oldsmar | Dina's Wildlife Adventures

I found this park close to were I now live. It’s mostly a ball field but it does have some trails and boardwalks and it sits along the Lake Tarpon canal. I found this cool painting on the sidewalk as you walk into the park.

It was a cold drizzly morning so I had the place almost all to myself. I don’t mind mornings like this once in a while, especially if I don’t have anything special to do that was planned outdoors. It was nice to bundle up and get out and I was breaking in my new hiking boots before our trip to Utah.

The boardwalk winds forever through the mangroves and then there’s a paved trail along the canal. The sun was trying to peak out on my way back.

Part of the trail was lined with these trees that had these big black seed pods on them and all over the ground. After searching the web, I still can’t figure out what these are.

This is a brazilian pepper bush. They were all over the park (and all over central Florida) and are an invasive bush. You would think they would be good food for migrating birds but I’ve only seen mockingbird and blue jays eating them.

As August starts to roll around, the summer rains come in. Usually in the late afternoons (although some days the rain can start in the morning and continue all day).Most nights the sun would peek out right before it set which makes for amazing colors through the clouds. I am constantly running outside to check the skies and take pictures. I’m sure my neighbors think I’m crazy. All of the above were taken from my yard with my phone.

I was running errands and caught this tiny lightning bolt walking back to my car. It’s better to run errands on a day like this in August. It’s cooler and less people are out. Although you have to be okay with getting wet if a super soaker happens that even an umbrella won’t help.

Catching a storm coming in at Davis Islands.

While out running errands, I stopped at a fishing pier in the northern part of Tampa bay. This lesser known pier is a great spot to catch the storms rolling in. There wasn’t any lightning from the clouds or else I would not have been out here on the pier. I headed back to my car long before the rain hit.

Dina's Wildlife Adventures

Tag Archives: oldsmar

Fun in the drizzle

Those crazy Florida skies in August