Florida Everglades Tours

One of our guides, Marlowe Moore

Well hello Adventurers!

Wondering what’s going on out in the Everglades these days? You should come down and see. We’ve had a heck of a rainstorm which made us gators skedaddle right beforehand to find some shelter to ride it out, but now the sun’s out so we’ll scoot on over to our basking spots and sit a spell.

Word has it that the Burmese python eggs are about to hatch over at the animal exhibit, and if you hurry up and book your full day tour you just might get to see those little buggers coming out of the eggs. Folks say they’re surprised when they look at the eggs. Apparently people have a much different idea about what python eggs are supposed to look like. Folks say, “they look like deflated softballs!” but I don’t know what a softball is, so I can’t speak to the accuracy of that comparison.

We’re all on pins and needles waiting for our young’uns to hatch, too. Should be soon that we hear the tiny grunt grunt of hatchlings calling out for their mamas all over the glades.

I’ll keep you posted and let you know when the first of the hatchlings arrive!

See you soon!

Zebra Longwing - Florida State butterfly

Howdy there, Adventurers!

Life is grand down here in the Everglades, and we have been so happy to see so many visitors braving the summer months to pay us a visit. Nature abounds, and the tour groups are having a blast seeing us swimming in the Turner River and congregating for some social time. Most people don’t realize us gators are social animals, but we are. We all have our own personalities and temperaments like you folks, we’re not lazy lizards like some people believe! And boy, let me tell you, we are quick, too. We’ve been having some hefty rain storms blow in, and one biggun came down and knocked my friend Sunshine the Giant Swallowtail butterfly right to the ground. The good news is, the Everglades Adventure Tour van came along later that afternoon and found her on the road during their nature drive. All those folks got to take a good long look at that big, beautiful black and yellow butterfly and admire how much detail goes into even the smaller creatures out here.

We hope to see you soon!

Hello there, Adventurers!

Gator Gil here back at the old swamputer after a much needed vacation to visit some kinfolks in the Eastern Glades. The family is doing good. Cousin Lurlene has already laid herself a fine nest of about 50 eggs she said, and she is tending those things night and day. She says those little hatchlings should emerge in about two months, and that’s about when we should start seeing little babies in our neck of the Glades, too!

If you come out for an adventure with us, you may get to see a female gator or two guarding their nests, and if you’re thinking about coming out mid-summer, there’s a chance you might see a couple of newborns. Little gators ain’t at all like little humans—gator hatchlings start fending for themselves right away ‘cause it’s a hard start for us. Not many folks realize we’re at the bottom of the food chain when life gets going for a gator!

In other news, we’re in the rainy season, and water is a-risin! We’ve seen more Great American egrets hunting the low grass, and we have had a good ol’time watching Gator D and Marlowe hose down the visitors with extra strength mosquito spray. It does the trick, though. I think only one man from Wisconsin has been carried away into the air, but they found him the next day.

Just kiddin’.

Hope to see you soon!

So glad to be back in the wet. Man, it has been raining like crazy here in the Everglades for the past few days, and we needed it! Our water levels are back up, and everyone is breathing a sigh of relief that we made it through another dry season.

Well, things are as exciting as ever for our folks coming out for the tours. The good people who have been signing up for the express tour airboat ride got caught up in one heck of a surprise rainstorm a few days ago and came flying back into the dock just as wet as a bucket of turtle hatchlings. They laughed about it and were great sports about participating in one of Mother Nature’s sweet showers. They sure got broken into the wet season good and proper!

The folks coming out on the full day tour are having their share of unexpected surprises as well! It looks as if that sassy swamp buggy driver Shelly has decided she’s going to start feeding her gator, George, for people down here visiting—so if you get on the full day tour, you just might get to see how we much we love juicy chicken quarters! Mmmm-mm!

