Wildlife Wednesday: October 2017

Thanks for stopping by to see my Wildlife Wednesday post for this month!  We went on our first family camping trip this past weekend.  My husband and I have been camping a number of times together and many times separately, but this was a first for our daughter and both of our dogs.  We picked Lake Whitney State Park for its location mostly.  It's about 90 min from our home.  As you can see, it's a really pretty lake and had a nice campground. 

With two dogs and a toddler, we didn't see much wildlife, but we did see a bit of wildlife.  The main one being butterflies.  There were tons flying around...mostly sulfur butterflies, but a few monarchs and painted ladies.  The sulfurs weren't interested in getting their photos taken.  I did get a great shot of a painted lady warming herself on the camper's canvas one morning.

There were also quite a few birds.  My toddler seemed to enjoy them the most, especially the black buzzards.  They floated around up high all weekend.  There is a lot of fishing at this lake and I'm assuming they were interested in the leftovers after the fish had been cleaned.  We also got to see a blue heron up close.  It was just scanning the water waiting.  Eventually it took off and moved to a different point.

We saw a few different spiders over the weekend and a lot of daddy long-legs.  One tried to make a web between the camper and a nearby shrub.  Since we needed to be able to walk through that space, we nicely encouraged it to stick the shrub only.  (After snapping a picture.)

We even saw a few deer while we were driving around checking out all the campsites.  I assume everyone does that.  You need to figure out where the best sites are and make notes so you can plan accordingly for future trips.  It's also a great time to see what kinds of camping equipment everyone has and make sure you don't need anything new.

The coolest part (at least to me) were all the fossils in the rocks along the shoreline.  I'm including them since they used to be alive and therefore wildlife.

Thanks for stopping by.  If you want to see more Wildlife Wednesday posts visit My Gardener Says to see a bunch more!