Little Manatee River State Park, is a quite state park located in Wilmauma, Florida. It offers miles of hiking, biking and horseback riding trails along with fishing, boating and swimming.
~Little Manatee River State Park~
Tag Archives: Hiking
~Crested Caracara~
As described, in birding books: “The Crested Caracara often walks on the ground on long legs in search of prey”.
And, this is exactly where Howard and I saw this large raptor. We were out for a hike and as we crested a hill at The Celery Fields in Sarasota, Florida, we spotted this Crested Caracara across a large field. The Celery Fields are very picturesque and known as a great place to bird.
The big guy was on the ground, surrounded by Vultures, and appeared to be feeding on something in the grass. We decided to see if we could approach him close enough for me to capture a photo. As we got closer, he seemed so focused on his prey and with keeping the Vultures away, that he simply ignored us.
I didn’t want to get so close that my presence disturbed his eating, but close enough to get a few photos. He stayed on the ground eating for quite awhile and then flew off. As we walked over to see what he was eating, which appeared to us to be a huge catfish, the Vultures flew off unhappy with us!
The Crested Caracara is fairly common in Texas; rare to casual and local in Azizona; rare in Louisiana; fairly common and local in Florida.
Their Florida and Arizona populations are stable with Texas population increasing and expanding. They are considered threatened federally and in Florida.
A beautiful raptor indeed!
Sharing with Eileen at Saturday’s Critters
http://viewingnaturewitheileen.blogspot.com/2015/01/saturdays-critters-56.html
~Sunlight Lifts Dreams~
Sunlight lifts dreams off the forest floor,
floating into your heart and soul.
~
They become yours to do with what you please,
keep them to yourself or share with ease.
~
Just remember dreams are given, to those that won’t delay,
in putting them in motion, because they are fleeting and will decay.
I captured this photo, April 8, 2014, while on a hike with hubby, Skye and Kloud at Stephen F. Austin State Park.
Live Your Dream
~Coyote Ridge Natural Area~
nature, centers me
absent, I would not be whole
be, in its wonder
My friend Shari and I went on a hike, this past Wednesday, in the Coyote Ridge Natural area, located between Loveland and Fort Collins, Colorado.
We hiked about four miles round trip. This area is beautiful and we had a fantastic view of the Hogbacks sitting majestically to the west!
It was a gorgeous, sunny day with blue skies and a few white puffy clouds. We had a great time. We passed and said hello to bike riders, other hikers and runners all enjoying this natural trail system.
We also encountered a few four-legged animals enjoying the area as well.
This photo looks a little odd to me, as if I took the head of another deer and placed it on this deer’s body! She was standing up hill from me as I was trying to take her picture from the trail below.
We spotted a few birds, but not many. A Black-billed Magpie riding the wind, an American Robin sitting in a pine tree singing a tune and a Northern Flicker just being a Flicker, making a lot of noise! All of which were fun to see.
Hogbacks are defined as, a ridge with steep sides formed by dipping strata. Dipping strata are stratified layers of rocks lying at an angle.
The name, Hogback, comes from the ridge resembling the high, knobby spine between the shoulders of a hog.
In most cases, the two strata that compose a hogback are different types of sedimentary rock with differing weathering rates.
The softer rock erodes more quickly than overlying hard rock. Over time, the softer rock retreats to a point where the hard and soft rock strata are adjacent. This creates cliffs that steepen as the softer rock continues to erode. (info taken from web)
Wolf Song Blog 