Another short post for the day just so I can post a few photo's from a couple of days ago. Here are some pictures I took over at Payne's Prairie State Park just south of the town of Gainsville, Florida. It was a beautiful warm and sunny day out so there were plenty of alligators and other wildlife out there to see. It was even more fun to have my friend Rima, from Virginia, down here to share it with.

 

Payne's Prairie State Park near Gainsville, Florida 

Nov. 30, 2013

Looking out towards the 'prairie' part of Payne's Prairie State Park. Still love seeing all the huge old 'Live Oaks' covered with Spanish Moss.

There is so much more water here than there was last year. Much of this water way was dry at that time, so all of the alligators, turtles and other wildlife were really crowded together. I liked this view because of the wonderful tree colors and the reflections.

Part of that wildlife I was talking about. I like the sentence at the bottom of the sign.

Warm weather so there were a lot of alligators out sunning themselves. This one is about average at maybe 10' long. Always hard to estimate length and it's one of those things where I'm really not willing to go put a tape on it.

A couple of more along this side of the waterway, but check out all of them on the other side.

A couple more fun little signs to pay attention to. This is my girlfriend Rima.

More.
 

I'm about 20 feet away from this one, but in many ways it doesn't feel like enough. I just keep remembering a lecture I heard from some ranger somewhere who told me that gators are very capable of running down any human they want to over a short distance. They can also jump or lunge out of the water as much as 10-12 feet and have been known to climb 16-20 foot chain link fences with no problem. It gives you pause to realize that we really aren't the top of the food chain after all.

A blue heron that was out looking for breakfast.

Some more Spanish Moss blowing in the wind.