Southeast - Wildlife on the trail today.

Took a mid morning ride on the Gainesville Hawthorne trail today and encountered a whole bunch of wildlife.

1: A deer, a bit odd in the area of the trail where I saw it....
2: Rooster, trail goes by a few farms...
3: Squirrels TONS OF THEM... I swear some had a death wish today, I missed one by literally a few inches. But 3 or 4 times on my ride today the were really close....
4: A fox, brownish colored one.
5: A woman standing in the middle of the trail looking at a turtle...
6: A snake slithering across the trail.... dunno what kind
7: What I think was a split tail swallow, while loading up my bike at the Hawthorne end of the trail. Looked it up i'm pretty sure thats what it was.
8: A couple of people walking there dogs.
9: A cat....
10: Quite a few of the 2 legged animals....... people LOL

I know i'm forgetting something..... if I remember i'll edit the post LOL

Ive posted my bad thoughts about FL pretty regularly but
once you get past the people and culture and into the
nature it can be spectacular ! On any given ride I might see a
giant Blue Heron, a 4' Iguana, all different types of bird and
duckage, huge toads and turtles etc...Ive even seen a fox . On
friday on a ride into Hobe Sound I saw a big deer in J. Dickenson
State Park, too. I have a whole bunch of pictures on my Blackberry,
Ill put them up here sometime :)

Since I started riding again I've been taking some pics with my iPhone and started putting some on twitter. My mom is always buggin me "how come you never get a picture of a deer"?? I try to tell her there is no way to stop, get off the bike, get the phone out and take a pic before the deer bolts.. LOL ... My twitter nick is the same as my nick here.... zzOtherlandzz ... if anybody is bored and wants to check out some pictures...

Ohhhh yeah... I'm originally from Michigan... But started riding bike as an adult down here in FL...

Since I started riding again I've been taking some pics with my iPhone and started putting some on twitter. My mom is always buggin me "how come you never get a picture of a deer"?? I try to tell her there is no way to stop, get off the bike, get the phone out and take a pic before the deer bolts.. LOL ... My twitter nick is the same as my nick here.... zzOtherlandzz ... if anybody is bored and wants to check out some pictures...

Ohhhh yeah... I'm originally from Michigan... But started riding bike as an adult down here in FL...


Here are two that I took, but they lost some resolution because I had to blow
them up...Im not too good with getting blackberry stuff into the comp, yet.
The Iguana is about 4' long, a real beast ! The wild raptor bird is huge, has feathers
on his wings, but his body is a real fine coat like an Angora cat might have. Wild !!
He just sits in the same tree with his wings spread like that all day ! I went by
the other day and walked over to his spot, he was in the water and he had this
HUGE fish in his mouth and he was shaking it, going NUTZ !!! I couldnt beleive
what I was seeing. Too slow on the B-Berry though ! :cry:
Ill definitely check the Twitter page out. I dont know anything about Twitter, but
Im sure I'll get it eventually :lol:

Not exactly wildlife but my daughter and I saw a camel on the Withlacoohee a couple of weeks ago.:eek: Thought that was rather strange.

Wow !
:eek:

Im going up to Dora in a few weeks, I might have to hit that trail
while in in the area :thumb:

Dead skunk on the Tour de Cure in Napa.
Sorry, no pictures or smellovision to give you my experience.

Around home I often see waterfowl, hawks, rabbits, squirrels and coyotes.

Wow !
:eek:

Im going up to Dora in a few weeks, I might have to hit that trail
while in in the area :thumb:

It will be about an hour/hour thirty min. drive west of Mt Dora but if you have the time you will not regret the trip. Good area to try and set the land speed record, flat, pretty straight, not all that busy, very few cross intersections.

:cheers:

Thanks Jim ! :)
Google says 26 miles ??
I guess it would be safe to say traffic is pretty dense around there. :eek:

I think somebody on here mentioned the camel on the Withlacoochee awhile ago, I thought they were joking..... guess not LOL ... I still plan to ride the Withlacoochee sometime, maybe in a month or so when I have my legs back a bit more and can ride a bit further.

Ohhhh yeah..... I'm pretty sure I'm not gonna get that close to a camel though.... Imma chicken.. And chickens and camels don't mix ... haha


Lots of cool pictures.... :)

Thanks Jim ! :)
Google says 26 miles ??
I guess it would be safe to say traffic is pretty dense around there. :eek:

You might be looking at the James Van Fleet trail or the West Orange trail (a good trail to ride by the way) at about 26 miles from Mt Dora, but I think you will find the Withlacoochee to be a bit further to the west. I live in Altamonte Springs and the closest trail head for the Withlacoochee is about 80 miles or so. Your best bet would be to drive to Inverness and ride north or south or both.

:cheers:

Haha, I had a deer sprint across the Hawthorne trail a few weeks back literally 5 yards in front of me. I'd say it was pretty awesome if it didn't have the potential to be fatal... :lol: