Florida Trip--St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge--Day 1

On Friday morning, we went to St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge. It has a variety of habitats, including salt marshes, hardwood swamps, pine flatwoods, and pine/oak uplands.

We hiked a nice trail behind the visitor's center.

There was a different large grasshopper along the trail--only about 2" long.

We stopped along the road at a freshwater pool and a brackish pool across from it. We saw lots of water/wading birds including this Black-necked Stilt--a black and white bird with long, red legs--doing some sort of dance on the lilypads.

We decided to go get lunch and come back later since there was so much to see. So, we drove into Tallahassee for lunch.

Florida Trip--Ochlockonee River State Park

The second day of our trip, we went to Ochlockonee River State Park which is known for its Red-cockaded Woodpeckers and White Squirrrels.

The Dead River flows into the larger Ochlockonee River.

The picnic area was on the point where the two rivers joined. On that side of the parking area were large spanish moss covered oak trees.

On the opposite side of the parking area was a pine forest--the home of the Red-cockaded Woodpecker.

We did see one Red-cockaded Woodpecker, but it was so far away we could only see it through the binoculars--if it hadn't flown to a tree to begin with, we probably would never have seen it. I couldn't take its picture, so I took a picture of the bird in the field guide.

This is one of the famous white squirrels--"a rare color variant of the Eastern gray squirrel".

As we drove along a scenic drive, we saw this deer family. They didn't seem afraid at all--even when M got out of the car. They only ran off when he began throwing pieces of a log off the road in front of us.

This grasshopper was so big we could see it from inside the car while it was sitting on the road. I would guess that it was about 3 inches long.