Continuing our mega park trip in late September, the day after Juniper Springs through Ocean Pond, we went back to Alligator Lake Park.

Common mud turtle in early morning light

This bird was singing from the top of a cypress, probably an Eastern Phoebe

A mockingbird watching us watch it

juvenile ibis

We saw two snakes, both probably black racers

This marsh rabbit didn’t seem particularly concerned about us

common buckeye

eastern tiger swallowtail

viceroy

Common green darners, male latched to a female. This year we’ve seen this species pretty frequently.

The guidebook doesn’t say that eastern pondhawks hunt other dragonflies, but I think that is the species of the attacker. The victim looks like a blue dasher. It was kind of gruesome. We did not see the capture, but when we arrived the pondhawk was decapitating the dasher. This was right after noticing a spider with a butterfly wrapped up in its web.

Earlier, we saw this dragonfly struggling and failing to fly.