Myakka Park Wildlife

It was hard to photograph the wild turkeys. We saw several small groups of two or three birds on two of the four days we visited. The turkeys were more skittish than the other animals.

It was very quiet in the park. The only noise was a infrequent bird call. So it was easy for the turkeys to hear our car. When they heard us they ran in the opposite direction.

Hubby and I have been taking late afternoon drives through Myakka Park. Much of the park becomes swamp after heavy rains. The pools of stagnant water force the wildlife closer to dry land near the road to look for food.

This wild pig is one of about 15 pigs we saw scattered through the park. Hubby stopped the car and I got out to make the digital pictures. I had walked about 20 feet away from the car to make these pictures. All was very quiet.

Suddenly, a crashing noise could be heard on my left. When I looked, a large black pig was running towards me. I screamed and ran back to the car as fast as possible. Apparently one pig had become separated from the scavenging group and didn't want me there.

This picture is dark because the pigs were quite a distance away under trees with Spanish moss. Even though it was less than an hour before sunset, there was ambient light, but, not under the trees .

This is two pictures of the same deer. We were separated by lots of high weeds. But, when the deer heard me, it stopped eating, lifted its head and stared me in the eye. Before you knew what happened, the deer bound off headed to the interior.

Notice how a deer runs. It keeps its back right hoof and front left hoof on the ground while lifting the other feet.

The squirrel in the inset of the picture has been enlarged from its position in the crotch of the tree. You can't see squirrels from your car driving through the park. Yesterday, we visited the park to make a picture of the Canopy Walkway. But, we took the wrong trail and had 30 minutes of a wildlife walk. This squirrel was the only creature we saw. You have to go slowly and look carefully to see any wildlife.

This long elevated boardwalk takes you out over a lake for a better view of feeding and nesting birds. A park volunteer takes a big telescope out to the end and shows visitors how to spot birds.

Here are the two birds that were close to the Bird Walk when we visited. The white bird is a Great Egret (Ardea alba) and the gray colored bird is a Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias). Both species are here in Florida year round. It is the first week of October and we haven't seen any migratory birds yet.

The majestic red-shouldered hawk (Buteo lineatus) was perched on the top of the tallest tree alongside the road. Not far away this black vulture (Coragyps atratus) was sitting on a low branch of a tree draped with Spanish moss along with several other vultures.

This was one BIG spider. One you really don't want to run into. Thankfully, because of its large size, it's quite easy to see. If you are looking where you are going. You can see the large female, the small male, and their prey. Look at the tufts of hair on the big female spider's legs.

Thanks to "Spiders and their Kin", a small insect book listed below, I was able to identify this spider! Here's what the book tells us: "Nephila, found in southern US and tropics, makes a huge web. The strong webs, matted and twisted, are used by South Sea Islanders for bags and fish nets."

You can see a little of the web pattern if you look closely at the lower left corner of my picture. It is much more of a mesh design than the average spider web.