… but, we will get to that in a minute.

John had planned to try to get pictures of the Eastern Towhee near the campground Saturday morning, and Kate stayed back at the RV to clean and pack. Sadly, the joggers and park staff driving Gators around scared all the birds away.

Given the ruckus on the road, John decided to try to Gopher Turtle Trail. After seeing a bunch of nothing and hearing from the hikers going the other way that there was nothing, he saw a turtle. It looked like it as sitting on a burrow. It was distant and partly blocked by leaves.

He called Kate, but her phone appeared to be muted. On the way to get her, he saw a Red-headed Woodpecker land on a broken pine not far ahead. Usually, we cannot get very close to wood peckers. We think this one might be a yearling. Some of the feathers on the head are brownish and there are still residual stripes on the wings.

John brought Kate back to the Gopher Tortoise, but it had left. Kate went back to work, and John walked down to the lake to check for the Swallow-tailed Kite. On the way, he saw a Brown Thrasher, but it moved to much for good pictures. These birds are constantly hopping around thrashing the grass and leaves with their beaks to find food.

He also saw “Stumpy the Short-tailed Squirrel.”

John is pretty sure that is a leaf blower cleaning the empty sites and not a giant outdoor vacuum cleaner.

There were no baby alligators in the kiddie pond; they were probably hiding. The lake shore did have more Red-winged Blackbirds than you can shake a stick at. They were screeching like their life depended on it. They have a weird call that reminds us of a Grackle.

Shortly after John got back, Kate left for the park office, and she saw the local campground Gopher Tortoise. Kate said that it charged at her, when she got to close. When John got there, it was running for its life from Kate. (John wonders if she used her bear spray on it.)

We circled to the other side to stay out of an occupied campsite. We had to move it to catch up; this little tortoise had a turbo drive.

The Gopher Tortoise is the Georgia State Turtle (designated in 1989). It is protected in the state of Georgia, but it is not federally listed as an endangered species. It is in the initial stages of “Threatened” (specially, “Vulnerable”) due to habitat fragmentation. It is an important species for the local environment because the burrows provide shelter for about 300 other species.

After this, Kate headed on to the office. John had grabbed the campground map, so he walked the loops to note the best sites. Near the end of the circuit, he ran across what must be the most gnat infested site of the campground. It had a new bird, so he just had to suck it up. This appears to be a Carolina Wren. We have heard lots of them, but we have not seen a lot of them.

Today’s life lesson was that it is hard to take picture with gnat flying into your eyes and up your nose.