Gratitude, each and every day!

 I've always known I am blessed and I live my life thankful for all of my blessings every day of my life. 

I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving week and spend some time doing things you enjoy with someone you love. 

I'll share some photos we've taken this past week on the Marjorie Harris Carr Cross Florida Greenway.

There are still lots of wildflowers blooming with butterflies fluttering!

It's a wonderful time of the year to be in Florida. The weather is gorgeous!

I've seen some pretty Warblers of course!

And watched the deer on the trails.

Hubby even photographed me walking with the deer.

I was trying to get closer for better photos! 

Sending out lots of love to all of my family and friends, wishing them a week of Thanksgiving. I'm thankful for everyone that visits my blog too. You bless me when you take the time to visit my blog and leave a nice comment. It sure makes my day!

I’m joining Saturday’s critters HERE

  and Mosaic Monday HERE !  

Feathers and Fuzzies

 

We see some unusual sights when we hike and one thing I find interesting is the feathers on the trail.

I don't see one every time I hike, so I've been saving these photos for about a month. 

It's hard to know what bird they come from but it's fun to speculate!

Do you see one you can identify?

And then there are the fuzzies.

I had no idea what this was until I did an online search.

Salt Marsh Tiger Moth

I found a good website for the ID HERE.

It's fun to spot caterpillars in the tall grasses too.

Something just draws your eye to them.

How about these?

Can you spot two of them?

And just for fun, a titmouse flew towards me and I think I involuntarily took a pic! lol

It's a beautiful Fall in Florida, cooler temps and even some much needed rain showers.

Photos taken from Halpata Tastanaki Preserve and the Marjorie Harris Carr Cross Florida Greenway. 

"Happy Hiking"

I’m joining Saturday’s critters HERE

  and Mosaic Monday HERE !  

Halpata Tastanaki Preserve "What's new?"

 

I had another post planned with some neat sightings from this past week's hiking but then I drove over to HTP and hiked from the Pruitt trailhead. 

Eastern Phoebe

And I wanted to dedicate a post to this one hike. 

A new 'bright blue' sign! WOW!

I still won't have space to share it all but I'll share some highlights.

Gulf Frittilary 

And now are you ready for this?

Queen Butterfly

It had some of the darkest and richest colors I've ever seen!

Some views of the underside of the wings!

It stayed in the same area...thank you very much!

The weather is still mild here and there are lots of wildflowers and butterflies! 

And now for an update on the honey bees swarming in a tree along the trail.

They usually send their scouts out to find a hollow tree or good place to build a hive.

But these are starting to build a hive right where they are so that was a surprise! There's an abundance of wildflowers in this area but it still seems like an odd place for a hive.

So a hike that lasted less than 2 hours produced a lot of neat sightings and a LOT of photos!

When you hike, you always have something interesting to talk about.

Have you seen some amazing sights this week too?

I’m joining Saturday’s critters HERE

  and Mosaic Monday HERE !  

Oh Deer! The Marjorie Harris Carr Cross Florida Greenway

 

I don't know why but we have been seeing deer on most of our hikes this week.

Some of our hikes are in the morning and others in the afternoon and we are taking different trails.

But it's a joy to see them.

These are along the Marjorie Carr Cross Florida Greenway so there is no hunting.

They get used to people hiking and bikes riding too.

I get a thrill spotting them in the forest.

I love this young buck.

He has the smallest rack of antlers!

What a beautiful animal!

And we are seeing Eastern Bluebirds every day.

This one was joined by a friend.

The Bluebird didn't budge when a Warbler flew in.

And they seemed content to share this old snag.

It's been perfect hiking weather this week. 

How's the weather at your house?

For those concerned please click on the link HERE to read the facebook page started by the Greenway Guardians. Duke Energy is proposing a project to build high voltage power lines through the Greenway. As you can imagine this would be disastrous to wildlife, birds and their habitat. Thanks to those fighting to preserve the Marjorie Harris Carr Cross Florida Greenway. 

I’m joining Saturday’s critters HERE

  and Mosaic Monday HERE !  

A Tree with Character

 This was our turn around point in a hike we took at Halpata Tastanaki Preserve this week. (Pruitt trailhead)

It was very hard to turn back because there are trails taking off in every direction and they all look inviting. 

But we had been hiking for over an hour and had to be realistic. Our hike ended up taking 2 1/2 hours total and that's about our limit. I'm hoping there are leftovers in the 'fridge for dinner at this point! lol

We are hiking just about every other day now with the weather so perfect so I have a lot more photos to share.

I'll hit some of the highlights of this particular day.

I think the fall months are just as colorful as the Spring here in Florida.

The pink muhly grass is simply gorgeous.

And the brown eyed susans are in full bloom.

They spread out over the preserve with thousands of blooms.

It was amazing to see a young Bald Eagle.

 Northern Harrier

This Northern Harrier flew over us from time to time and a Hawk tried to chase it away.

 Thanks hubby for this amazing photo!!!

We were surprised to see the American Kestrel, too.

 Eastern Meadowlark.

Mockingbird

So much to see and do right now. It's hard to stay indoors!

Have you had a good week? 

I hope you've had a chance to get outside and enjoy the beauty of Autumn.

I’m joining Saturday’s critters HERE

  and Mosaic Monday HERE !