Big Lagoon State Park and a Beach Sunset
/Big Lagoon State Park entailed the longest hike of our Pensacola trip. There are still some parts of the park closed for repair from damage caused by Hurricane Sally in 2020 but plenty of area open to explore. While my husband was getting his camera out of the bag and into a harness, I concentrated on a life oak tree at the edge of the parking lot. There was a downy woodpecker working its way around the branches and a butterfly resting in a sunny spot underneath!
The trail was sandy or boardwalk. There was curly lichen and
One of my favorites – powderpuff lichen. There was a healthy community of ground-based lichen among dried live oak leaves within easy zoom distance of my camera from the boardwalk.
The same was true of some shelf fungus on a stump.
We reached the lagoons. A brown headed cowbird pair was perusing the area.
There were turtles in the water…enjoying the warming morning. There were signs warning of alligators, but we didn’t see any.
There were different kinds of ferns….providing the floor of the live oak and pine forest.
The pines tower over everything else in the park!
Later in the day we went to the Pensacola Beach Pier. There were too many people and loud music to make it a place for bird watching.
We stopped on the way back to the hotel at the Quietwater Beech area. The sun was setting and a laughing gull’s breast reflected the color!
3 mallard ducks (2 males, 1 female) made their way across the sand…kicking up sand with their webbed feet.
It was a good finale to our day in Pensacola.
