Cows and a deer - more non-bird pictures

A few non-bird animals to post that I saw during my travels on my few days off recently.  I headed down to Myakka River State Park for the first time. It had rained recently and the lake was flooded. I saw absolutely no birds. Not even on the nature trail. I climbed the canopy walk and still no birds. I did see a deer on the main road and pulled over to take a picture. The deer has some beautiful lashes around the eyes. What a bust trip that was. With gas prices so high now I don't know when I'll make that hour and a half long trip again. On the way back, I stopped at the Celery Fields in Sarasota. It's an old celery farm that has been restored as a wetland. The water was high there as well. I stopped before you get back on the interstate and took a few pictures of a cow close to the fence. I'm not sure what that big metal thing was. I'm assuming it's some kind of feeder. Any ideas?

Chesnut Park birds and animals.

I was walking along the boardwalk and heard a scream. I backed up thinking "that's a hawk close by". I look all around and found the above screaming right above my head.

All of a sudden he notices me. He looks at me like "where'd you come from" and took off.

I found this male anhinga posing on a stump. I like the way his white feathers stick out on his head.

I found this green heron poking around in the reeds.

My goal every time I go to Chesnut Park it to get pictures of the wild deer that live there. This is all I got. I saw it right as it was dashing under the boardwalk and ran deep in the woods. My husband said "Why do you keep taking pictures of deer butts?" Cause that's all I keep seeing. One of these days though...

This small alligator seemed to be smiling at me. Alligators are like dolphins in that they seem to both have a permanent smile on their faces.

Fun Animals at Chesnut Park

Loud mouth red shouldered hawk.

Butterflies were everywhere in the park.

Yes, this is the back end of a deer. See below for story.

Small alligator close to the boardwalk.



The above turtle was laying in the middle of the road that runs through the park. I took a quick picture then picked him up and moved him over in the grass.

Last Saturday was beautiful. It felt cooler in the morning so I headed out to John Chesnut Park in north Pinellas county. I had only been there once before and didn't see too much on that first visit. I really wanted to see deer. Several people have told me they had seen deer there. After 2 hours of walking through the park I stopped by the boardwalk that runs along the boat launch. A nice lady stopped me and said "There's 2 deer in the swamp here below the boardwalk." As I walked over and saw the deer a guy with a big dog walked over as well. The dog started barking very loud just as I started to take the picture. All I got was the back end of the deer. The thing that makes me really mad is there is a big sign at the entrance to that boardwalk that says "no dogs allowed".  Why do people have no respect? I guess another trip to this park is in my near future.