In the last bit of critter gossip, I’ve heard that one of the female pythons at the animal exhibit is about to lay a brand new clutch of eggs! She has been so busy building a den and getting ready to have her eggs that she hasn’t been able to give me any of the details about when the eggs will arrive. You will just have to come out and see for yourself when they get here.

That’s all for now, gator friends. Come out and see us soon—you never know what surprises are in store for you!

Maybe we won't walk the boardwalk today...

Wellkomen, Adventureklein! Howdy there, Adventurers!

It may surprise you that old Gator Gil can talk a little German, but I’ve picked up a thing or two from all our German friends that start to visit us after the Easter season.

We’ve been watching many of the RVs with their funny license plates head back north this week, but we’ve also seen a few more families from even foreigner places standing around the Tamiami Trail and taking pictures.  We’ve been trying to warn these folks not to get too close to the water, but I reckon my pronunciation of ACHTUNG! is all wrong because they don’t pay me no mind.    I keep pointing out that it’s mating season and gators get awfully single-minded around here and lose their senses, so if you come down here for a visit, stay off the banks!

One cool thing about it being the end of dry season is that tracks are easy to find.  In fact, some of the humans on the airboat rides are seeing bear tracks—and fresh panther tracks!  That’s pretty special.  We used to have a ton of black bear and Florida panther, but their populations are dwindling down in here.   The Florida panther is the only panther in North America, I kid you not!  It’s last habitat is the Florida Everglades, so it is awfully special to see their pawprints in the muck.

We had a bit of a scare last week when Uncle Wader mistook the Easter Bunny for a snack.   The mishap was handled well although I’m worried ol’Wader might get sued.  It was an honest mistake, coulda happened to any gator.   I reckon it’s not real smart, though, a big rabbit like that hopping around the Everglades with baskets of colored eggs and marshmallow chicks.   Oh, well.  He doesn’t need that tail anyway, all it is is decoration as far as I can see.

I’m outta here, gator friends!  Til next time!

Howdy, Adventuristas and Adventurinos!

Hope you all have been doing well and are loving this sunny weather!  We sure are.  Life is good out here in the Everglades, and we’ve been seeing so many fun people from all over the United States and Canada, and even some kinda folk called a “snowbird.”  Right now we’re getting on to the end of the dry season—just another month—and so the water is looooooow out here right now.  All I can tell ya is that when you come out for your airboat ride, don’t wear your pretty white pants or fancy white shirt!

Well you all know it’s alligator mating season right now, and that means we gators are all outta sorts trying to get our youngun’s squared away and ready to be hatched in the summertime.   Well, my uncle Deward B. Gator has been resting out in the Gator Lake at Corey Billie’s Airboat Rides, and yesterday Captain Leebo was showing some visitors from a place called England my uncle there.  Well, Deward ain’t a gator of many words, he’s more of an action male, and he went to fussing and hissing and thrashing so much that ol’Leebo about hollered “Mercy!” and that lady from England climbed up in his captain’s chair and said a word or two I’m not going to repeat!  It was an exciting ride, believe me.

Wouldn’t you know Captain Leebo kept his distance next time around and Uncle Deward found his hidey hole and crawled into for the rest of the afternoon.  So, no matter what, Adventurers, stay in the boat!  You never know what kinda mood that Deward is going to be in.

Happy trails, gator friends!  Til next time!

Well what’s up gator friends? We are in the thick of it out here in the Everglades—mating season for us gators is in full swing, baby bald eagles and baby ospreys are starting to pop their cute little heads up out of the nests, and some of them are even starting to test out their own wings!  When they do that, it’s called “fledging,” and soon those buggers will be out on their own catching their own lunches.

The humans out here are having a good time, too, and we snapped this photo of a mom and dad with their little offspring cuddling up with a family of ball pythons together!  You know what we say out here:  “The family that holds snakes together stays together!”  And that’s the truth, ‘cause it’s hard getting’ loose from a constrictor.  Many thanks to the Power family from Canada for lettin’ us post this nice photograph!  We sure are having a lot of fun out here right now, and I hope to see you soon!

