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My first trip to Flamingo Gardens in Davie was just getting to the really good stuff now. Gwendolyn and I already had wandered through some of the jungly trees and plants and looked at the injured hawks and owls that are among the permanent residents of this sanctuary. Now we were waiting in the roughhewn outdoor theater for the start of the “wildlife encounter.” A kind of wooden shack sits in front of the theater benches, resembling something an Everglades hermit might have built for himself somewhere in the sawgrass. When the door opened, a young man walked out with a plastic basket. He chatted with us pleasantly for a while, talking with a very dry wit about his work with the wild animals. All of us were chuckling at his humor by the time he pulled something living from that basket.
It was an opossum, a very cute one that also was totally blind. “No big deal though, really,” the young man told us. “They don’t see very well anyway.” The opossum sniffed to find her food, which was some mix of Cheerios and fish and other bizarre stuff. Then she started chowing down while our host explained that opossums are the only marsupials in North America – you know, animals with pouches for their young. Like kangaroos. He even showed us her pouch. Hey, it was news to me.
This Flamingo Gardens staffer brought a string of other animals from the shack now, one at a time to admire as he gave us some fascinating details about each. The critters included a four-foot king snake and a great horned owl. Everyone seemed to enjoy his entertaining presentation. But the best part of Flamingo Gardens was still ahead. The free-flight aviary is, essentially, a huge outdoor cage that contains a variety of mini-habitats native to Florida. A mangrove swamp, for instance, and a cypress forest, a sub-tropical hardwood hammock and an Everglades sawgrass prairie. Birds that live in these habitats in the wild also live in them here. Injured birds, remember, that would not survive on their own. It’s really something to see. Pelicans walk past you, waddling down the sidewalk, anhingas stand inches from your face drying their opened wings in the wind. Gorgeous pink wading birds called roseate spoonbills flutter nearby, seeming to suck up their food like vacuum cleaners with flat, round beaks. Gwendolyn and I stayed there a long time, pointing and smiling and laughing at the antics of these birds. But there was more to see. And there were lots of photo opportunities too. I’ll finish these blogs about Flamingo Gardens next week by telling you a little more about all of that. See you then. Have a great weekend!
It was an opossum, a very cute one that also was totally blind. “No big deal though, really,” the young man told us. “They don’t see very well anyway.” The opossum sniffed to find her food, which was some mix of Cheerios and fish and other bizarre stuff. Then she started chowing down while our host explained that opossums are the only marsupials in North America – you know, animals with pouches for their young. Like kangaroos. He even showed us her pouch. Hey, it was news to me.
This Flamingo Gardens staffer brought a string of other animals from the shack now, one at a time to admire as he gave us some fascinating details about each. The critters included a four-foot king snake and a great horned owl. Everyone seemed to enjoy his entertaining presentation. But the best part of Flamingo Gardens was still ahead. The free-flight aviary is, essentially, a huge outdoor cage that contains a variety of mini-habitats native to Florida. A mangrove swamp, for instance, and a cypress forest, a sub-tropical hardwood hammock and an Everglades sawgrass prairie. Birds that live in these habitats in the wild also live in them here. Injured birds, remember, that would not survive on their own. It’s really something to see. Pelicans walk past you, waddling down the sidewalk, anhingas stand inches from your face drying their opened wings in the wind. Gorgeous pink wading birds called roseate spoonbills flutter nearby, seeming to suck up their food like vacuum cleaners with flat, round beaks. Gwendolyn and I stayed there a long time, pointing and smiling and laughing at the antics of these birds. But there was more to see. And there were lots of photo opportunities too. I’ll finish these blogs about Flamingo Gardens next week by telling you a little more about all of that. See you then. Have a great weekend!
posted by LauderBLOGGER at 4:20 PM
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