Virtua Gallery - A photographic Journal

Same place - two days later. While the weather was beautiful - it was cooler and much
more windy then on my previous visit. So catching Butterflies or other fluttering creatures
was - with one exception not really possible. But just being there was reward enough and
as always - I didn’t walk away empty handed. When entering a park I was welcomed by a
Gopher Tortoise . A “late Model” - about 12″ in size and entirely unafraid. While lying

on my belly it walked right up to me - so close that it touched me and then marched on
into the scrubs.

Later on my walk I saw much more tracks than usual and a lot of wildlife, that was to far
away, to really get a shot - a juvenile Bald Eagle , who was put in place by the Ospreys who
have nests along the shoreline, a belted Kingfisher, a Semi Palmated Plover, the Mallards

as well as tracks of Bobcats, Racoons, Gray Fox and Possums.

And I happened to run into a gator - which was equally unafraid, which isn’t really a
good thing. Though not huge it was about 6 ft from head to tail - 3-4 years old and
would have been easy prey for poachers or stupid college boys. After quickly taking a couple
of photos I chased him into the lake with a lot of noise hoping, that next time he sees a human,
he’ll bail out before they come too close.

So all in all a short - but very pleasant walk, even though I found myself covered in spider
webs on my return!

So enjoy!

[Show as slideshow]

Gopher Tortoise

Gopher Tortoise

Welcome

Morning

Meet the Mallards

Osprey on Patrol

Eastern Amberwing

Pipewort Forrest from above

Pipewort Forrest

Young Alligator

Young Alligator

Young Alligator

Centipede