fish river canyon was covered in desert flora of all variations, Fish river was reduced to several small pools along the stretch of the canyon the transformation here from the wet to dry season is drastic.

on leaving the observation area I collected a few granite samples and other metamorphic rocks whilst photographing various types of desert flora. Obviously stopping to admire the beautiful vista of the canyon. by the time I reached the other observation area the whole left inner side of the canyon was illuminated by the sun allowing for some impressive panoramic and landscape shots.

a short walk from the observation point was a small lower ledge which I easily traversed too as there were no guard rails, this ledge gave me a great prospective of height and a fantastic view of the canyon basin.

Several minutes past while I admired the view and we began to head back towards the van, as we neared the van I suddenly stopped as a lizard darted in front of me and settled on a rock I began taking photos of it so I could identify it later. To me it looked like the combination of a bearded Dragon and a gecko.

The next stop on our drive before reaching Aus was the Roadhouse a hotel diner where the owner had collected old cars abandoned around Namibia. all the ones outside you could easily get in and sit in it was fantastic. on the inside the diner was filled will old car parts and motor vehicle signs and alike.

On leaving the roadhouse we took a short cut to reach Aus. Yeah short cut more like rip your tire off cut.

Our driver had been informed by another that this road was good and could be used to reach Aus quicker, this was not the case in several places the road was washed away by the years rains and the rest was so bumpy it could shake the fillings from your teeth. This shortcut turned into a long cut.

The short cut finally ended and we hit tarmac roads and after around an hour arrived in Aus.

This summer my family and I will be journeying to Africa on an adventure in Namibia for 14 days. I have avoided reading our itinerary, therefore I am looking forward to the adventure.

Like my blog from Florida, I hope to inform you of what I observe whilst there in a factual but informal way.

Temp: 29°c

Today we headed once more to the Florida Gulf Coast University, our first stop of the day was a short talk on wetlands by Bill Mitsch, who literally wrote The Book on wetlands! From his talk I found that one of the main preconceptions on the most effective way of reducing greenhouse gases is incorrect. This being the fact that rainforests are the best, in fact they have no effect in the reduction, the existing trees in rainforests give out as much gas as they absorb. Newly planted trees would be effective for a duration but not half as much as the key extractors of greenhouse gases: wetlands more precisely mangrove trees. Unlike most plants that give out methane as well as carbon dioxide, mangroves give out methane and Sulphur, and when these two combine they break down to form non greenhouse gases.

After the talk from Bill Mitsh, we drove to the Naples Botanical Garden where we were told we could explore until a designated time, several people went round recording all the species native and not for their species list. I myself took a more leisurely approach and wondered round just observing what I could see. Finding myself in the butterfly house I found that all the species within were native so I attempted to photograph these for my own list. On leaving the butterfly house I noticed a Cuban Anole on a metal support on closer inspection I saw it was in the process of eating a butterfly I took a photo of this behaviour.

A short walk from the butterfly house is a lake that apparently contained Alligators, after close scrutiny I couldn’t find any. Along the edge of the lake was a large telegraph pole with an Osprey nest on top. Looking around the base, I was lucky to find a small feather, this was a great find as I love birds of prey and this feather would make an excellent addition to my already bulging hat.

On route back toward the centre of the park I bumped into Emma and (thingy), they said they had seen some Green Anoles and showed me a picture I immediately asked the directions and attempted to find them, unfortunately I had no luck only seeing copious amounts of the Brown Cuban ones.

A short while later, we gathered near the entrance where we found out we would be having a BBQ with some university students before the big invasive species talk that night, we would be stopping at Walmart for supplies. On arrival at Walmart I took the opportunity to restock on food and buy myself some steak for a treat being tired of junk food.

We arrived back at the university and gathered in the car park and just as we began to panic that nobody would turn up a pick up truck arrived carrying the BBQ and out of the wood work students began to arrive.  It was interesting socialising and hearing with the American students about what they studied and did in their spare time.

Not long after grabbing some food we headed into the lecture room for our talk. The Invasive Species Epidemic, sounded extreme but after listening we began to see the full scale impact, how easy it is for species to transfer and this isn’t just things like animals and plants its microbes, these can get from place to place with ease. The talk proceeded to explain the methods of managing and preventing invasive species taking hold. For example tighter control on borders, fumigating of water and air vessels, such as cleaning the ballast tanks which are a major method that invasive species are often transferred.

As a whole the main method for managing the epidemic would be to ensure worldwide cooperation when it comes to trade and commercial travel between areas ensuring no harmful species are transferred out of their native ranges.

Temp: 27°c

On our last day in Florida, we head over to Lovers Quay where we will hopefully see a Manatee (Time 7:43 am).

We arrived at the public car park, gathering near a small visitor centre and informed by the lecturers that we could go off and wander, meeting back at the area just over a bridge at a set time, before heading to the beach.

