Herons, Moorhens, and Alligators, Oh My.

     As I told you on Thursday, I was heading out on Saturday to go for a hike in Lakeland Florida with a very good friend of mine. I woke up early because I had to meet her at her house at 8:30 in the morning. It was a beautiful morning, with the potential of being a great day. I made the hour long drive to her place, before we made another hour long drive together to get to the Circle B Bar Reserve. It's tucked in about, the middle of nowhere. You turn down an unassuming road, that winds it's way through moss covered trees, before you get to a gathering of small buildings, that make up the Nature Discovery Center. We headed to the main building to see if we could find a trail map, and take a look around. There was a very nice older gentleman inside that helped us out with directions, and told us which areas were closed for the time being. He also told us where we would see what. He was very helpful.

     The areas that were closed off. Those were the areas, we most wanted to see, but the season dictates the closures. See, this is the time of season, when the alligators are hatching their newborns, and mama gators get real aggressive when you get around their babies, so the areas where they have their nests, were off limits. We really didn't mind, since we didn't want to get eaten by a angry mama gator. That particular portion of the trail was called Alligator Alley. The good news though, is that we did have access to that trail to a certain point, and we were more than happy to check out what we could.

     We made our way down a trail called Mossy Oak. At least that's what I think it was. I don't have the map with me, and I'm too lazy to go get it in the other room, so Mossy Oak will have to suffice. It rained the night before, so there was a lot of standing water on the trail. We slogged our way through, and my my friend got some amazing pictures of the sun poking through the, well, the mossy oaks. It was stunningly beautiful out there. At one point, I could hear a hawk somewhere near by. Hawks make pretty distinctive shrieks, so you tend to remember them when you hear them, and I definitely heard one.

     After about a half mile, give or take a few feet, we connected with Alligator Alley. We had about a quarter mile before we got to the area that the trail was closed. It ran along a lake so there was lake water to our left, and marshy water to our right. Along the trail we ran into this guy, just hanging out right int he middle of the trail.

He meandered his way across the trail into the mashy area, and hung out for me to get this picture of him with my phone. My friend of course, got much better pictures of him. While she was doing that, I walked up the trail a bit, and noticed a small 4 foot gator bobbing up and down in the lake near the trail. He was just relaxing and having a good ol' time, but these incessant humans kept staring at him, so he went under the water. My friend missed her chance to get a shot of him, so we walked a little passed where he was, and then double backed. It worked out pretty well. He had come up, seeing that no one was there staring anymore. I peaked around the tree that he was behind, and waved her over, to get around and take a few shots of him. I moved beyond his sight, and just hung out looking for other possible things for her to photograph. This also worked out pretty well. With only one person there, he hung out to get his picture taken. I of course found something to take a picture of myself.

Yep, a butterfly was flying around my feet, and it landed just long enough for me to get a picture of him. I haven't busted out my camera in quite some time, but one of my favorite things to photograph, was butterflies. They rarely stay still, so you have to be very patient and still in order to get a good picture of them. This one was pure luck. It's not the best picture, because I had to zoom in, and phone zooms are generally just a version of cropping, so it blurs the image a bit. That is what happened on both of these pictures, and the one I will have for you a bit later.








We go to the dock which marked the end of our access to the trail, but there was another section on the other end, that we could walk down, but that was a good 4 mile hike away. There was a quicker way there, but we wanted to see as much as this place had to offer, so we took the long way.

     The long way gave us hope of seeing a Bald Eagle. The old gentleman from earlier told us where on the trail we might have a chance of seeing it, and that was along the long way to the other section of Alligator Alley.  The morning had washed away, and the sun was at it's full blazing potential. It was a little hot, on these new trails. They were mostly out in an old pasture that was part of the old Circle B Bar ranch. That's where all this land came from. It used to be an old cattle ranch, and this was the grazing area for the herds, so not many trees along the trail. We got to the area, where we might see the eagle. We found it's nest, but the eagle was no where in sight. We missed that one, but we have a definitive place to start from if we go back.

     Once we got around that trail, which was called Eagle Roost, there was a junction of four trails: Eagle Roost, Marsh Rabbit Run, Heron Hideout, and of course, Alligator Alley. The opening to Alligator Alley on this end, was outstanding. There was a narrow canal to one side of the trail, with those moss covered oaks, canopying it. To the other side of the trail was the marsh. If you go here Elie Wolf you will see my friends picture of this wonder gateway to the gators.

     We started walking down the trail, I was mostly checking the canal for gators, when my friend grabs my arm, and says something very unlady like. I turn to see why this is happening, and off to our left, in the marsh area is this little guy. Ok, so little is a bit of an understatement.  You can't really tell from the picture, but this was an 8 - 10 foot gator. We assume that it was male, since it wasn't aggressive, and not guarding eggs. It was just lounging there. We still weren't taking any chances. It could easily have gotten up the bank to where we were. There was a group of three people coming up on us, so I waved for them to stop, while my friends got some shots of this big boy, and then I walked back to them to tell them what was ahead, so that they wouldn't spook it, and get a chance to take some picture for themselves. We left them to it, because we didn't want to make the gator uncomfortable with too many people around. He might have just as easily took off as went after us. We walked as far down the trail as we could go, and didn't see anymore gators. We worked our way back up the trail in hopes that big boy would still be there, but he had left his lunge area for someplace new.

     That was the best of the day. There was quite a bit more, but nothing as exciting as what was mentioned. Oh yeah, I put moorhens in the title. The reason for that, and no I don't have a picture of one, is because they were everywhere, and they make a a weird sort of whining sound, like a kid that doesn't want to eat brussel sprouts. They are small black birds with orangish-red beaks, and they look like the walk on water. I think it's a, they are so light and the marsh really isn't water on the top as much as it is water with branches and grass over it. All in all, it was a fantastic, sunny, alligator filled day. We are already talking about going back. We will probably wait until the fall though. the gators will be a bit more mild, and the rest of Alligator Alley will definitely be open.

     Something real quick to finish this up. A friend of mine was telling me that I need to start watching Stranger Things on Netflix. I made a plan to start watching it this coming weekend, but I found myself with time today, and I que'd it up. I'm three episodes in, and it is fantastic. If you ever watched Super 8, you will love this show.  It similar but not the same. I can't even tell you what it's about, because that would give too much away. If you find yourself with some free time to kill, give it a try. I think you will enjoy it. Peace in and goodnight.