Gators, Gators and MORE Gators!
 

If you want to see Gators in their Natural Environment and you are in the Central Florida area.. I would suggest taking a Hike on Payne's Prarie in Gainesville. We only went for a 2 mile hike and literally saw hundreds of Gators of all different sizes including Hatchlings out of season :) Here are only a Few of the awesome pictures i got to take!

Comments are always welcome :) I have several other pictures of this awesome trip and if you want to see them and you are on Facebook then look me up.. Catharine Smith and add me as a friend... let me know you are from Fauna.

Enjoy

Nice. Gotta love Fl

Yep.. Hillsborough State Park is nice as well :D Used to live in Lutz and went to Gaither High School down there!

I get to spend next week in the glades from Miami to Sanibel, then May 1-8 in Appalchicola! Yee Haw!:D

You'll have a great time David.. especially the Everglades... If you get a chance.. take an Airboat ride out on the Glades... I used to live in Boca Raton and we did that at least once a year to go Bird and Gator watching... It was awesome and you definately got up close and personal with the gators that way. They would occasionally feed some of the more distant Gators chicken right next to the boat :D

A few pics
 

from previous trips,

I was lucky enough to grow up in SW Miami (Bird Rd. and Coral Way) during the 60s and 70s. My dad got me into herping as a child, and I got to see things that will never be seen again. I could ride out to Betty and Johnnys on my bike. I remember when there were practically no gators at all. In Fla City around 68 or 69, it was easy to see 6 or more Indigo's a day. I have walked up on a waterhole off the Loop Rd. during extreame drought and seen 200 snakes at once. Sadly, those days will not come again.

@catharine sweet pics last one was my fav

@david my dad feels the same way hes been born and rased in florida (everglades to be more exact) and hes all the time telling me how things where back then he says it was like a tarzan movie ....him and his friends would catch snake for ross allen ... i wish i had a time machine so i could see what yall seen :)

Sad but true :( I was born in Rockledge Florida in 77 and spent the first 11 years of my life in Boca.. we used to take trips down Alligator Ally in those days and spent several Days at the Glades. Also I used to walk and fish along the canal down there. Then we moved to Tampa. There were plenty of Rattlers in Tampa from the 7 foot Eastern in my mom's front yard to the tiny pygmies we would run into while riding our horses at Lake Park.

Now I live just North of Gainesville... I live across from the Santa Fe River and on a wooded lot and see Lots of snakes here but not nearly as many as there should be :(

Our neighbor just found an indigo shed on their front porch... It's one that we used to feed a few years ago when it was only about 4 feet.. Not it's over 7 according to the skin :) I'm going herping this weekend so I hope to see lots of interesting critters. We have Several Pine Snakes in the park across from our neighborhood so I'm hoping to get some nice pictures of them :)