Located just a short motor-bike down the road from us this preserve includes
almost 5-acres of urban forest and sloughs that are slowly being rehabilitated
to their natural states.
It seems we are (intentionally or not) working hard to build up our heat
tolerance and on this day once again chose to make the outing smack dab in the
middle of the day.
Needless to say, it was quite warm but we trampled around and took in what we
could before the lure of creating our own breeze by motor-biking became too
strong to resist.
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| Two Juvenile Red Shouldered Hawks highlighted the
day. |
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| They did their best to hide but we still spotted
them several times throughout our visit. |
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| The Bromeliads were
still showing some color. |
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| Possibly in the trumpet creeper
family. Still investigating. |
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| We spotted this tiny Eulophia
graminea (Chinese Crown) orchid. |
While delicate and pretty, it is unfortunately an invasive and one of the
newest invasives we’ve seen to date having first been discovered in 2007 in
Miami.
Nicole doesn’t really have a mushroom bucket list
per se but she does have several that she’d like to see. Seeing
them though is purely haphazard for us. The Clathrus ruber aka Latticed
Stinkhorn is one she’s been interested in so she was pretty excited when
Darlene found one on this walk. It was on the way out but it still goes down
as a much desired lifer.
 |
| more
bloomin’ bromeliads |
 |
| Two Great Southern White
Butterflies Blending In |
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| We found a nice shade tree just as one of the Red
Shouldered Hawks did. |
A bit of a size differential. Would you believe
that this Red Bellied Woodpecker was aggressively defending her nest and had no
fear of the monstrous beast next to her?
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| Gloriosa rothschildiana |
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| Gloriosa Lily |
That’s all for now...
