The need an 85-degree body temperatures to digest food, so they don't eat from September to March. We saw eight alligators swimming, climbing or resting along Anhinga Trail in Everglades National Park. They're not as big as manatees or alligators, but Florida's exotic birds are plentiful. Brown pelicans hang around boat docks, eager to feast on leftovers at fish-cleaning stations. Herons and egrets stalk fish in roadside canals as well as pileated woodpeckers, the big ones with red head crests, tattoo palm and cypress stands.
Irritable ibises use their long curved beaks to shoo red-beaked moorhens.
We saw all these - and I don't have particularly keen eyesight or much skill with binoculars. We found the most species at once at Anhinga Trail and Eco Pond, both on the 38-mile road to Flamingo in Everglades National Park. On cold days, manatees seek out the warm-water discharge canal at Tampa Bay Electric Company's generating plant. Despite Florida's avian abundance, spotting some birds requires preparation and patience. The day we visited Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary, a wood stock haven outside Naples, it rained so hard that resurrection ferns turned from brown to green in 30 minutes.