Beautiful skies hovered over dead vegetation in cow pastures in mid-February. I went for a bike ride along the northern end of the Pinellas Trail that runs through cow pastures.

This is the deadest I have seen the fields here. This was a week after our big freeze where we had 3 nights in a row below 30 degrees here in central Florida. This is the first time it’s happened in the 24 years we’ve been living here. I’m thinking most of it will come back by the end of summer.

The invasive brazilian peppertrees were full of berries. The cardinals, blue jays, robins and cedar waxwings will eat these.

Another invasive plant, the toxic rosarypea vine was also popping with seeds so there was a lot of bright red along the trail.

Savannah sparrows were along the trail.

I wasn’t expecting to see pretty blue flowers on this trail on this cold morning. I don’t remember seeing this here before. It was on the other side of the fence. Native skyblue lupine blooms here in the winter.

I could barely make out two young eagle heads on the nest. Mom was sitting higher up on the left.

Wood storks along the trail.

I usually see meadowlarks near the eagle’s nest.

A horse was out in the pasture and it looked like he was eating spanish moss that he must have pulled out of the tree.

He had a tiny friend out with him.

I passed a gopher tortoise right before getting back to my car. He was out of his hole and must have been trying to stay warm in the sun.