The dry season is approaching. When days begin to shorten and the rain stops, winter comes, beginning the dry season in southern Florida. The green saw-grass shoots turn gold and wither in the Florida sun. The water recedes and settles into ponds and gator holes, attracting wildlife that crowds into the new watery communities for survival. The skies above Biscayne arch over a green and brown sea.
Sunlight polishes the colors to a dazzling intensity.
From the bay, the shoreline of mangrove swamps appears as a dark-green serpentine seam joining sea to sky. Junglelike keys break up the horizon, and busy, intricate communities of coral lie just beneat hthe surface of the waters east of the keys. Mangroves The nearly impenetrable, unbroken mangrove swamp that traces the shoreline rises out of brown, brackish water. A sanctuary, breeding and feeding ground, and nursery for all types of land and marine animals, the mangrove swamps keep the waters of Biscayne Bay clear and sparkling by trapping eroding soil and pollutants from inland sources. The azure water of the bay teems with wildlife.