Some Florida Wildlife

[JP]

[Wild One]

pretty sweet shots man.

Is that spider one of those that are like bigger than your hand?

I was down in Altoona, FL in July and saw one of those suckers on an info board in the National Forest there.

[JP]

Thanks

Yea, they're pretty big. They are the Golden Orb Weaver or down here they call them Banana Spiders. The web is gold, pretty neat. There's a bunch up from me hanging out on power lines, bushes and fence posts. I'll see if I can get close enough to get the web in detail. I just hate spiders and these things are big. Their anchor webs are some think stuff. I would hate like hell to be walking through these woods and face plant into one of these. The web is extremely sticky and I would be freaking out trying to figure out where on my body the spider attached itself to

[blueeyes]

JP I am going to have nightmares now! And I am never coming back to FL!!!! Staying in Utah where the spiders are smaller. When I lived in TN I couldn't even go camping cuz of the spiders. I am such a whimpy girl. The last time in Moab when I discovered all the Black Widows around our camp I wanted to die! Had a hard time sleeping. Stupid fear!!

[JP]

I hate them too Thank gosh for the zoom lens I still get the Eeebeeegeeebeees just thinking about running into one of those webs That's one think I noticed down here, the insect life is triple the size of their New England cousins

Even though I hate spiders, something draws my curiosity towards them Sorry for creeping you out There will be more, I just have to get around to posting some. I have some shots of their golden webs. Pretty neat.

[trackrunner]

I have some shots of their golden webs. Pretty neat.

You should start milking them so you can make cloth out of them. Would make a fortune.

[JP]

I'm not touching them

[tmartenst]

I just found out I need to be in Gainesville, Florida for work all next week. No need to send me somewhere cool, like the ocean, how about north central Florida! Anywho, any experience/suggestions with Gainesville in the afternoon/evenings? Looks to me like there is a Gainesville-Hawthorne trail and a Paynes Prairie area that looks decent. I won't have a car (unless needed) but was going to look into renting a bike.

[JP]

Not too familiar with that area. It's a huge college town and they do have a race track. As far as wildlife, I'm not too sure. Believe it or not, most of the shots I have are from rural back roads. Simply getting from point "A" to point "B" I drive about a half hour on rural roads and it is amazing what I see simply driving. You may have that same luck on a bike on some back country roads. I'm staying right out by the Myakka State Forest, the largest state forest in Florida. They have everything in that park, lots of gators too

There is a bird I'm working on, but he's been pretty elusive. I have some shots, but from behind a fence. It's called the Crested Caracara. It's in the falcon family and one of it's nicknames is the Mexican Eagle. He's more of a scavenger and I may catch a sighting of them by some roadkill. There's always something getting whacked at night on these back roads Hopefully I'll come across this gy before I leave on the 15th. I'll have some more time when I return for winter.

[JP]

Not too familiar with that area. It's a huge college town and they do have a race track. As far as wildlife, I'm not too sure. Believe it or not, most of the shots I have are from rural back roads. Simply getting from point "A" to point "B" I drive about a half hour on rural roads and it is amazing what I see simply driving. You may have that same luck on a bike on some back country roads. I'm staying right out by the Myakka State Forest, the largest state forest in Florida. They have everything in that park, lots of gators too

There is a bird I'm working on, but he's been pretty elusive. I have some shots, but from behind a fence. It's called the Crested Caracara. It's in the falcon family and one of it's nicknames is the Mexican Eagle. He's more of a scavenger and I may catch a sighting of them by some roadkill. There's always something getting whacked at night on these back roads Hopefully I'll come across this bird before I leave on the 15th. I'll have some more time when I return for winter.

[tmartenst]

Thanks, I'll keep you in the loop. Apparently, the places I mention above have gators, tons of birds, wild horses, wild hogs & other animals. Looks like a marshy area.

[JP]

Looking forward to the pics The hogs here are a huge nuisance. Seen a few on a farm off in the distance and they just ran away.