Chesnut Park

Alligator hiding in the reeds close to the edge of the lake.

I was standing on a dock at the lake and saw this alligator go by a fishing boat. The boat had been sitting out in the middle of the lake for a while. The guys were probably half asleep (I would have been). The alligator kept on going by the boat. There's always people skiing in this lake. Makes you wonder whether they are brave or just stupid.

I found about 8 different bunnies around the playground area. They look different from the usual wild brown bunnies I see at parks. These look like someone had them as pets and let them go in the park.

Grackle looking around.

Carolina wren sitting on the boardwalk.

Cute squirrel. Is it me or does there seem to be a huge population explosion of squirrels lately in the Tampa bay area?  There seems to be tons of them everywhere. Are the hawks not keeping up? Sometimes in my backyard I can count 3 or 4 wandering around. We don't have feeders in our yard (no cats or dogs either which might explain why they hang out in our yard).

It was a quiet morning at Chesnut Park in north Pinellas county a couple of weekends ago. It was one of the first really hot humid weekends. Not much but me and mosquitoes (and the usual alligators). I managed to find a few birds but nothing exciting. This was my first trip there that I didn't see any woodpeckers. I usually see pileated woodpeckers somewhere along the Peggy Park trail. I didn't even hear them. On top of tons of squirrels everywhere, there were also a lot of rabbits. I saw several wild brown rabbits but also saw a big group of black ones and cream ones. Someone must have dropped them off after Easter. They let me get pretty close so they are used to people. If they get to close to the water's edge, they're going to end up being alligator food. Oh well, circle of life, etc.

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