I headed out this morning to the Circle B Bar Ranch Reserve. After reading the handy household hints thread, I pocketed a dryer sheet, said a prayer and told the mosquitoes it was war!

I was on the main trail just after 9 am and, while the parking lot had some cars in it, there wasn't a soul in view. This is a place where seeing other people is a good thing. I've heard there are bobcat there but haven't seen any yet. What you do see (and you see a lot of them) are these.




The bad boy in the second photo was at least 5 feet long.

I was going to try and keep walking at a minimum but I got on a new trail and it went on and on and on. At least there were interesting things to see.





I finally got to the largest lake on the property, Lake Hancock. There was a nice covered area out on a pier where you could sit and admire the view.


By now I'd been walking for about 90 minutes so we were getting pretty sore. Finally the trail hooked around to the left and I started recognizing things I'd seen before. Then I caught a glimpse of grey in the tall grass. A sandhill crane family!

__________________

I guess their offspring is about 2 months old now. I cautiously approached but they had no problem with my presence. So, for about the next 30 minutes, I walked along side of them while they ate and enjoyed the day.



All the time this was going on, I appeared to be in an absolute swarm of mosquitoes! I'm not ready to state that dryer sheets are the miracle of all time but I don't believe I got bitten once! If those were really mosquitoes then maybe dryer sheets are the miracle of all time.

It really amazes me how well the cranes tolerate people near their baby. I was only about 3 feet away when I took these photos.





Finally the birds moved on and I staggered back to my car.





Both the reserve and the dryer sheets get two thumbs up!

__________________

Great pictures, love the baby bird!

Definitely bobcats around in the woods! FOR SURE! I lived in Florida for a few years and I saw one just blocks from my house in a subdivision while walking my dog! This one was afraid and ran.

Love the pictures and the narration~

__________________
Check out my homepage http://julie.mycoupons.com/

Thanks again Virgo! If I saw an alligator (or is it a croc? both the same to me!) I would have become airborn!

__________________
The political system is broke and it's a joke.

Alligators typically have a squarer/blunter jaw, Crocs usually have a pointer/longer snout.

Alligators are common in the swamps, bayous, river "bottoms" in the South.

Just useless information you may or may not need as you go through life! LOL

__________________
Mental that one, I'm telling you. ---Ron Weasley, "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets"

I had to laugh reading this. This is exactly what happened to my brother many many years ago. He was in his twenties, in the Navy and stationed near Biloxi. He and friends took some chicken pieces and went searching for alligators to feed. They were on a spit of sand and my brother realized they had retreated to higher ground and left him holding a chicken. He turned around to go join them and there was, according to his unbiased observation, a twenty foot alligator stretched out across the spit, blocking his way to safety. The chicken went one way and my brother, (who says white men can't jump?), took a flying leap over that gator and says his feet didn't touch the ground until he got into the car.

Great photos virgo. Love the fuzzy baby.

Thanks for posting. That was great. Glad to hear that maybe at least one of those hints sorta worked.

__________________
"Dance like no one is watching."

Speaking of birds, I found a dead baby newborn bird by my doorstep yesterday.No nests nearby,bird was still hairless and had no bite marks on it,no signs of being mauled .Only cat around is my neighbors and it runs away any time I look at it so I doubt it would be leaving me any presents.Totally gross.How does something like that just appear on your doorstep?

__________________

The baby bird could have been taken by another bird. I believe crows are noted for nest robbing. Probably was dropped and ended up where you found it.

Sad but it's the whole circle of life thing.

__________________

Cool~ love your pics! I've still not been there but I drove by a few weeks ago on my way to Winter Haven so I know just where it is. I've got to get out there one of these days~ looks like there's lots to see! Thanks for sharing.

The place is really amazing. It's like having your own private zoo... only there are no cages.

If I can get out of here early tomorrow before the heat sets in, I'm going to check out the area where the otters are suppose to be.

__________________

Well, apparently there must be a nest above our porch, although we cant see any open spaces where it would be possible.We found another baby bird in the same spot again.Bf thinks mom is tossing out her kids,lol.I think its probably just a young mother bird who made a bad nest and the babies are falling out.The second one we found yesterday was still alive.

__________________

Oh no! What happened to the second one? I've found numerous baby birds during my life and was never able to save even one. They are such fragile things.

__________________

We didn't think we could do anything for it so we just let it die.But for the first time today I heard baby birds chirping on our porch and did discover the tiny hole where she made the nest.I heard a lot of chirping so hopefully there will be some survivors.

__________________