There was more under story here than on the Cutler Coast trail. The day was partly sunny with no rain, but the trail went through a hollow that was still dripping wet. (All but the first picture are Mike’s.)

Hairy Woodpecker, larger than a Downy

There were some really nice lungwort and rock tripe lichens.

The Hidden Ponds loop branches off to the right from the Tunk Mountain trail for a counter clockwise walk. It circles Salmon Pond (the best views of Salmon Pond are at the end of the loop), and offers an overlook and shore access of the western side of Little Long Pond. There was a dilapidated canoe left next to Little Long Pond.

Downeast Maine is swampy, rooty and rocky. There are a lot of lobster boats. The forests have thick blankets of moss and lots of mushrooms and berries. There are a high number of hiking trails given the low population. The ones we walked were well marked and had raised boards through the mucky spots.

A pair of smaller hawks circled some trees but didn’t land in a good place to photograph.

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)

There are several hummingbird feeders in front of the visitor’s center at Raven Rock State Park. Both times we’ve visited, the feeders have been full of tiny, zipping, chattering birds.

It was overcast all morning and had rained earlier, and many mushrooms were out.

There is a stairway down to the base of the park’s eponym at the bank of the Cape Fear River.

It was drippingly humid along the river. There are turtles resting on the logs on the far bank.

There is only parking for a half dozen cars or so at the Concrete Bridge entrance to the Korstian Division of Duke Forest off of Mt Sinai Rd (35.999663, -79.023752). Walk along Concrete Bridge road/trail and then take the right onto Wooden Bridge road/trail to the promised wooden bridge over New Hope Creek. There’s a small trail on the east side of the bridge down to the creek. Along this delightfully green trail in early June we saw several toads and frogs, a salamander, mushrooms, snails, turtles and fish. The trail is easy to follow but brushing up against the grasses is unavoidable, and I got several bites.