A hole in the ground

 On our final day in Florida, we went on a trip to Big Pine Key on the hunt for the elusive Key Pine Deer, and while doing so, we stopped by a very interesting location that I did not expect to see down in the Florida Keys. The place which we visited was a blue hole, which is an abandoned quarry hole that fills in with water over an extended period of time or has water artificially pumped into the quarry in order to make it less dangerous. While there are many of these blue holes across New Jersey, many of which are very popular locations to go swimming or fishing, there are not really any in the Florida Keys besides this one. This quarry was once a rock quarry used to fill in areas for the railroad that once spanned across the entirety of the Florida Keys, but once abandoned, became a protected area for wildlife to flourish in. 

Pictured above is a view from one of the main outlooks at the blue hole, which shows a majority of the artificial lake that has formed here and all of the surrounding trees and other plants to support a vast array of wildlife.

This area is protected unlike many other blue holes across our country has allowed for this particular location to be able to support a large variety of rare and unexpected species within its general area. For example, it is one of the few places this far south in the Florida Keys where you can naturally find American alligators. There is also a small population of tarpon, as well as several houndfish living in the lake that has been pushed there during several strong hurricanes over the past several decades. The large variety of trees and plants surrounding the blue hole also support the elusive key deer and the protected white-crowned pigeon, and many other species of birds feeding off the abundant plant life present around the blue hole.

Above is a picture I managed to take of one of the elusive white-crowned pigeons that we saw at the Big Pine Key blue hole, there were many of them present around the area and it was the only area in the keys where we saw several of these protected birds together, showing that there are still some strongly populated areas by these birds.