Back at Sawgrass Lake Park in late August to test out Mike’s new Sony Cybershot DSC-HX9V. Part of the boardwalk to reach the two northern most bridges across the canal was burned down and taped off. It didn’t look like much of the surrounding forest had been burned though.

Dolomedes, a fishing spider, on a lilypad at the first boardwalk overlook.

I’m not sure the species, but a dragonfly with very pretty eyes on an unfurling fern.

A Florida leaf footed stink bug. We did not get sprayed.

This little blue heron was quite active. I think I got a little too close for its comfort, and it flew away soon after this picture.

Walking across the bridge from the other direction from the burned out section, this golden silk spider that had caught a dragonfly was right above us.

There were a couple of photographers with some serious equipment at the park. One asked if we’d seen the cerulean warblers that had been reported in the area. We had not. But there was a roseate spoonbill in the canal that was far better at posing than I expect a little warbler would have been.

On a mid August morning we went to Weedon Island.

A leaf beetle on a beach sunflower.

This black beetle was increadibly clumsy. It got turned over on its back at least twice while we were watching it run around. Mike has identified the beetle as a live oak root borer.

Mangrove roots.

A zebra longwings circled over our heads for several minutes but never landed. This mangrove skipper kindly landed several times. I got a few blurry shots of a couple of Buckeyes as well. They had some of the charactistics of the Common variety and some of the Mangrove variety.

A juvenile night heron.

We saw two of these male fiddler crabs. All claw.

And there were tons of the mangrove crabs out, and many of them far bolder than normal.

Eastern narrow mouthed toad in no hurry to get off the path.

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