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.

I normally see these birds in groups on the ground, grubbing in lawns and fields for insects.  When I saw them roosting in trees in the late morning, I had to stop and take a picture.

Small group in tree.

Solo perch. Maybe he's been kicked out of the family tree?

So I’m standing there, wondering why these birds are up in tree’s during the day.  Hmm.  It’s late morning, they should be foraging for food.  There doesn’t appear to be food in the trees, so why aren’t they on the ground?   What else do I see. Hmm.  Mangroves. Mangroves mean swampy water. And in Florida, swampy water means…..gators.

Whups, time to leave……..bye bye birdies….