A Colorful Hike (with some colorful danger on the trail)

 I headed over to the Shangri-la trailhead for a short hike. It was threatening rain so I knew I could park close to the trailhead and get back before I got wet.

Well, the weather improved and I ended up hiking for about 1 1/2 hours which is ideal for me.

What drew me into the forest were the wildflowers.

The Showy Rattlebox was in full bloom.

There were fields of these bright yellow flowers as far as the eye could see.

I've never seen so many at one place!

Close up of the flower.

One more looking out into the forest!

A bright red Cardinal eating Sumac berries.

(if you look closely you can see that he has lost a berry!)

It wasn't hot and the walking was easy.

So I went a little farther down this trail than I had been before.

I finally had to make myself turn around and head back to the trailhead.

And just when I made my turn, I ran into this danger.

Eastern Coral Snake

This Coral snake has the second strongest venom of any snake (Black Mamba has the most), so it is a bad snake to encounter on the trail. I gave it a wide berth and it turned and slithered off into the forest. 

It gave me quite a start when I spotted it and I'm glad it was in the open enough that I could see it from a distance.

So that's some of the Fall color in Florida!

Some good....some not so good!

Do you have pretty Fall colors at your house?

I’m joining Saturday’s critters HERE

  and Mosaic Monday HERE !  

A Good year for Hiking!

 It was such a difficult year for us all...

all over the world!

But we were fortunate to have good hiking trails to hike and unusually good weather this year. I feel blessed to have the good health to get outside and enjoy nature.

I wanted to choose a bird or critter from each month to highlight but I didn't realize how hard that would be. We see so many amazing sights here in Florida. 

Join me for hiking through the months of 2020!

January - River Otter at Blue Run Park

February - Bobcat at Blue Run Park

March - Eastern Coral Snake, Florida Trails

April - Fox Squirrel, Florida Trails West

May - Blue Grosbeak at Pruitt Trailhead (Halpata Tastanaki Preserve)

June - Bobolink flock, Halpata Tastanaki Preserve

July - Gopher Tortoise, Halpata Tastanaki Preserve

August - Bobwhite Pruitt trailhead, Florida Trails

September - American Redstart, Blue Run Park

October - Barred Owl, Florida Trails West

November - Barred Owl, Florida Trails West

December - Great Horned Owl, Halpata Tastanaki Preserve

How privileged we were to see so many owls this year! We even saw one early in the year too. 

We've ended the year with 157 hikes. 

Now let's keep going!

I’m joining Saturday’s critters HERE

and I’d Rather B Birdin’. 

A Colorful Spring!

OK....here's your warning! Read the beginning and then skip to the end if you don't want to see something scary! This will be your only warning! lol If you don't skip to the bottom and you get scared, don't blame me! 

We see a lot of beautiful birds here in Florida!

We watched a pair of Pileated Woodpeckers building a nest awhile back.

One was pecking a deep hole into an old tree.  Look at the tail feathers on this one!!!

The other one pecked around an old stump nearby.

They didn't care that we walked by and took pics. They had a job to do!

But when you hike in the woods as often as we do, you are bound to see something scary. And we saw the scariest thing to date when we hiked this week. 

A Coral Snake.

They have the second strongest venom of any snake in the world (the black mamba has the most deadly venom).

And this wasn't a little baby snake...it was about 3 ft in length. 

It was rustling in the leaves along the side of the trail. My hubby was in the lead and saw it first and turned to caution me to stop. He walked back toward me since the snake was heading...in my direction...and stayed between me and the snake in case it tried to turn and cross in front of me. He had on long pants and boots. I got over to the other side of the trail as much as I could and it slithered past. I can still feel my heart quicken when I write this. It was scary! Does it mean I won't go back in the woods again. Of course not. I believe there are dangers in every part of our lives and this one did not threaten us. I liked what my hubby said when we were back home, safe and sound. He said he felt privileged to see something so rare in the wild and to have survived to tell the story. I've been scared a few times on our hikes but I still love the forest and know that it is worth any danger that it holds. 

And even though it is deadly, according to National Geographic no deaths from coral snake bites have been reported in the U.S. since an antivenom was released in 1967.

So that's the scary hiking story I warned you about! 

Let's finish with another pretty bird with a colorful head!

Pileated Woodpecker

Most of our hiking trails are closed now. How are things going in your part of the world? Stay safe and healthy!

I’m joining Saturday’s critters HERE

and I’d Rather B Birdin’.