Hi, everyone! As some of you know, I'm in Silver Springs, FL for the Florida Wildflower Symposium. Mom and I came up a few days early to hike some trails and do the tourist thing at Silver Springs. As I do when I travel, I figured I'd make one thread and share all my BBB photos with the forum.
I'm going to post the highlights since the internet here isn't that fast. I actually bought an ethernet cable to connect to my travel router so I don't have to share the wi-fi with everyone in the hotel. It seems to be helping.
As usual, the first stop on our trip was Starbucks. I've got Mom addicted to the pumpkin spice.
And we saw these Juvenile White Ibises up on the power line.
Our next stop was at a rest stop where Mom noticed a dead cicada. There have been a lot of these things this year!
We then traveled to Salt Springs Recreation Area to hike the Bear Swamp Trail. But the action around the parking lot was really good!
I've got BAMONA identifying some Skippers for me because Skippers are like luggage at the airport - many of them look alike!
A different Skipper.
Heading to the bathroom before our hike, Mom spotted some Turkeys just wandering around. This is #RealFlorida.
Tufted Titmice don't just live at my house!
Red-Bellied Woodpecker on a palm tree.
This Blue Jay appeared to be warning all the other birds about us, so naturally Mom starts singing, "pretty bird" at it.
Pretty dragonfly, right?
I think this is a Checkered Skipper, not a Tropical Checkered Skipper, but I'll let BAMONA decide. I know it's hard to believe, but I've been wrong before.
I cannot stress how many Long-Tailed Skippers there were. But judging by the Desmodium seeds sticking to me, I should have known it would be a lot!
Mom saw this one flying behind me. It's a Buckeye. But when I told her that, she tried telling me she thought it was a Painted Lady or an Admiral.
At that point, we had a talk about being quiet so we didn't scare the birds.
There are always Gulf Fritillaries.
Another Red-Bellied Woodpecker really getting at whatever was in that tree.
This Long-Tailed Skipper was really showing off the turquoise on its back!
I rarely see Carolina Satyrs at my house because they're more of a woodland butterfly. This one had a bite taken out of it.
A male Pipevine Swallowtail was flying around and I'm pretty sure it's Mom's new favorite butterfly. FYI, blue is her favorite color. Speaking of which, it's on Blue Curls, a native FL wildflower!
There were many, many Golden Orbweavers along the trail. I managed to only walk into one, but that was enough. There was a bit of screaming involved and then scraping the silk on to an oak tree to get it off me. Mom assisted.
Another dragonfly.
Mom liked this spider and made me get the side view, too.
Another Skipper. This one is on a plant we call Elephant's Foot. It's a great bloomer this time of year and attracts lots of butterflies. I get some in my backyard. Okay, technically it's the neighbor's yard.
Gulf Frits like it, too!
Long-Tailed Skipper caterpillar on Desmodium spp. You can see the silk where it's probably starting to build a shelter.
Wooly Bear caterpillar. Turns into a Giant Leopard Moth. Warning to everyone - my family in WV report someone finding a white Wooly Bear which is supposed to mean a bad winter. Also, my aunt was forecasting a bad winter by the seeds in the persimmons. I prefer Google News, myself.
I had to stalk this Cloudless Sulphur, but it paid off.
So then we went to Alexander Springs Recreation Area which was beautiful. You can swim there and the water is always 72 degrees. Naturally, I opted to walk the trails instead. This is where I slipped on the boardwalk and banged my knee.
But I always go to the bathroom first because I do not pee in the woods.
More spiders hanging out by the facilities.
One good thing about the swamp is you see lots of Palamedes Swallowtails. There was a male that was trying his best to hook up, but she wasn't having it.
Finally, she ditched the dude!
Another thing about swamps is that Pickerel Weed grows there. And Palamedes love it.
So then something funny happened. Mom was also trying to take pics of the Palamedes when a squirrel came up behind her. It looked like it was begging for a treat (I'm sure people feed them). I thought it was cute, so I took a pic. I tried to tell her, but she couldn't hear me.
Then, she felt little claws as the squirrel tried to CLIMB HER LEG!!! Other people saw it! We even met a couple on the trail and he said the squirrel followed her even after she freaked out.
To the trail...Mom said vultures were birds so I took their photo.
This is a skink. Not a BBB, but I think they're cool. We seem to have a colony of them in our garage. I think they like Dad's wood shavings.
Stopping at one of the observation decks, and I spied an Anhinga across the river.
I don't know what's going on here but I saw this on the side of a tree. There are ants in there, but they didn't look alive.
Pretty sure this is a Southern Pearly Eye. I've seen the Northern Pearly Eye in WV. Dad saw the Southern one when he went hunting one year. But this is my first time seeing it.
And that completes yesterday!
