All Creatures BIG and small at Hardin Ridge...don't be squimish :)

This is just a fun post I have been wanting to do. There are SO many creatures here in the forest, some cute and cuddly and some well lets just say only a mother could love.  I know I am probably not going to get all their names correct but like I said it is just for fun.  I'll start out with something that I was always fascinated with as a child. When we would go mushroom hunting in the woods I always ended up taking a couple of these home for pets. They loved Morel Mushrooms and back then we found so many my mom and dad didn't fuss about me feeding them to these little guys.

 

This is the tiniest little snail I have ever seen in the wild. His little house was smaller than a pea. He was so friendly when I found him he was sitting on one of our chairs, (don't know how he got there) and so I picked him up and he didn't retract into his shell. I put him on the plant to be more natural looking. What a cutie!!!

This beautiful Luna Moth was resting on a bathroom wall in Southern Point after a night out on the town.  Just look at those beautiful colors!


My next little creature is so unusual. I don't know if many people even see them without walking over them or unfortunately on them. One day I was swinging and looked up and he was walking on our picnic table. Now most people call them Walking Sticks, this guy was so big I called him a Walking Limb  LOL   The pine cones are just for added decorations.

He eventually fell off the table and ambled across our site and climbed way up high in a tree. Now talk about being camouflaged there was no way to see him in that environment.


We were working the gate one day this week and I happened to turn around and there sat this huge horse fly.  I though to myself hmmm wonder what they look like close up.....

No I'm not sure I'm glad I took the picture either. Those huge blue eyes......yikes scare the daylights out of you. And bite when they do a trickle of blood comes running out.  They have been horrible in the park this year. That and mosquitoes too.


If you don't like spiders just scroll on over this next picture.....

This is a Black Widow.  You can barely see the red hour glass on her back. She had the biggest egg sac I have ever seen. She had built this web in the door frame of the ladies bathroom.  Freaky!!!

This little guy was sunny himself in the pond in Blue Gill. As I walked around the pond they were jumping for cover and he thought I couldn't see him. Fooled him didn't I? 


Now to the cute critters......

These are my two little vacuum cleaners. They go around every morning sweeping up the bird seed. And in the far right corner is my little Chipping Sparrow. They all get along great and share their food very nicely. 

See how sad this little guy looks.  He wants a little blue chair to sit in the tree so he can eat his nuts and seeds from..... hint hint Barbara!   What a cute little face.  He was sitting on our wood pile waiting to see what the ground squirrels had left for him.

And what would this blog be without our gorgeous deer here in the park.  We have a mom with a set of triplet fawns but I haven't been able to catch her out with them yet. And we have at least two moms with twins. This is one of them but her babies were on the move and I couldn't get a photo of them but I will.

Would you look at what I finally got a picture of??? I couldn't get one last year when we were here.  He may just be the proud papa of some of those fawns I was talking about.

And the cutest of all the animals in Hardin Ridge.......

"I've been working on my tan what do you think? And no bikini line."

Being so patient waiting for mom and dad to finish working up at the gate. What a face :)

Uh wait what's this....oh ya I took this from the sample pictures there are no penguins in the forest! Fooled ya! :)  I sure hope you enjoyed frolicking through the forest with me and seeing all of the creatures that live here with us. They sure make it an adventure everyday not knowing what you are going to see.  I much prefer to see most of them first before they see me though.
From creep crawly Hardin Ridge take care everyone!