On crossing the bridge to the main part of the Quay, we stopped and observed at least three Manatee swimming around minding their own business. Christian was happy that we’d seen them as he could finally prove to Prof’ that they could be sighted in Lovers Quay.

For a short while the group stuck close together, then separating into mini groups. The first exciting find was a sleeping screech owl. Everyone was snapping photos and I don’t blame them as it was really cute looking.  Christian was looking at seed pods for a certain form of seed (I think he planned on germinating some back in Bangor). While looking for the seeds he came across an old wasps nest inside a pod.

As the day progressed we began to divide into even smaller groups, Laura and myself went off the beaten track finding some butterflies and creepy looking insects. I even startled a gator that was basking on the edge of the bank, its movement scared me a little as I wasn’t aware of how close I was to it.

I spent a good chunk of the day in search of the elusive Green Anole but had no luck, only finding the common brown Cuban ones. The highlight of the day was getting very close to an Osprey perched on a tree top – it looked very regal and proud.

On the return loop of the walk I caught up with Christian and Tim who were chatting and looking at every rustle in the leaves for the hopeful sign of a Green Anole. Christian was also constantly looking into the water for Manatee. I joined them and after a short while observed both a Pipe fish and a Blue-Gray Gnatcatcher.

We ventured along the trail chatting about various things coming across a swamp area which apparently contained alligators. We all commented on the foul smell and the lack of alligators at this point but then I saw a suspicious looking log. Using my camera I looked closer and realised it was a very well camouflaged alligator, then noticing a further two. We were glad that we’d decided against splashing the water to see if we could make one in the distance move.

We made our way back to the meeting place where I purchased an ice cream and a silly present for Christian – a bottle opener in the shape of a Manatee as he’d not stopped mentioning about Manatees the whole day. (We’d noticed the lecturer’s night time antics as a beer bottle had been left in the van!)’

Once all the students had assembled again we left on the shuttle bus train to the beach. We were informed not to pick up any urchins dead or alive and only shells if we could be sure they had nothing living inside. On arriving at the beach we went off on our own, most people just sunbathed whereas Sam and I decided to make the most of it and go for a wander as wanted to get the last few birds for his 100 bird total list and myself and I wanted to explore and find “cool” things. After a good long walk up the beach, we came across all sorts of shells, a brittle star which American Oyster Catchers were feeding on.

The find of the day was definitely found on our return to the pick-up point. We walked along the water’s edge and Sam thought he saw a horse shoe crab but proved to be a leaf. We talked about the chances of actually finding one and to add insult to injury what did I see but a Carapace half buried in the sand. It turned out not only to be the front but the tail also. I picked it up and shook it out it to find it was almost complete. I was definitely not going to leave this behind so I smuggled it from the beach in my towel.

After a short shuttle ride we arrived back at our buses and returned to Vesta and had a debrief of the day’s events and learning the reason Lovers Quay was called Lovers Quay – this is because once upon a time it was an island were ‘lovers’ went.

We then held a small quiz about the day’s events followed by the photo and species index competition, the results of which that everyone entering their species list won, as we had all done them in different ways making it impossible to choose.

Temp: 26°c

Today we went to Corkscrew swamp. This is a 500 year old forest of giant Bald Cypress trees, these were saved from destruction in 1954 by Audubon. It rises up to 30 metres from a swampy area of Strangler Figs and native grasses. This habitat is shared with the Pond Apple and Red Maple trees along with the seasonal Ghost Orchid. There are lakes within the forests and these are ideal places for many types of waders and other water feeding birds. Vast amounts of migratory birds visit this area including the beautiful coloured Painted Bunting.

Corkscrew is a now a 13,000 acre permanent and seasonal paradise for endangered and under threat species whose survival indicates the overall health of the Everglades. The swamp has a long section of boardwalk to enable visitor access whilst keeping the area untouched. It was like walking into something from Jurassic Park; going from the grasses to a dense swamp forest you could see birds flitting around and you could imagine something prehistoric lurking in the shadows. On one of the side paths a Raccoon was sighted; several of us were using the Canadian nick name for them ‘Trash Panda’. Unfortunately, the amount of people gathering around scared it to a distance and by the time I got there to take my identification photo it was no more than a piece of fluff in the grass!

The boardwalk took some time, a good deal of this I spent yet again looking for the allusive Green Anole (no luck again). There was an unexpected downfall of rain whilst in the Cypress swamp making people scatter for shelter. Not caring about the rain, in fact I actually enjoyed it.  I stayed out to see the effect it made, this in fact made the majority of birds disappear. After the downpour the birds slowly re-emerged. Towards the end of the boardwalk Laura spotted something – a large insect something like the Shield bugs we have in the UK, it was huge I took several photos which I later identified as a Florida Leaf Footed Bug.

