A Walk With The Wild Ones

        Just  a short distance to the east of Estero, on Corkscrew Road, you can find a world of adventure in a natural setting. The Corkscrew Nature Preserve is a visit to primordial Florida, to see the birds, plants and trees and the many animals that once crawled freely around the pristine acres that we now call home. In particular, you get to see up close and personal with our favorite reptile, the American Alligator.       

They are saurian monsters from millions of years past.
Okay, that is a little dramatic, but it is easy to be overly descriptive at times when seeing something special. We were walking through the 6,000-acre Corkscrew Swamp Nature Preserve one morning. 

It was a warm 80 degrees at 9:30 A.M., as we walked along the two miles of raised boardwalk. The trees were dripping with moisture from last night’s rain. We wondered how hot this place must get in deepest summer. The slash pines mingled amidst the green-green of the jungle, with huge Cypress trees, some over 500 hundred years old. The ferns were spread out all around us in deep green fan-like arrays, that sparkled with the morning dew. We could hear any number of birds calling out and singing to us. The walkway was slippery, covered with green mold and slime from the rotting vegetation. I don’t think I would want to spend a night here.

We passed at least a dozen of the helpful volunteer docents along the walk. These earnest and helpful souls are extremely knowledgeable, but they usually talk your ear off. They were covered in khaki, jungle-Jim style garb, with hooded slouch hats to ward off the various clouds on insects that swarm here. They looked for all the world like a troop of super-annulated boy and girl scouts.

Finally, we came upon an alligator hole or a “slough.” It is a declivity in the earth where rain waters collect. Gators, being water born creatures, gather here especially in the dry seasons. About twenty yards in front and just below us, lay one of the twelve-foot saurian monsters, lying peacefully in the sun. The alligators have that craggy, corrugated appearance that makes you wonder if it is real of a plastic copy set out for the tourists benefit. It was real enough we realized, as the slim, elongated head with beady eyes, looked lazily in our direction. Two of the docents walked over and engaged us in conversation. As veterans of several such eco-tours and a few “alligator feedings” at the Naples Zoo, we were well versed in the lore of alligators. They are a fascinating saurian, eating machine whose outward appearance hasn’t changed much in over 300 million years. We exchanged a few anecdotes about the gators and then slipped away before a full lecture could begin.

A few hundred yards along the trail, we arrived at “Lettuce Lake.” It is really just a wet mud hole in the dry season of S.W. Florida. Even still, we saw two of the adult saurian monsters lying in the sun on the banks of a small rivulet of water. The animals blend in with the surrounding flora and are hard to see. It is the corrugated surface of their skin that gives them away. And then, as we looked through our small binoculars, we saw several small heads wriggling around them. It was four of the baby gators, slithering around in the muck near a protective mama-san. They have a curious, striped pattern on their torsos and have tails much longer than their bodies. It was fascinating to watch this age-old family setting in the wild, as it must have occurred many millions of years ago. We watched them as they lolled in the sun, only the young ones bothering to move about. It was our first “alligator sighting” in several months. Southwest Florida is becoming civilized and these monsters are going the way of the dinosaur.

We continued along the path as it crossed over a grassy patch of earth. Two red-tailed deer were grazing a hundred yards off. They watched us warily, waiting for any sudden movement from us that would set them running. Overhead, the sky was a brilliant, azure-blue, like one that you get to see after a rainstorm. The sun was shining warmly upon us. It was a picture-perfect day in the wilds of SW Florida.

After leaving the preserve, we saw a herd of beef cattle running along the side of the road. We then watched several of the feral pigs, that swarm through the area, lope through the roadside brush. It was like living in an open zoo. And the alligators are its stars. The 100-pound panthers, four types of poisonous snakes, and other wild life that abound here, don’t come out until the second act opens as night falls. The tour of Corkscrew Nature Preserve was a worthwhile trip for us. We much enjoyed watching these animals in the wild.

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                              (842 words)

                           Joseph Xavier Martin

For more information, go to:  https://corkscrew.audubon.org/visit/visit-corkscrew-swamp-sanctuary