Wildlife of the Dry Tortugas

If our camera hadn't come unglued, we might have had some really cool photos of all the fish and coral that we saw around the fort.  Unfortunately, to see photos of the yellow tail snapper, grouper, parrot fish and barracuda, you'll have to do a google image search like this one.

Take my word for it, they are scarier in person.  However, we did take a few photos of our neighbors.  Here is Mr. Blue Heron taking an early morning stroll around the moat.  He had his choice - little fishes in the moat, or big fishes in the ocean - decisions, decisions, decisions.

Little Miss Sandpiper was quite the forward little chickie. She didn't hesitate to walk all over our towel in search of a snack.  She and her mate paid us a visit ever day. Hope springs eternal.

One of the coolest inhabitants of the island is the hermit crab.  I kid you not - there were hundreds of them - in and around the campground.  Every morning they would venture out looking for dew on the grass.  As the sun rose, they would retire to the shady groves.  No two were alike.  They came in all shapes and sizes.  We adopted the hermit crab shuffle when walking around camp to make sure we didn't step on any.

As the sun rose each day, the Magnificent Frigatebird would fly over from Long Key and just hover over the fort wind surfing on the thermal updrafts.  Here is a male frigate trying to impress the ladies with his big - whatever - we're not going there.

In addition to the Magnificent Frigatebirds, Bird Key plays host to the the Sooty Terns, who breed in colonies on this rocky coral island. A sooty tern, after mating, nests in a ground scrape or hole and lays one to three eggs. It feeds by picking fish from the surface in marine environments, often in large flocks, and rarely comes to land except to breed, and can stay out to sea (either soaring or floating on the water) for 3 to 10 years.  I find this way impressive since I can't even snorkel without a life jacket on!

There is one more resident of the island that we are not going to mention by name.  Apparently, they jumped off of sinking ships and set up housekeeping inside the fort.  All campers are warned to keep their food high off the the ground on large wooden poles wrapped in metal so that Ben and his friends don't make off with their booty.

After sunset one night, we took a walk around the moat. We could see what appeared to be fireflies under the water. They kept flashing on and off.  The next day, we asked Ranger Dave and he told us they were worms (a/k/a bioluminescent invertebrates). These worms glow when disturbed by fish feeding in the moat.  Rumor has it that a camper once jumped in and stirred up the moat just to see them glow. While said camper was not fined by the Park Service, the numerous jellyfish stings were probably punishment enough for failing to heed the warnings not to jump in the moat.