With it well into the full heat of summer, we’ve not been visiting many parks. We gave Little Manatee River State Park a try in later July. There’s now a separate pay station for the north of the river loop trail ($3 instead of the $5 for the main park). Not surprisingly, we were surrounded by mosquitoes as soon as we stepped out of the pickup. Mike took the camera (the following are all his) so that I could keep moving, but we gave up after a few minutes on the trail and turned back. A pair of hikers in shorts and with hiking poles had arrived at the trailhead when we got back. I always wear long pants on hikes. In my opinion any cooling, which I really don’t find to be that much in hot sun anyway, is negated by exposed skin for bug bites.

These are from a trip to Sawgrass Lake Park in mid June.

I’m not sure if these are aphids. They don’t look like the aphids I’ve seen on fruit trees before, and are smaller than the pictures on the net relative to the ant’s size, but these ants were certainly tending them.

brown anole

seven legged golden silk spider

This black and yellow garden spider was busy building its web, acrobating its way around on the support threads

broad winged katydid

there was a lot of this vine around the park this time. I believe its an invasive called air potato

Mike took this one. Beautiful helmet eyes.

At the end of our walk, something bitey must have gotten caught under my camara bag strap because I had huge itchy welts along my back by the time we got home. And all I got for it was this butterfly picture, probably a black swallowtail.

After two failed attempts, we made it back around the southern loop of San Felasco Hammock State Park in the afternoon after Alligator Lake.

At the bridge over the shady and still very small stream, in the same spot as last year, we found a pair of ebony jewelwings.

The body shape of this skink looks most like the broadhead skink in our field guide

Wild petunia

Using their trusty new map, we tried a new trail at Alligator Lake Park in early June. As warned, there is an airboat crossing on the far side of the trail, or at least a deep ditch with slippery sides and a very small stream at the bottom.

The mosquitoes were bad. But far more numerous than the mosquitoes were the millipedes. Nearly everywhere there wasn’t a lot of vegitation, there were millipedes, here, there, and crawling over each other.

A frog, with more millipedes in the background

There were two gar fish, with different patterns, in the larger stream which has a nice bridge crossing it.

This is probably a pump from when they kept this area drained for farm land

Halloween pennant. Right after this we saw a gaggle of tender turklings running off.

Pale meadow beauty

Almost immediate upon stepping onto the Brooker Creek Friends Trail (the one that is not permanently submerged) in early May, a family of river otters ducked under the tree roots along the stream bank. We waited for a few moments, but they were more patient than us, so no pictures.

At the viewing platform we watched several deer in the trees, and then heard a gobble nearby. A tom turkey wandered towards us, loitered around a while, and then strutted elsewhere. I had no idea how beautiful the males’ feathers were. Later, near the end of the loop, we saw a few females run into the underbrush.

This Florida box turtle was hanging out on the path and only pulled in a little as we walked by.

Mini epiphyte forest

katydid on pipewort

This cicada blundered into Mike and then saw no need to go elsewhere. They can make a huge ruckus in the trees in summer.

In the end of April we went back to Withlacoochee River Park. The water level was fairly low, leaving the cypress knees exposed.

This froggie didn’t seem interested in moving off the path. Mike took this picture while I tried to escape from the mosquitoes.

We saw several skinks, of at least two different species. Most of them, like this one, wasted no time in running away from us, slipping underneath the fallen oak leaves.

The Eastern fence lizards we’ve noticed are much less concerned with our presence, and continue on hunting insects, with frequent success, while we watch. This is the first time we saw the brilliant blue of its underside.

A red-banded hairstreak

Two skippers, who knows what kind, mating

From afar I thought this was a bee, but Mike, with the camera, could tell it wasn’t one. [Update: we think this is a bee killer robber fly in the genus Laphria.]