The End....NOT!

Well, my class is over, and it was so short, it's hard to believe.  It felt like a wild rush through nature, a kind of "drive-by" class, if you will.  So with the post, my blog is officially done.  I said "officially," because it's not done to me by any means.  My exploration of nature has barely even begun.  I have yet to hike every trail, canoe every river, and identify every avian species in Central Florida, so my goal is almost never-ending.

I could close this with some pithy saying or sentimental, tearful goodbye.  But I don't really feel sad, mainly because I'm going to have the same professor for Spring semester.  It's more like Christmas break, if you will.  And I hope to have a lot of interesting photos to show him next semester.

The Fountain of Youth

I realize my nature exploration is nearing an end, at least with the class, although I will continue to maintain this blog when I see something interesting.  It is only fitting to end this with the discovery of The Fountain of Youth.  Not the real one, of course, but the one at DeLeon Springs.

This was an advertising gimmeck used back in the 1880's to entice naive northerners to the park.  Obviously, it worked, and the park becamse extremely popular, even boasting a "water-skiing elephant" at one time.  No, I'm not kidding.  I only wish I could have seen it.  That would have made my day!!

DeLeon Springs Mill

Ok, this isn't really "nature," but it is at DeLeon Springs, so I guess it counts.  I just want to plug a really nice restaurant at the Springs - the Old Spanish Sugar Mill.  I've wanted to go there ever since 4th grade, when my class went there but for some reason, I stayed home.  Then a few years later, some of my friends went, but once again, for some reason, I didn't.

So let me tell you, it was worth the wait.  You make your own pancakes with whatever toppings you want using a griddle that's built into the table.  Very tasty, and the pancakes didn't make me sick, which I was afraid they would because I'm lactose intolerant and usually things like that make me really ill.

So enjoy the pics.  I will return to nature soon.  :)

Pygmy Rattlesnake

Now for the post of all posts, the best of the best.  This little snake, my dear readers, is none other than a Pygmy Rattlesnake!  Yes, it is poisonous!!  See how I risk my life for this blog!?

^_^

Well, ok, it was really small; I'm guessing about 6 inches long, maybe a little less.  It was hard to tell because it was coiled up on the branch.  But I got quite a few clear shots of it before it disappeared into the undergrowth.

The whole story about its discovery is pretty amusing.  A woman in my class found it and called me over to look at it.  She asked me what it was, and I looked carefully, but didn't see a rattle at all.  I know there are only four kinds of poisonous snakes in Florida - copperheads, cottonmouths, rattlesnakes, and coral snakes.  I wasn't in Scouting for nothing.  And it definately wasn't the first two or the last one.  So I said, "It's probably a corn snake or something.  Not poisonous." 

So she and I got down close to it, taking these photos.  Then my professor comes by and says, "Oh, that's a pygmy rattlesnake," in his usual calm, easy-going manner.  lol

My classmates were not happy with me, and they said they weren't going to trust me to identify snakes anymore.  I don't really blame them. 

So enjoy these pics.  I have more, if you want to request them, but these are the best.

Shell Mound

Now here's something interesting.  See this shell I'm holding?  The whole mound at Hontoon Island was covered with them!  What are they?  Would you believe...the remnants of dinners of the ancient inhabitants?  I know, I was really amazed!  I didn't know they could eat so much, or that it would be so well preserved!

It was probably from a tribe well before the modern known tribes like the Seminoles.  This ancient tribe likely lived by the river, fished, and gathered snails and shellfish along the banks.  They were most likely not hunters (as a display in the museum asserted).

It was well worth the 1 1/2 hour hike just to see this mound; I will most likely return to hike it again.

Another Bird Book

Continuing to prove my dedication to this class, I got another bird book from the library, this one about birdfeeders.  It's really interesting with lots of pictures and diagrams about how to attract different types of birds to your yard.  It even shows how to make different types of feeders, which I might do when this semester is over and I finally get some free time!

Palmetto

Seeing this picture of the palmetto makes me want to cry, for various reasons.  One is that I have little to nothing interesting to say about his particular plant, and two because it brings back bad memories of me as a child trying to walk through the bushes of them and getting my legs all scratched.  But if Bartram could face the hordes of smoking alligators, I can face a plant.

The is obviously a palmetto, but it's not a "saw palmetto" as I originally thought.  The leaves are too gently curved and not stuck straight out like a mohawk hairdo.  The saw palmetto looks absolutely killer, like it could cut your legs off if you stand too close.

Anyway, here's the pic.  What kind of palmetto is it?  That's a guessing game for my blog readers (all three of them).  It also means I don't like palmettos and don't want to take the time to look it up when I could be looking up something wonderful, like the White-breasted Nuthatch!!  What a wonderful bird!