Thanks Pertinax! I'm obviously too well-known in these parts - that may be one of my main wild objectives*. *I'm avoiding the word 'target' after recent wildlife missions undertaken by Zoochatters! (sorry Chli )
The whale sharks are definitely impressive and are worth the visit all by themselves. I didn't see the manta rays, but maybe they didn't have them the first year. I'm curious to know your impression of the rest of the aquarium after your visit.
The website suggests the first manta (an M. alfredi by the look of it) arrived in 2007: Georgia Aquarium I'll keep you posted.
I looked into what species they had a few years ago and I got M. birostris, I may be completely wrong, though. ~Thylo
Wood Stork aren't that hard to see if you know where to look. I've seen them twice in Florida without trying at Gatorland and at the Lowry Park Zoo, the latter of which also had other nice wild birds there as well. ~Thylo
The website species list for Ocean Voyager lists both M. alfredi (with spotty underside as seen on the 'Nandi' page) and 'M. cf. birostris' (the cf. indicative of the taxonomic debate about how many Manta species to recognise. FishBase only recognises birostris and alfredi). It also lists the related Lesser Devil Ray, Mobula hypostoma. The species information section of the website has been completely rebuilt in the last couple of months (it's completely different now to when I first planned the trip) so should be up-to-date, though I can't be certain of course. Any and all of those would be new species for me so it's all gravy!!
That's what the website suggests - and the photos of each species certainly seem to be in the same tank. We shall see! They have four in total (Ocean Voyager | Georgia Aquarium), though I'm not sure if they've lumped in the Mobula in that figure. The species list page is here: Gallery Animals
On the off-chance anyone here is a member of Congress, if you could get all this nonsense sorted out so the National Parks are open on Friday it'd be much appreciated. Ta.
There are plenty of places to see the "Everglades" without going onto federal property. I can send you a list of the best spots if you are interested.
Another cool place to see wild Florida is Blue Springs State Park on the St. John's River. It's about an hour from Disney World. They have a boat tour of the river. I saw multiple alligators, anhinga, white-faced ibises, pileated woodpeckers, bald eagles, barred owl, tricolored heron, and several other species. Manatees gather there in the colder months - not sure if they would be there yet.
S'alright - I'm being slightly over-dramatic - our plan actually involves very little time in the federal parks themselves, really. We're being taken round by a local birder friend so if any venues are unexpectedly unavailable we'll have no problem finding suitable replacements.
Good luck mate, fingers crossed for some wild (and captive ) rarities. Keep us posted in thread with highlights if you're able to!
Good luck on the trip. As a huge aquarium fan, Georgia is placed firmly within my top-5 worldwide, but admittedly that's mainly based on three things: The huge Ocean Voyager, the big Tropical Diver tank (has varied somewhat in quality on my visits, from spectacular on the first first and last visit, to average in between - not sure how it stands currently) and mammals. Yes, some species lack signs, but that problem is a worldwide epidemic in large aquaria featuring tropical species. Obviously less of an issue in aquaria that mainly focus on temperate/subtropical species where diversity is lower. General animal and bird watching in Florida is excellent but if you've been to tropical South America (or plan on going in the near future) it's worth keeping in mind that some Everglade bird species tend to be easier to see in trop. South America. Southern Florida is the very limit of the Neotropics and therefore the very border of some essentially Neotropical species. As such, they're often low density in FL and it might be worth focusing more on some of the 'real' specialities: Southeast U.S. specialities and not least the scrub jay. Anyhow, this all depends on how serious you are on bird watching. Whatever the case, it sounds like you're in for a great trip
