This here is a mole cricket.

They can dig, swim and fly.

On our first visit to Brooker Creek, we had to turn back due to standing water over the trail, plus a persistent following of mosquitoes. When we returned in the second half of December, the dry season here, the mosquitoes were absent, but the standing water remained. Judging from the aquatic plants, the water is permanent, which is great for habitat restoration, but then makes the trail maps available at the parking lot rather fanciful.

But along the boardwalk and the dry section of trail, the trees were filled with bird song. Most flitted beyond picture taking distance, and don’t stand in one place long enough anyway. But here is a black and white warbler which just caught a spider.

A robin and wood thrush hung a bit closer, though I had a branch in the way of the thrush.

We believe this is a bullfrog tadpole. The pool this one was in was home to at least a dozen of its siblings.

For Thanksgiving, we rented a cottage on Lake Rousseau. Looking west across the lake, the dock was a great place to watch sunsets. (Mike may have taken one or both of these, we were handing the camera back and forth.)

Southern watersnake, sunning itself our last morning:

We think this is a Dorantes Longtail:

Nearby, on the Oxbow trail along the Withlacoochee River:

Taken during the week of Thanksgiving.

Our first sighting of a Queen.

Probably a Phaon Crescent, though the markings don’t match our book exactly.

Carolina Satyr, taken by Mike.

Cloudless Sulphur.

Sleepy Orange

Our second sighting of a Rattlebox moth, taken by Mike

These damselflies may be Variable Dancers, taken by Mike

On a cool morning in early November we drove out to Fort De Soto. The chilly breeze kept most people off the beach, except for the family taking photos with an empty picture frame prop (it was harsh lighting, and pretty windy, but perhaps they didn’t have another chance, and it’s not like the conditions were stopping me either). We caught sight of several dolphins hunting offshore.

Sea oats

Several of these birds, I think sanderlings, were running about at the edge of the waves. Sanderlings migrate long distances, breeding in the High Arctic and “wintering south to South America, South Europe, Africa, and Australia.” They “feed on invertebrate prey buried in the sand in the upper intertidal…. When the tide is out these crustaceans live in burrows some way beneath the surface. When the tide comes in, they move into the upper layers of sand so as to be able to feed on the plankton and detritus that washes over them with each wave. They then burrow rapidly down again as the water retreats. They leave no marks on the surface so the sanderlings hunt for them by plunging their beaks into the sand at random, consuming whatever they find.” [wiki]

Retreating inland a bit to escape the wind, we took a trail through the mangroves that unfortunately had plenty of mosquitoes that kept us from taking many pictures pictures. A hawk, although I find them hard to identify any further, watched us for a while from the trunk of a dead palm before flying off.

Off a side trail to a tiny beach, we found a reddish egret wading in the shallows.

And several pelicans flew by.

This time at Withlacoochee River Park there was drumming instead of flutes. Signs and the only group that we passed on the Florida Trail indicated that there was a powwow being held at the park that weekend (in late October). It has been a rainy autumn, and while the river was lower than our last visit, the lowest platforms on the canoe dock were still submerged. The mosquitoes were also discouragingly active and kept impeding the whole picture taking process.

Golden silk spider

Carolina Satyr through palmetto

Perhaps this is a squirrel tree frog, although they look very similar to green tree frogs, also on palmetto

I was nearly on top of this cottonmouth, my first poisonous snake sighting outside of the safety of a vehicle, before noticing it. It was still cool, and while it was aware of us, and obviously unafraid, it made no moves either. I stayed rather farther away still. Mike took this picture.

These yellow buttons were up a little hill near some tortoise burrows.

Narrow-leaved sunflowers

Long-tailed skipper. We haven’t been able to identify the flower, which was growing along a roadside next to a field.