January 31st, 2025

I'm Sammie come lately with the blogpost this week guy, Sorry.   I kind of over-committed myself and honestly just didn't have time to post.  Oh I suppose I could have slap-dashed something together quick and sloppy, but I prefer to put some actual thought and effort into this project.  And maybe it's good that I had to wait because, oh me oh my, have I got a Photo Safari Report for you today!

After multiple weeks of unusually cold, wet, grey weather, we finally seem to have broken through to  the kind of Florida Winter Days that we are known for. That is today, gorgeous!  Not too hot, not too cold, sunny and beautiful!  Joy and I were so happy to be out tramping in the forest yesterday for the first time in a few weeks.  We weren't sure where we would end up but happened to drive by Sleeping Turtle Preserve, a place we haven't been in nearly a year do to various weather related issues that closed the place.  But we were delighted and surprised to see that it was open for business once again!    Woohoo!  In honour of the preserve itself I will call this one the Sleeping Turtle Re-Opened Hike!

The first thing we noticed right away was the beautiful early morning light. What a stunner.  It gave us scenery like this:

Wildlife abounded!  There were times when we just stood in one spot, admiring, pointing things out to each other and snapsnapsnapping for the longest time.  It was wonderful!  The trails go through the forest and along the river so the subject matter was apt to change but all of it was wonderful.   I guess I'll begin with birds.  So Many Birds!  And a wonderful variety of them as well. Including our first Robin this year. I guess Spring is right around the corner:

Whew! That was a lot of birds!  Next up we have the critters that are not birds.  In the non-bird file we have a new entry, a River Otter!   I'm no certain who was more surprised, the otter or me when he came around a curve in the trail, fish in mouth but we both froze and starred at each other for a moment before he dove into a nearby bush to hide. I didn't mean to frighten him but  I guess I did.  I took the photo anyway even though you have to look really hard to see him.  If it helps, he didn't fully fit behind the shrub so part of him is sticking out, he face it looking right at me though, through the leaves.  Let's see if you can find him:

Perhaps you would enjoy a couple of random mostly botanicals:

So there you have it, the best parts of the Sleeping Turtle Preserve Re-Opened Hike.  Hope you enjoyed it because next week Joy and I are heading there again, to hike the other side of it!  With any luck our photos will be even better next time!

Hope you enjoyed coming along!