The Sometimes Underappreciated

As I have indicated in the past, I love the little things. Even if those things are ones that some might find less than lovable.

Snails fascinate me, but I am lousy at trying to ID them. Anyone know of a book or a website that might help quell my ignorance?
I can tell you that the little girl/guy was on a pawpaw leaf...

And then there are the spiders. I do love 'em. Great big hairy ones or little bitty shiny ones...it doesn't matter 'cause they are all cool. This is one of two wolf spiders that popped out of the mulch that another ranger and I were spreading in the butterfly garden. We had to take a moment to examine it -- my colleague is as crazy as I am!

This was another of our finds, a very dark American toad. He was the same color as the soil of the area and fabulously warty. The other ranger, we'll call him Scranton from now on, spotted him just off the boardwalk and jumped down to scoop him up.

And speaking of the boardwalk...I was out this morning listening to birds and frogs and such when I got a very pleasant surprize. Seems I was sharing the walkway with a nice big ole' bobcat. I don't know who was more startled, me or the cat! He jumped off the boardwalk before I could get my camera up and that's a shame. He was quite close.

Little Surprises

One last note from Friday's paddle...

Along the shore line, nestled in cypress needles, was the empty shell of a musk turtle. Bones have a quiet beauty all their own. Whenever I find a bit of some creature's skeleton I often pause to ponder how it came to be there. Did the creature die a natural death or did a predator help it along its way? Is this the spot it died or did some other animal carry the bones to this spot? And in the case of turtle shells, is there anything still inside?

This time I got a little surprise - a shell within a shell.