Paynes Prairie

[htmb]

[fumobici]

Fantastic nature photography! Particularly love the sequence of the cormorant eating the fish.

[bixaorellana]

Htmb, what can be said to adequately praise your stunning photos & economically illuminating text? It's almost possible to discern the temperature & amount of breeze from your pictures.

A few favorites from the most recent sequence ~~ the dear little snake slithering off into the leaves, the closeup of the beady-eyed heron, and the submerging gator ~~ just a few wows among others of equal excellence.

[Deleted]

I have to add my praise for all of these new photos, but at the same time, I disapprove of the various birds that swallow fish whole. Fish being one of my most favourite foods, I cannot imagine eating it without tasting it. Shame on them!

You are so lucky to live close to such a magnificent nature reserve. Back when I lived in an area like that, the nature was there but it wasn't at all as accessible. Swamp rat type people circulated through these zones on their boats and skiffs but the rest of us could only see it from afar since most of the leisure boating activities had not been developed yet -- nor had any nature walks.

Either I had not seen all of the photos from September and October or else my brain is deteriorating faster than I would like and I already had forgotten them, but there are an amazing number of stunning shots in the lot.

[htmb]

Thank you all very much. I hope you could you see the bird start to eat the fish head first, then toss it in the air so it could be swallowed tail first. And I hope you can also see the outline of the fish inside the bird's throat. It was really fascinating to watch. I started clicking when I realized what had happened and took a total of 60 pictures of that one event. The fish sure put up a fight.

[Deleted]

Pelicans at least have their convenient "fish container" throats to make the chore easier.

[mossie]

Just wonderful. You have such a diverse collection of birds, animals and fish.

[htmb]

I visited Paynes Prairie today to take a few photos and remember my friend, Harold Nugent, whose dedication to the natural environment will be memorialized by the Friends of Paynes Prairie on Friday, December 6, 2013,11:00 AM at the LaChua Trail.

Harold Nugent Dedication

Harold died in 2010, but he was one of those men you could never forget. He had an outgoing, friendly personality, an intelligence that never got between him and others, and a dedication to the environment, specifically alligators. Harold was proud of his military service, his leadership in the Episcopal Church, and his educational work through various wildlife organizations. A covered section of the boardwalk will be named after Harold. I believe he would have been humbled, yet very pleased.




Besides his dedication to Paynes Prairie, Harold spent much of his time educating children about alligators and their importance to our environment. Inside the pavilion there is a display describing just that...




All down the trail there is evidence of how alligators have returned from a population decline, and everywhere you look you can observe the beauty of Paynes Prairie.

[htmb]

Thankfully, Harold didn't try wrangling with a gator this size!

With many fond memories of Harold Nugent.

[Deleted]

The alligators look a lot more sinister than usual! Perhaps there are fewer vistors on whom to chew at this time of year?

[htmb]

Spotted today at Paynes Prairie and the adjoining Gainesville-to-Hawthorne bike trail.



Camera Shy

[htmb]

[htmb]

[Deleted]

The sights to see there are as spectacular as usual!

[mossie]

That last blue heron is super, and what is the camera shy animal?

[htmb]

The camera shy animal is a little female deer that was eating right along the edge of the bike path and didn't seem overly bothered by me. I stopped my bike and started taking pictures once I saw her and couldn't have been more than ten feet away. A few minutes later I missed having the same opportunity with a very large buck I also encountered on the path. I was going pretty fast downhill in a heavily wooded area and he was standing in the middle of the path as I came zooming around a curve. He was really handsome with a full rack of antlers and quite big for a Florida deer. Even though I stopped as quickly and quietly as I could, he took off into the woods before I could get a decent photo.

[bixaorellana]

Just wonderful!

I somehow missed the fabulous array from Dec. of 2013, so got extra pleasure from this visit. The alligators on the bank, the delicate wild flowers, the dizzying view of the moss-hung tree, the backlit glory of the feathery seed cluster, and of course the birds, birds, birds. What treasure!

[htmb]

Thanks, Bixa.

[htmb]

[nycgirl]

What an amazing series of photos! I especially loved watching that cormorant go fishing. Impressive gators, too. That big guy in the last shot in #98 is pretty intimidating.

[tod2]

Wonderful htmb! Looking over all your pics again.
That camera shy deer look an awful lot like an Impala (a "McDonald's" because of the white M marking on its bum).

[bjd]

It all looks lovely and picturesque, with the birds and plants -- then I see those huge alligators! I don't think I would around there, not being a reptile fan.

[lola]

Just lovely, htmb. What great wildlife photos.

I was glad to go back to last year's, too, and agree that those gators seem extra sinister, like chills-up-spine territory. Maybe it's knowing they've been doing their top of food chain thing for a long time now?

[htmb]

Thank you all for the nice comments. I need to get back to this thread and post some new pictures since the terrain is changing as the state workers fill in canals and prepare to return the area to "sheet flow."

The alligators are certainly not to be trusted for a minute. I give them plenty of space and am glad I have a decent zoom lens.

[Deleted]

Have they taken a poll of the residents to know if they prefer "sheet flow" to canals? It might be more natural but since human beings tend to prefer a lot of ways their lives have changed to the way things were before, quite a few of the animals might very well prefer to have dry land in some places and canals in others rather than having wet feet all the time. "People" seem to think they know everything, which has probably been part of the problem of ecology all along.

[htmb]

Supposedly, by returning the prairie to a more natural state, water entering the aquifer at Alachua Sink will be cleaner because it's been filtered by the prairie marshlands rather than being carried swiftly through canals.

[htmb]

Last Sunday, in an effort to completely shake off what had been a hectic work week, I drove out to Paynes Prairie for a walk in the sunshine. It was a gorgeous day and many others had the same idea as me. Though the crowds were a bit of a pain, it caused me to venture a mile and a half out into the center of the prairie marsh for the first time in a couple of years in an effort to escape.

There were lots of birds to photograph and each had their territory staked out. The blue herons always prove to be aggressive sorts.



Most of the alligators were sunning on the opposite side of the channel.







But, then there were gators that were just this close.




I continued on out the dike path. You can see how a little bit more rain could cause it to be impassable to humans.







At the side of the trail there was an alligator that seemed very ill and, possibly, dying. This woman later moved in very close.



And, as I've mentioned before, I'm always torn between wanting to leave before something terrible happens, and wishing to capture that "one great shot" of it happening.

This particular alligator did open and close its eyes, but it was covered in bird crap and algae, like it had been lying in one spot for far too long.

[htmb]

I continued on towards the observation platform in the middle of this section of the prairie.






Looking back in the opposite direction.



Here's the platform. I was hoping to photograph Sandhill cranes, but it was too wet in this part of the prairie.









A few of the wild horses were close enough to photograph, however.

[htmb]

And a few more photos taken along the way:






It's hard to tell from this photo, but this egret is really quite small.



At one time there was a significant number of bison on the prairie, but the park service has relocated most of the males because they'd become a nuisance. They can be quite aggressive and had been breaking through the perimeter fencing and getting out onto the highway.

I hadn't been this close to the remaining members of the herd in quite some time, so was glad to get this photo.

[Deleted]

I am always amazed by the concentration of wildlife immediately visible there compared to just about anywhere in France except the Camargue. Ornithologists and other wildlife sighters have to show hours of immobile patience in the forests and along the lakes here to see much. You are very lucky.