Til then, gator friend!

Everglades Bandits

Howdy, Adventurers! Guess what?  There are bandits in the Everglades!  And here’s a picture of one right here who was caught red-handed raiding the trash cans at the swamp buggy ride!  Look at that face, just as cute and guilty as he can be!  Word around the ecohood was that some juvenile Florida panthers had been keeping the raccoons scarce but it looks like the panthers have roamed elsewhere so the raccoons are now out and about in some of their favorite hangouts—like trash cans.

Speaking of youngsters, there are two new wild alligators who have showed up in the front pond where you get to take your airboat ride if you come out for a tour.  One is about a year old, and the other is about two years old.  I’d like to welcome these two new alligators to our neck of the swamp! If you want to come out and see some of these guys and pay us a visit, make sure you call and book your Everglades tour in advance.  We’ve heard they’re filling up mighty fast, and we’d sure hate it if you missed out!

Later, gator friends!

Snuggle session with Dodo

Hey there, Adventurers! Man oh man it’s been a minute since I’ve had a chance to sit down at the swamputer and write out my thoughts.  We have had so many visitors!  If you haven’t been one of ‘em, you need to get moving down to the Everglades to come pay us a visit before the mosquitoes get here.  I have one little buddy down at the Skunk Ape Research Center named Dodo, and he is a cockatiel.  He’s got about the best personality a bird could have, and would you believe that he likes to snuggle?  It’s true!  He picks a nice lady and then lays his head right on her neck and scooches in close so she can rub him under his wing.  Now that’s a smart bird.  Some folks say you can train a bird, but I say birds are better at training folks.  Just in case you find it hard to believe, I put in some pictures so you can see for yourself. Marlowe and Dwight have been having a great time touring the Everglades with everybody. Got an email from Gator D and he updated me on a recent Full day Everglades Adventure he had. He says “What a spectacular day in the Everglades! We had near perfect weather for a March day and we even made it through without getting any of the predicted rain!
We saw deer, alligators, spiders, and held snakes and scorpions and birds and took rides on swamp buggy’s and airboats, got bit by mosquitos, stung by flies, and saw tons of birds! I would say that’s an adventure!
SEE YOU LATER ALLIGATOR!”  Yeah, sounds like a fun day to me!

I will write more as soon as I can.  The full moon is coming and it is nice and bright here at night for hunting around our gator holes.  Gotta go fishin’! Til then, gator friend!

juvenile Green Heron

Howdy there, gator friends!  Man, have I got something cool to share with you.  Check this out.  We had two sets of human mating pairs from Iowa come on the full day Everglades Adventure tour a little bit ago, and the female snapped this great photograph of one of our neighbors here and emailed it to me just this afternoon!   She said it was “snowy” up there in Iowa, and I said, “uh-huh,” even though I don’t know what she is talking about.  Maybe she means she saw Snowy, my little egret friend?  That’s the only something I know about a snowy.  So here it is, my buddy-ro Mervin the Green Heron.  He’s the one in the picture on the branch.  He is very serious when he is a-huntin’ fish, and you can tell by the look on his face that he is kinda caught off guard by having his picture made.  Broke his game a little, if you know what I’m saying.  But that’s alright because herons are magnificent wading birds that can catch a meal quick like, and he was back at it in no time.  Now this is a special picture ‘cause Mervin is a juvenile, so he’s more speckled than a mature adult green heron.  Seeing a green heron out here isn’t all that common, and a juvenile one—well, that’s downright special! I thought y’all’d enjoy a look at one of our buddies who isn’t seen much around these parts, at least not by humans.  If you come on down here, Gator D and Marlowe sure will be happy to set you up on a full day Everglades Adventure tour so you can go on a nature drive and try to find something spectacular like this.  We’d be more than happy to oblige, if we can!

Y’all take care.    Til then, gator friend!