Lunch

Living in north Florida, I am fortunate to have access to some pretty remarkable scenery.  Sure, you think of Florida and you undoubtedly think of THE BEACH!  As for me, I think of Paynes Prairie, the Everglades, the Suwanee and Santa Fe rivers.  These places are the real Florida - hot and sticky, green and wet, wild and untamed.  Truly unusual and surprisingly beautiful.

I took this photo on Paynes Prairie, specifically the La Chua trail, a three mile hike that traverses the Alachua Sink, which is along the North Rim of the prairie.  There is much to be seen: egrets, herons, gallinules, butterflies, snakes, and in the fall and winter, the enormous flock of Sandhill Cranes that winter there.  But the real draw is the alligators.  Big, fat gators that look as if they could swallow you whole if the urge so struck them.  You can get scarily close to them on the trail; luckily, though, they are usually deep in a slumber in an attempt to warm up their cold-blooded selves.  In this photo, it looked to me as if one hapless bird was about to be an appetizer for the rather wide reptilian sunning himself in the shallow water.