Wednesday,
September 23: Flint Pen Strand
In an effort to stay drier than walking through the marsh and around the lakes where I usually go, this morning's route was the south yellow trail and the southern half of the red trail. Boy, was I wrong about staying drier! Although there were a few dry spots, the water depth on the red trail varied between ankle and shin deep, and the yellow trail was higher than that. The Kehl canal had risen enough that parts of the yellow trail that run along its banks were now part of the canal. One spot on the western portion of the trail approached waist deep.
But there were some bonuses. I unintentionally wandered off of
part of the red trail where water obscured the actual trail. That's where
the female Snail Kite pictured above was spotted. She flew to a favored
feeding perch and when finished, flew back.
The red trail was woodpecker central. Five Red-headed Woodpeckers, 12 Red-bellied Woodpeckers, and four Northern Flickers worked the trees and snags.
The high water levels created some interesting scenes.
The odd looking creature at the upper left is one of the slant-faced grasshoppers. I think it's a Short-winged Green Grasshopper that is partially submerged in the water with just its head above water. It seemed fine like that and eventually crawled up and flew off to a better landing spot.
Some of the fungi in really moist spots were also different. The bright yellow one at the left is a Persistent Waxcap. It and a smaller one next to it were the only two of its species spotted. There were more odd colored or odd looking fungi that haven't been identified yet.
Only 21 species of birds were identified. The habitat is quite different from the one around the lakes and marsh, so the species and number of birds were different too. The most often seen birds were 14 Northern Mockingbirds followed by the 12 Red-bellied Woodpeckers and seven Blue Jays.
Finding some migrants passing through was one of the goals, but the only one was what was probably a lone Palm Warbler. There wasn't a clear look because it was low in rather dense vegetation. Its tail was flicking but it was too small and the flicking was too fast to have been a waterthrush or an Ovenbird.
One surprise was the lack of wildlife around the canal and its banks. The only bird spotted was a single Anhinga, and it was in the air flying away. Elsewhere, wading birds were just three Great Egrets and one Little Blue Heron and one Green Heron.
Insects were a little scarce too except for mosquitoes. Only four species of butterflies/moths and six species of dragonflies/damselflies were seen, and none of those were numerous.
Herps were all identified by calls. They included Southern
Cricket Frogs, Squirrel Treefrogs, and Cuban Treefrogs.
Friday,
September 25: Pepper Ranch Preserve
A change in weather -- autumn's first real "cold" front -- was really nice with lower humidity and a nice breeze. It was overcast the whole morning, but that helped it feel cooler.
The gray skies made photographs of things with the sky as a background mostly silhouettes, but it didn't affect wildlife that was lower with vegetation for a background.
Only 31 species of birds were identified and none were
out of the ordinary. Some numbers differed from previous weeks. That was
especially true for 
Cattle Egrets with 237 individuals counted. Five of those were
in fields with cattle while the other 232 returned to their nighttime roost
along the shores of Lake Trafford. The only way to count those was to take
a photo and then count them later when the photo could be enlarged on a
computer.
Also new
to the Lake Trafford shore were eight Double-crested Cormorants. In past
seasons, they frequently roosted with the Cattle Egrets.
After the Cattle Egrets, Boat-tailed Grackles and Mourning Doves were the most common. The American Crow at the right was one of three perched near marker H.
Insects were very few with the weather but one new species was identified for the preserve list. The moth in the photo is a Black-bordered Lemon Moth (Marimatha nigrofimbria). It is one of he owlet moths and was on the Tuscawilla trail.
A Black Swallowtail, Monarchs, and White Peacocks were the only other Lepidoptera seen. No dragonflies showed themselves.
Mammals were just two White-tailed Deer and a Gray Squirrel. Both of the deer shared space with a half dozen Wild Turkeys.
Herps were six Alligators, Squirrel Treefrogs, and Cuban Treefrogs. All of those except for one gator were in Lake Trafford or along the grassy path leading to the lake overlook.
My yard
The week belonged to bears. Six different bears were captured on trail cameras. One in particular was a welcome sight. The one-eyed female bear who was here three years ago with cubs showed up for the first time with two new cubs.
The other bears were last year's family -- big mother bear, one of her male cubs, and her female cub. The cubs aren't really cubs any more but are healthy young adults. All three go their separate ways. The juvenile female is really packing on weight although her mother still has her beat for bulk. She was here early on both Thursday and Friday mornings.
The juvenile male paid some serious attention to the one bird feeder that had sunflower seed. He could smell the seed and eventually walked over, stood on his hind legs, and grabbed it. It's a steel tube feed that is welded together, so he couldn't destroy it, and it is suspended on metal chain so he couldn't pull it down. He was able to get some seed out of the bottom hole but not enough to satisfy him. In the video, he's at the far right in the second part. The oak limb is moving as he tries to get the feeder.
Here are the bear videos: 1) juvenile male, 2) one-eyed mother with cubs, 3) big mother bear, 4) juvenile female Thursday and (5) juvenile female Friday (with raccoon).