It’s been and will continue to be a busy month, but we hopped on up to Alligator Lake Park two weekends ago, while it wasn’t too hot. We finally saw the ostriches, but they seemed to be in their own pasture, between the road and the park. When we arrived and while I was still gathering up our things, Mike noticed some birds on the power lines and I handed him the camera. It was a pair of ducks, but not a species we’d seen before, and perhaps they were a bit confused, tottering on the power lines as they were. We think they were black bellied whistling ducks, whose normal range is southern Texas, down the Central American coasts to South America; not really anywhere close by.

The deer were still munching in the early light. The flowers in the foreground should be pickerel, which is a water plant, so I’m guessing the deer were trudging around on pretty mucky ground, but they were still getting around just fine.

We tried growing our own passionflowers, and had pretty poor luck at it. We knew they grow wild here, but had never seen noticed them before. On this trip, they were blooming all along the trail.

This is a gulf fritillary caterpillar busily chomping down a passionflower leaf.

After two turtle carcases earlier on the trail, this live one, a cooter I think, pulled in and waited for us to pass.

Male Eastern Pondhawk on blackberries. In the most exposed areas, there were a few ripe blackberries.

It’s difficult to tell the size from the photo, but this is one of the largest dragonflies I’ve seen. We think it is a swamp darner, which can be 4″ long. And such fantastic eyes.