Brass Bowl

Sunday, the Bowl took a ride on the Van Fleet Trail. We love the trail for the wide variety of wildlife we see.  Sunday was a bit exceptional though.

We rolled out of the Green Pond Trailhead, enjoying the quiet of a late morning in the Green Swamp.  At our first rest stop, we noticed the dragonflies were everywhere.  I tried in vain to get a good shot that was in focus.  This looked like the best I was going to do.

(click on any of the pictures for a 1024×768 image)

Dragonfly on board

Then, one fella landed on the mirror of my helmet.  He just sat there while I took picture after picture, trying to get him in focus.  Finally, I realized he was too close for normal settings, so I went to macro mode.

Patient little fella

A little while later, we came up to one of our favorite ponds along the trail.

Green Swamp

Yes, that grey lump in the middle is an alligator.  A fair size one.

This is a dangerous creature. Never feed an alligtor.

Situated a short, but escapable distance away was an egret, looking around for a Sunday Brunch.

This was one white bird, I gotta tell you.

Later, as we were sliding down the last miles back to the trailhead, we came upon something I hadn’t seen before.  Baby alligators.

The question of the minute is: Where is Momma? FLEE!

Of course, we weren’t done with Florida’s real senior citizen.  This fella was giving us the old man of the swamp look as we rolled over an old railroad trestle.

"Get off my lawn".

Finally, we were only a few hundred feet away from the trailhead, and we are looking forward to taking another break.  Then we roll up on this little viper.

pygmy rattlesnake

We slid past him and into the trailhead, where our car was waiting (and baking), in the Florida sun.

This weekend the Brass Bowl took a stroll to the Bakas Equestrian Center, where they were holding a Bluegrass fundraiser.  You know you are getting into horse country when you start seeing this sort of thing, in the middle of a subdivision.

I was in a que of moving vehicles and wasn’t able to get the test of the plaque.

The Bakas Equestrian Center is home for Hillsborough County’s Horse’s for Handicap program.  This is a nationally recognized program that has been featured on CNN and national horse publications.  You can read more about it at the Bakas website.

This little sculpture is located directly in front of the barn of the Center.  There is a plaque that accomplanies the sculpture, a picture of which follows the sculpture image.

The music was playing and folks were having a good time when we finally eased into our seats in the arena.

This is Bits of Grass, comprised of Jerry Walker (left), Austin Wilder (center) and Jimmey White, (right and behind the mike – my apologies Jimmy!).  These guys played som every fine bluegrass and are accomplished musicians.

After enjoying some music, our attention turned to food.  We went with the sausage loaded with grilled green peppers and onions, and it was everything we thought it would be.  It was so good I didn’t pause to take a picture.  Sorry.

Another set of performers there were the Strawberry Express Cloggers.  I was pleasantly surprised by their show.  All of the performers, from the littlest to the most seasoned showed skill and enthusiasm for their craft.

During our walk around the Center, we saw many birdhouses. evidently made by the children who come to Bakas to ride.  You can see the fun they had in how the birdhouses are painted.

It was a marvelous way to spend a Saturday afternoon.  We hope to come back for the Holiday Party and have more fun, and support this outstanding program.

Yeah, I overdid it just a little on Thanksgiving.  So on Saturday, Spousal Unit and I loaded up the bikes and hit the Van Fleet Trail.  We started at Green Pond, and sure enough, Green Pond Tom was there.  He was cosy’d up with some other riders, soaking up the attention and the scraps.  We also got a better look at the fawn we spotted fleetingly last time.  Mom was evidently in the brush watching.  We kept our distance and used the zoom.  You can see the spots on the back of the little fella (or gal).

We waited a few moments and he loped back into the brush.  The rest of the ride was kind of anticlimatic, but the trees are starting to turn and it was a nice day to be on the trail.

This weekend the Bowl took a roll along the Van Fleet Trail.  It is one of the more rural Rails To Trails in the state, and the wildlife viewing is pretty good.  We started in Polk City and rode north to the Green Pond Trailhead, a distance of ten miles.  Waiting for us there was Green Pond Tom.

Judging from the multitude of dishes around, it looks like GPT has a few fans.

So after the break, we headed back south.  It was going to be a twenty mile day.  More than enough to tire me out.  But as soon as we started to get a little tired, a doe stepped into the road.

I took the camera down from my eye and a fawn bounded across the road from right to left, and mom disappeared after it.

At the midway point back, we stopped for a quick break, and noticed that the shelter at the five mile point was, in fact, Spider House.

These spiders are two to three inches across.

We left the spiders to their business, and start pushing pedals south.  But not for long.  Who can ride by a pair of Sandhill Cranes and not take some pictures?

It was a wonderful day on the trail.  We got some exercise, made friends with a feline, said yuck to the spiders, stared at the Sandhills and marveled at the doe and fawn.

Sometimes a photographer gets so lucky he can’t believe it.  And he isn’t ready.  Such as this case.  I was trying out some experimental settings on my camera while in Melbourne when I stumbled upon TWO birds on my list to photograph.

The first was the Little Blue Heron, sitting on the shore doing his/her fishing thing, oblivious to me.  After snapping the picture and moving on, so did the bird.

I then walked around some brush to the rear of the Little Blue Heron, and was startled to see a juvie Great Blue Heron.  She/he only stood still long enough for one shot, and then nervously started walking away.  I moved away also, so as not to stress the creature any more than I already have.

Only then did I realize that my camera was not set to the normal settings, and the pictures might not be optimal.  I was right.  But this is what I got, so I have to accept that, and learn from my experiences.

The Bowl went on another Melbourne jaunt Labor Day, to celebrate a birthday.  While there, we took a day to see what the beach looked like.  Given the storms in the Gulf and the Atlantic, it was not a typical beach day.  I thought it would be interesting to show a beach that is NOT all sun and fun, but breezy and cloudy.

The wind was from the east, blowing onshore.  It was whipping up some fair surf, but the rip currents were also kicking up, so we didn’t see any surfers.   The lack of human activity on the beach brought out some of the native guys and girls.  This is a Ghost Crab, (Ocypode quadrata ).  They are called ghosts because they can disappear in a blink, moving up to 10 mph.  It took me a few minutes to get these shots, sitting quietly while my feet and lower legs went to sleep.

Below is a close up of this fella.  Click on the picture to see a 1024 x 768 image.

He was scuttling all over the place like Dr. Zoidberg.  What I didn’t know about the Ghost Crab is that while they can see 360 degrees, they can’t see up, so they burrow in the ground against birds.  They are about one and a half  to two inches in diameter, and look like the perfect snack size for gulls.