We walked the 3 mile red trail at the T. Mabry Carlton, Jr. Memorial Reserve Thanksgiving weekend. It was well marked and mowed, but probably only 20% shaded. No dogs are allowed. The trail was dry, but several spots looked like they would be impassible during the wet season. There were no mosquitoes. We saw 3 hawks and several white peacock and sleepy orange butterflies. There was widespread hog damage, and we heard and then saw two groups of feral hogs with piglets rummaging around.

wild bachelor’s button

pale meadow beauty

pine and palmetto

An early morning visit in the beginning of August 2019.

Moorhen chick

The Audubon center sells shirts for Celery Fields with a purple gallinule on the front. This is the only place that we’ve often seen the bird.

Female and male, probably boat-tailed, grackles

There were probably a dozen rabbits grazing beside the path.

We’ve also seen shrikes on more than one occasion here.

It has been raining and overcast for much of August in west-central Florida. Everything is soggy.

This was our second visit to Myakka River State Park. This time in high summer, and with most of the trails flooded, there were few visitors on Saturday morning. We were the only ones that showed up for the first boat tour of the day, but they still went out for us. We even got a bit of blue sky. The tour guide said that there are 1500 alligators in the lake. (Mike’s pictures from the boat)

There is a noisy rookery on the west end of the upper lake with fuzzy juvenile snowy and cattle egrets.

A very calm hawk, red shouldered?

I stepped on a fire ant nest trying to take pictures of resurrection ferns. There was a rattlesnake on a bit of dry land next to the few parking spots before the road became submerged at the Outpost.

The main park road was closed after the entrance to the Birdwalk, which was flooded (Mike’s picture).

Marsh mallow (Mike’s picture)