On arriving back to the visitor centre I had a small sleep in a lovely rocking chair as I was still exhausted from the 24 hour plague. After waking up I went over to the bird feeders to find Sam taking photographs. It must have been my good luck because not long after we got not one but several rare bird sightings: the Rose Breasted Grosbeak, Indigo Bunting and the Painted Bunting which Sam had been determined to see the whole trip.

After spending the morning in Corkscrew it was suggested to go to the Bonita Beach which is local to the Vesta Field Station. We were all up for this and made a mad dash to the souvenir shop for beach supplies! I purchased myself a skimming ball that actually skims (sounds too good to be true). We ditched all of our gear at the Field Station before heading out again.

Bonita Beach is accessed via a private walled estate area, with upmarket houses and boats on either side. This is the sort of thing you would expect a drug baron on CSI Miami to live! It seems absurd to think these are probably holiday homes, some of them were bigger than the average house.

On arrival to Bonita beach we were treated to the site of a Gopher Tortoise crossing the road, it reminded me of an old man. We decided to get out the van to have a look and saw another tortoise not too far away in a burrow. We took several photos including one of the crossing sign that had a cartoon tortoise on.

We proceeded to look around the visitor centre picking up free shells and shell guides. We went along to the beach along a board walk and found an area to pitch our towels. Within seconds people were in the sea, the lecturers had purchased some beach balls to have some fun, so instead of topping up my tan I decided to join in with them. We had a good laugh and by the end we had two American footballs my skimming ball and a Frisbee on the go at once it was chaotic, but FUN! We returned back to the Vesta Field Station to eat and sleep.

Temp: 28°c

Today we learned about the key invasive species of Florida and the Everglades.
We also went Snorkelling scroll to bottom for more on that.

We had a talk from someone who works with the management of the education and removal of the invasive species.

He outlined the key aspects to dealing with invasive species these are prevention early detection and rapid response.

He stated that there are currently over 600 invasive species found in Florida over 50 of which are reptiles, the reason for Florida having so many invasive species is the climate, these ideal conditions are often and improvement from those of the species native range.

The longer the species is present in an area the larger its area of invasion is likely to get, the worst of the invasive species is the plants.

Some of the more destructive invasive species found in Florida are:

The Nile Monitor: these ruin nests of any ground nesting animals these have been listed as a conditioned species so cannot be owned as pets.

The current population has been breeding since 2012 and the most effective way to remove them is killed them with guns from boats.

The Burmese Python: this species was discovered in Florida around the 1970’s and a breeding population was confirmed in the early 2000’s these are also listed as a conditional species and can reach up to 18ft long the longest being 18.8ft, they have increasingly been found in south west Florida.

Rock Python: 30 of these python have been caught and there is a good chance they are in decline.

Other snake species are as follows: Green and Yellow Anaconda and the Boa Constrictor.

A highly destructive but annoyingly cute looking lizard is the Argentine Black and white Tegus these are from South America. Their diet varies and they have the ability to over winter in burrows. The tegu is a listed species and is endanger in its native range so cannot be harmed only removed. There is little known about the agricultural impact the tegu could have.

The Black Spiny Tail Iguana is questionable to if it’s invasive or not, they are omnivorous and share the burrows of Burrowing Owls, this may be problematic when the owls have eggs, they have been known to eat Gopher Tortoise eggs.

There are 3 known invasive species of Chameleon these are the Oustalet, Veiled and Panther.

Non-native deer present in Florida are the Barasingha, Axis and the Red Stag of which the Barasingha is an endangered species so cannot be killed.

There are several initiatives in place to manage the invasive species such as canal surveys and fish tournaments to attempt to reduce numbers.
The python challenge is another way to educate people into what pythons look like and how to catch and kill them. The duration of the challenge is roughly a month and gives a large amount of data to the location of the invasive pythons.

Enough facts time for something awesome SNORKELLING!

Water Temp: 22°c

After a long day of being educated it was decided we would go snorkelling at from the Florida Keys this was a long drive especially after being ill but I was not going to miss it. We arrived at the booking place well in advance and had to kill some time so Sam Whittaker and I went exploring through the bushes finding Anoles everywhere we even came across several locust/grasshopper type bugs one we believe is a Katydid.

After a while the last bus turned up and we set off to the keys where we eventually (girls take ages to change) boarded the boat to head out to the sea, I went up on top deck it was beautiful, on arrival to the reef we were given a safety talk and additionally to that a set of rules which were in place to preserve the reef this was very good to hear them taking so much good care of the reef. So after diving in GoPro in hand it didn’t take me too long to find some fish and I was diving and filming continuously, I even saw a Barracuda, although by far the best sighting of the day must have been the Nurse Shark.