Pond Peeps Spring 2017 ~ We didn’t spend much time at home in spring 2017 so I have just a few images from walks through the St. Augustine Road Fish Management Area. On our very first walk after our return from Australia, we happened upon this wonderful rendering of a fish, made from what I think was a palm frond. Unfortunately, it was gone a few days later. The art was fleeting but we loved it!
The blackberries are being a little precocious this year but I think we’ll leave them for the critters. Last summer, we collected enough to make a pie and the flavor was delicious but I have never eaten berries with so many seeds – we’re talking crunchy berry pie!
Here’s the first blooming honeysuckle of the year. I could smell it long before I saw it:
And the first snake sighting! I’m not sure what species of snake it is. A racer? We tend to call all the black ones racers, except when they are moccasins – we know a moccasin when we see it.
This red flower blooms every April; sometimes filling a huge area. This year we only saw a few, most likely because the city stopped clearing the easement between the homes and the park so everything back there is smothered by vines and high weeds. I don’t know if this is a native wildflower or an “invasive”. The closer you are to peoples’ back yards, the more plants there are that look like escapees from dish gardens and floral arrangements…hmmm.
Our gator is still around. We see it about once a week and see lots of tracks so I’m sure there is more than one but we’re always looking for “the” gator:
This beautiful moth was tucked into the water plants in our backyard pond. The tree frogs haven’t shown up yet, which is a bit worrisome. Last year we had a big leopard frog that we caught in the act of eating the tree frogs at night. I haven’t heard it yet this year so hopefully it has moved on, else we’ll be working on a leopard frog relocation plan.
