Walking in the woods
The weekend before last my husband and I went to O'Leno State Park, just north of Gainesville. It's one of our favorite state parks in Florida because it has miles of walking trails through some woods by the Santa Fe River. We had a GREAT time and saw lots of cool stuff.
We saw a red-bellied woodpecker. Then we saw three deer and got really close to them! We also saw three armadillos. But the best of all was...
...we were walking down the path and suddenly heard rustling in the grass to our left. S and I stopped to check it out. Was it a deer? No deer, but the rustling kept on. Suddenly, we saw the grass (approximately 1 foot high) moving nearby. Whatever it was was heading right toward us! We stood frozen in anticipation, to see what critter was so brave it would take us on. Suddenly, it turned to the side and we saw it. A gopher tortoise! And it was running like hell! I didn't know they could book it like that! It disappeared into its hole. Very cool. Gopher tortoises are endangered, so I know not a lot of people get to see them. A half hour or so later, we saw ANOTHER one. It was fantastic!
No surprise, we brought home a couple of ticks, yuck. But we got rid of them quick and have some great memories of seeing cool critters. :)
Today's weather is so nice. For the second day in a row I sat outside for a few minutes at lunchtime. I've discovered a mockingbird that perches on a certain spot on a big palm tree near "my" bench and sings its little lungs out. It's so cheery to sit out on a clear day, looking at the blue sky and listening to the birds sing.
We saw a red-bellied woodpecker. Then we saw three deer and got really close to them! We also saw three armadillos. But the best of all was...
...we were walking down the path and suddenly heard rustling in the grass to our left. S and I stopped to check it out. Was it a deer? No deer, but the rustling kept on. Suddenly, we saw the grass (approximately 1 foot high) moving nearby. Whatever it was was heading right toward us! We stood frozen in anticipation, to see what critter was so brave it would take us on. Suddenly, it turned to the side and we saw it. A gopher tortoise! And it was running like hell! I didn't know they could book it like that! It disappeared into its hole. Very cool. Gopher tortoises are endangered, so I know not a lot of people get to see them. A half hour or so later, we saw ANOTHER one. It was fantastic!
No surprise, we brought home a couple of ticks, yuck. But we got rid of them quick and have some great memories of seeing cool critters. :)
Today's weather is so nice. For the second day in a row I sat outside for a few minutes at lunchtime. I've discovered a mockingbird that perches on a certain spot on a big palm tree near "my" bench and sings its little lungs out. It's so cheery to sit out on a clear day, looking at the blue sky and listening to the birds sing.