Okefenokee

I had to act fast on the draw, didn't have time to change my settings, so the picture quality isn't so great, but there she is! Mama and her babies....

A weekend of frog choruses, soft cool rain, reading in the tent as the evening sets in. That was my weekend, and *yawn* it felt great. (oh, and as a follow up to Friday’s posting about heading into the woods with the Special Forces, turns out he was fully prepared. More than I could have even predicted. In fact, he even showed up with a spare backpack just for me. He just plays cool… truth is, he really COULD survive a week in the woods with nothing but a towel.)

We  camped at the Stephen C. Foster State Park, which is not the location I thought was indicated on that alligator forecast in my previous post…. in fact, we only saw one gator yesterday when we were out in the boat. John kept asking why we weren’t seeing any, I speculated that with all the rain we have had recently, and the fact that it was raining on and off yesterday, that the gators were probably hanging out closer to the banks of the swamp, and not so much in the middle. Afterall, their dinner choices probably consist mostly of hoofed or hairy animals who usually hang around the perimeter of the swamp, not in the heart of it. I could be wrong.

What DID we see?

1. Skunk family- the very first thing I saw, after driving past the gates was a mama skunk and her babies crossing the road. It was so cool! Their body movement is fun watch because their bodies move in a wave-like pattern. I pulled my car up slowly to the side of the road where she’d led them down, and they stopped when they saw me, she turned around at the edge of the weeds, and waited for her babies to catch up, and then led them into the palmetto brush.

2. whitetail doe and yearling

3. white Ibis- several, all over. Funny looking birds.

4. Alligator

5. Marsh rabbit- just within a few feet of us on a foot trail

6. Pileated woodpeckers- 2 close together while on a trail

7. golden-silk spiders- many many many

8. pig frog- saw him laying atop some algae along the foot trail

9. Anhinga- very cool bird to see, we were towards the end of the day-use water trail, quiet spot with no other boaters… I saw it swoop down with it’s large wing span, and claim a tree across the water from where we’d stopped for a rest. Then as we passed back by, it was doing it’s classic wing-dance… actually, they do that to dry their wings. fun birds to watch.

10. Common Yellowthroat- ? we saw this yellow bird this morning. I am looking at my Birds of Georgia Field Guide (Tekiela, Stan) and by narrowing down the yellow birds, what we saw was too big to be a Goldfinch, more yellow than an oriole, and had more distinct black features than some of the warblers pictured.

11. Wood duck- ? We were winding our way slowly through the swamp yesterday, and as we came around a bend a duck (distinguishable by it’s characteristic wing flapping) rose out of the water and took off… it looked as though it had a brown head….

12. Herons, and egrets- I have gotten so used to seeing herons and egrets that I don’t make much mental note of them, except to say that if you live almost anywhere in the coastal plains of Georgia, then you’ve seen your fill of Cattle egrets, Great egrets, and herons of different colors. grey, blue.

13. Wood stork- ?

14. Turkeys- 1, 2, 3? I saw one on my entry on Friday evening, and then John and I saw three running into the palmettos when we drove out for dinner on Saturday night.

15. Southern cricket frog- ? this morning, next to my foot… only a guess based on memory and identifying via the good old UGA site

16. Squirrel treefrog- in the shower! of course… we’re buddies.

Golden Silk Spider. These spiders are so cool to watch... we spent about 5 minutes watching her spin row by row of that web... meticulous, and speedy. I tried so hard to get a decent pic... ohh, i need help with my wildlife shooting skills...