The Florida Trails "Ross Prairie State Forest"

 Let's take a hike!

I've taken so many photos this summer and I know I can't share them all.

But I wanted to take you all on a hike.

Let's hike the Holly Hammock trail in the Ross Prairie Forest.

These photos are all taken on the same trail....

one right after another.

You can see how the trail changes as we walk.

This is all in about 2 miles of the trail (before we make the turn and loop back around).

It's always changing and one of the reasons you never get tired of hiking in the forest.

Let's take a drink of water now and keep going!

This is a good spot to look at the prairie!

Back into the brambles!

And since most of you follow my blog, you know all of the interesting things I see along the way.

So I'll go back in time and share these bear photos with you.

Black bears live in the forests here in Ocala, Florida.

Getting out in the forest is an experience you never forget.

The weather is changing and I'll be spending more time out there.

Who...Who? Me! Me!

I’m joining Saturday’s critters HERE

  and Mosaic Monday HERE !

"Manatee Springs State Park" Gorgeous!

 

I tried to think of a better word than 'gorgeous' but you'll have to help me there. 

If after you look at the photos, you can think of a more descriptive word, I'll use it in my next post.

I'll include a link HERE if you want to read more about this park. This is a first-magnitude spring that releases an astounding 100 million gallons of water daily!

We spent a week camping here and had such fun. 

There are a lot of hiking trails and the Springs were only about 1/2 mile away from our campsite so we went every day. 

It was nice going at different times of the day to see wildlife and birds. We did not see Manatees on this trip but we weren't disappointed in our sightings each day.

Deer walked through our campsite. A raccoon climbed the tree next to the picnic table and we got back one evening to see a pretty white cat waiting for us.

And the Springs are just gorgeous!

Ibis in the water

The first evening we walked down there we saw a Barred Owl fly into a tree nearby.

You all know that's one of my favorite sightings.

And then we saw him 3 nights in a row in the same area. 

I have about a hundred photos. 

Want to see them all?

OK....OK! 

How about this Little Blue Heron!

And here's a mosaic of the owl preening!

I'll share more photos of some of the hikes we took in days to come. Hope you'll come back to hike with me!

I’m joining Saturday’s critters HERE

  and Mosaic Monday HERE !  

Marjorie Harris Carr Cross Florida Greenway

 

I wanted to dedicate this post to the Greenway and share some of my favorite photos from my hikes there.

Of course I spent hours looking at 'favorite pics'!

I've been hiking the greenway for almost 10 years so I had trouble deciding which to share.

Please click on the link HERE to read the facebook page started by the Greenway Guardians. Duke Energy is proposing a project to build high voltage power lines THROUGH the Greenway! As you can imagine this would be disastrous to wildlife, birds, wildflowers and plants. Thanks go those fighting to preserve the Marjorie Harris Carr Cross Florida Greenway. 

And join me down memory lane as I share a few of my sightings.

White tailed Deer

Bald Eagle

One of my favorite sightings!

Fox Squirrel

These squirrels can be spotted all through the Greenway. My girlfriend saw one a couple of weeks ago and said it was the largest one she had ever seen! I'm still on the look out for that one!

Barred Owl

Florida Scrub Jay

The Greenway habitat is very important for this rare bird!

Red headed Woodpeckers up on the hill!

I've named this hill the Bluebird of Happiness Hill!

Eastern Bluebirds

Gopher Tortoise

Longspurred Mint

One of my favorite sightings was this Florida Bobcat. I'll include a link to the bobcat story HERE in case you missed it!

Florida Bobcat

What a treasure this Greenway is to our community and to our state of Florida.

49th Ave Trailhead 

I've met people from all over the country (and the world) that visit Florida and walk or ride bikes on the Greenway. It is a treasure worth preserving!

I’m joining Saturday’s critters HERE

  and Mosaic Monday HERE !  

A Hiking story AND a Fishing tale!

 

Well, there are fishing tales and there are hiking stories. This may be more than one tale if you get all the way to the end.

And since it's the first time I've told it, it hasn't had a chance to grow.

I have been known to 'zaggerate' from time to time. (Southern for exaggerate)

But this really is how it went.

We drove to the Gulf Coast and when we got on the dusty road to Withlacoochee Bay Trail, we saw an Eagle.

We hiked and saw a lot of neat birds and butterflies but we'll skip right over those for now.

It's time to eat egg salad sandwiches in the Jeep.

Hardly anyone there and no one is parked near us so we are relaxing with the windows down.

A BIG bird flies onto a limb that we can see to one side of the Jeep. Another big bird flies in crying like a Hawk. 

They sit still for a few minutes and then the crying Hawk makes an aggressive move and the big bird flies right in front of the Jeep, face forward. 

And it's a Barred Owl in all it's beauty. 

The Hawk that scared it away.

I threw down my egg salad sandwich and got out to take pics of the Hawk. The Owl has flown away.

Another Hawk flies in and perches nearby.

We finish our sandwiches and get out to walk to the observation deck. At this time I could have said, "Let's get out so that we can see 100 White Pelicans overhead." 

Because that's what we saw between the Jeep and the deck.

I cropped a few photos to get a better look at them.

We also watched this fisherman catch a really big Catfish with a teeny tiny fishing rod. His son had left it in the water when his wife and son went to the store. 

So he let the Catfish swim and tire himself out and then he pulled it in.

In the water

On the bank

Catch of the day!

Amazing! A truly amazing trip to the Gulf of Mexico. (more pics to come)

The owl was huge, the two hawks were very vocal and the Catfish was the 'catch of the day'. 

No need to 'zaggerate'! 

The flock of White Pelicans may be over 100 the next time I tell it though!

I thought these were Wood Storks but Eileen said something about mistaking them for White Pelicans and now I think they ARE White Pelicans. If anyone has a positive ID, please let me know! 

I’m joining Saturday’s critters HERE

and I’d Rather B Birdin’.   

I'm joining Mosaic Monday HERE 

and I like Thursdays HERE !