Last Walk Before Summer, I Swear

Alright the temps down here are in the 85-90 degree range and what that means is this:  the hot sweltering days are soon upon us.  Never stray farther than 20 yards from a cooling station or air conditioning.  Always travel with water and if possible a hat or sunscreen.  With that in mind just one more brief walk at Sawgrass to keep you satisfied until Fall.  

Drew and Kenzie wanted to know if I would like to join them and it is always a good time to walk, relax, and see the wildlife smack dab in the middle of town.  Its funny that you can enter Sawgrass and the city noises fade away except for the buzzing of the interstate no too far away.  

When I parked I immediately saw these on the tree.  I'm no ornithologist but I'd say they were termites.  The tree was dead so it was too late to call Terminix, but you would have thought someone at the Reserve would have noticed.

My company today are Drew, Mackenzie and little Norah.  This cherubic smile hides the devious act she is about to perpetrate.  

Hard to imagine things blooming down here year around.  After the winter my peeps have had up North this is a welcome sight.  

Inside the Preserve Guest Center is this diagram of the walking path.  Now I have mentioned before that inside this crusty, rusty exterior is a giggling 14 year old.  Is it my imagination but does this look like....a...uh....oh well.  Lets proceed.  

We were just getting started and Norah, who was in the carriage bent down and grabbed Mackenzie's wallet and flung it through the railing.  See it there on the ground, that object in the center that has a driver's license on it?  

Now you must remember that this place is infested with gators.  Big ones, too.  Drew had to lower himself into the puckerbrush and retrieve the lost wallet. 

But not before seeing if there was a walking alligator skin purse or boots directly beneath him.

He had to be as quick as possible and really, what were the odds he'd meet a gator face-to-face, but still, it had to have been an anxious moment for him.  It wasn't my place to volunteer to fetch, as much as I would have liked.  I tried but they must not have heard me.

  

The young couple reunited after a quick retrieval.  Mackenzie looks happy, Drew looks relieved.  An heroic act saved the day.  

I thought the lone feather looked out of place in this pond area.  

This little guy was on the runty side, but you always have to ask yourself, "Where's Momma?"

This was just down the walkway a bit where Norah flung her Mother's wallet.

A Spiny Back Orbweaver spider.  These are common sons-a-bitches down here. 

This waterway, which has plenty of gators in it, washes out to a larger pond or lake at the observation tower.

Another Spiny Back Orbweaver which just got lunch from a poor unsuspecting insect.  I wasn't quick enough to get it movie mode.  But this weird looking spider quickly moved over to his catch and wrapped it in webbing. This is a family oriented blog anyway, well, except for that phallus looking path map.

I don't know how much it would take to get me to walk across this swamp area.  It would be a tidy sum, however, what with all the creepy-crawlies out there.

You can't see it well here, but that whitish thing in the middle belongs to a tail of a rather large gator.

Here is a baby gator sitting on a log in the stream.

Hmmm?  Any brothers or sisters?

Again, you can't see them very well, (if at all) in this picture but we were able to spot 8 little guys just sitting around under the watchful eye of Mrs. Gator.  Can you find them?

There is one on far left side looking toward the camera, three in middle of picture, one above them on the log, and three more up top center.  Of course there may be more, and probably are, and 9 if you count Mom who is lurking in the upper left hand of the picture.

Another tail shot of the big momma gator, but again, not a very good picture.

Same here.  She has hidden herself well and I guess that's part of the mastery of these creatures.

A turtle sunning himself.

And another one.

A timer shot, but Norah didn't want her picture taken at this moment.

The familiar observation deck at Sawgrass.  

And another peaceful, yet briefly harrowing walk at the Sawgrass.  The nature preserves are a lot of fun and like, the Vinoy Park, you see something new and different every trip.    That's it for our walks, I don't think we have any lined up for awhile.  You may now resume your usual schedule.