Little critters at Sawgrass Lake Park

Green heron. One of the few birds I saw there.

Looking down the river from the end of the boardwalk.

Dragonfly season is in full swing.

Butterfly. (or moth?)

Another butterfly.

I stopped by Sawgrass Lake Park after work a couple of weeks ago. It's pretty close to work. It's starting to get hot and muggy. There weren't a lot of birds there. This park is usually more of a miss than hit when it comes to birds. I almost always see green herons and anhingas but that's about all. Of course, I usually only go after work and there might be a different crowd there in the morning. I can usually find good critters there though.  I don't know my butterfly species at all. I barely know the bird ones so it will be a while before I start to learn them. They are pretty though, when they sit still. While I was there I got bitten several times by big brown flies. I had a good coat of Off on and still got bit. Those biting flies are worse than mosquitoes. The bites itched for days. No amount of hydrocortisone cream or calamine lotion helped. If anyone has a great remedy, please let me know.



Sawgrass Lake Park

Blue heron looking for some food.


Friends hanging out together.

The spoonbill had a lot of company.

I only saw one alligator on this trip.

Sawgrass Lake Park in St. Petersburg is known for alligators. I usually see several. I stopped by one night last week after work and found the main boardwalk closed. Not sure why or for how long. I ended up taking the boardwalk that goes away from the lake and down a trail. I did find a spoonbill with a few ibis friends and a great egret at the end of that trail. The weird thing about this park is that it's sitting right next to a major interstate (275) running through St. Pete. When you get inside you don't realize it unless you walk away from the lake and you start to hear the traffic. As I was about to leave the below flew overhead.

Small critters at Sawgrass Lake

The parks are full of dragonflies, butterflies and bees right now. I stopped by Sawgrass Lake Park one day last week after work and almost all I could find was the above. The last picture is of some creepy spiders with really long legs. The mangroves around the boardwalk tower were full of webs with these spiders all over them. I used my zoom on these. Didn't want to get close at all.