The Climbing Aster

 

It's amazing to see wildflowers bloom all year long here in Florida!

And they can be different from week to week.

This week the Climbing Aster is in full bloom!

It has so many pretty lavender blooms.

And the butterflies like this Gulf Fritillary loves it!

We always see Palm trees on our hikes!

And how neat to see colorful leaves on some of the Maple trees.

Lots of pretty reds and yellows!

And for something we don't see as often....

a banana tree! I think it's the wrong time of year for bananas though! We'll keep an eye on it though!

Lots of beauty in our hikes this week! 

Do you have flowers still blooming where you live?

I'm joining Angie for Mosaic Monday HERE . 

I'm linking with All Seasons at the Jesh Studio,

AND my Monday post HERE.

What you might see at Blue Run Park in Dunnellon!

 

We are driving out to Blue Run Park once a week now that the weather is nice.

It's really the best place we have for lots of neat sightings like this Tricolored Heron.

You no good, lily livered dirty scoundrel! 

You low down yellow bellied Sapsucker!

The first time I showed a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker on my blog, several people said they didn't even realize that was a real bird! They thought is was something mean someone said in old Westerns! lol

But they are real and just beautiful! Can you see the little holes he is making in the first photo? AMAZING!

We were lucky to get to see a pair of them a few days ago. 

The male showed up early in our hike and then about a mile down the trail we saw a female. (these photos may all be of the male)

Here's a Downy Woodpecker we saw so that you can see the difference.

The Wood ducks have been showing themselves the last few times we've been there.

The Withlacoochee River viewed from the bridge.

We've been hiking every other day this week and I hope we can keep it up! 130 hikes so far this year!

Have you spent time outside soaking up the warmth of the sun? It makes you healthy, wealthy and wise. Well....maybe just healthy but we'll take that right now, won't we?

I’m joining Saturday’s critters HERE

and I’d Rather B Birdin’. 

Shaggy Bracket, the Mystery Fungi!

 

We've been able to ID the Fungi that we saw growing on the side of a large oak tree on the Florida Trails!

The first time we saw it, I said it looked like a loaf of bread and was as big as a cantaloupe.

But 4 days later it looked like the dough had been stretched out to make pizza!

It even had the sauce already on it!

 

Another view....

4 days after that it started looking like the pizza had been baked too long.

And with ALL that information, we narrowed it down to Inonotus  hispidus or the oak loving Inonotus dryophilis. Commonly called Shaggy Bracket.

We keep walking this trail just to see how much it has changed!

I found one good website that helped with the ID HERE! 

What would we do without the internet! 

On the days I don't hike, I spend some time outside in my yard. 

I sat out front in a lawn chair and saw this beautiful Cardinal and I went back inside to grab my camera.

Isn't it beautiful there among the flowers and palm fronds.

And I loved all the guesses as to what the painted rock was. My fav was what Sam wrote, "I think the rock was stating X marks the spot and now no one will be able to find the treasure because you moved it! LOL 

So you'll all be happy to know, I went back and dug up the treasure and moved it to X marks the spot! 

Now you'll have to come and hike the Florida Trails to find it!

 (just kidding...just kidding!!!)

The pretty bluebird on the mailbox was in front of my house!

I'm joining Angie for Mosaic Monday HERE . 

I'm linking with All Seasons at the Jesh Studio,

AND my Monday post HERE.

The Bald Eagle flies over the Florida Trails!

 Calling all friends of the Florida Trails!

We sighted a Bald Eagle flying overhead!

We were taking a morning hike and we had stopped on the hill that I call The Bluebird of Happiness Hill to take photos of this pretty little Downy Woodpecker when hubby looked high in the sky and spotted an Eagle!

But the funny part was we had just talked to a bicyclist friend and he told us he had spotted Eagles this past week (not here though). So we said we would be on the lookout for them! He rode away and about 10 minutes later, we saw this Eagle overhead! 

It appears to be a young adult, maybe in it's 4th year. It had a solid white head, dark body but a little band of black on the end of the tail feathers. When it is a full adult the tail feathers will be all white.

Another day we hiked Halpata Tastanaki Preserve and saw this interesting flock of birds fly over.

We are starting to see more migratory birds we were wondering what birds were in this flock.

There were White Ibis with the curved bill....

some Juveniles with splotched colors!

but there were also several Little Blue Herons flying along!

We love Little Blues and rarely see more than one at a time. They are not usually in a flock. See the differences in these beaks? 

They even stopped to take a break in some trees near by.

But they had trouble getting 'perched'!

And isn't this Great White Egret funny?

We are starting to see a change in the weather and more birds! YAY! 

Have you had a chance to get outside and see what the skies hold near you?

I’m joining Saturday’s critters HERE

and I’d Rather B Birdin’. 

Sharing 'this and that'!

 I was going to title this, 'the beautiful and extremely ugly' but that didn't sound very 'inviting'! 

But it's another week of seeing neat things as we hike. 

The weather is so gorgeous that we are hitting the trails just about every other day! And one day we made TWO hikes! Don't ask....we won't try that again any time soon! We were BEAT!

The little pond at Pruitt is perfect for horses AND birds.

And they are always SO beautiful! 

I have never seen so many butterflies as this year and we saw one we hadn't seen before.

I think it's a Viceroy!

Not great photos but what do you think Debbie?

And I met a fellow 'lady hiker'! YAY! She was a delight to chat with and has made lots of interesting hikes. I hope we see her again soon! She is the beautiful part of this post!

There was only one other car parked where we park so that started the conversation.

You know I love stickers on a vehicle! 

We've seen a couple of caterpillars that look like Halloween.

And a scary spider that has a face.

Hubby took my photo on the Florida Trails.

And if the photo I took of him looks a little askew, it's because he is taking a photo of a snake and I'm not standing still! lol It was a harmless Black Racer....but I was anxious to keep moving!

A neat spider web....

and one with water droplets!

And now we're out of here! For those that celebrate Halloween, the spiders and webs and snakes are for YOU! 

Nature can be scary! But don't be skeeeered! Get out there and ENJOY!

I’m joining Thankful Thursdays and

I like Thursdays HERE too!