Torreya State Park, Florida

[JohnRich 4]

On my way back to Texas from a South Carolina vacation, I stopped for an afternoon hike and overnight campout at Torreya State Park, Florida, in the panhandle rolling hills.

The link below contains some of my better photos from that hike. This State Park is a little known hidden gem. Click the link below to view the 27 photos. You can view them all in just a couple of minutes. Select "slideshow" for the biggest images.

http://picasaweb.google.com/JohnRich3rd/TorreyaStateParkFlorida

Enjoy!

If you can identify that skull in photo #19 (not the wild pig skulls), let me know what kind of critter that came from. This is the one I call a "Whatzit?" with a huge eye socket.

Or if you know what kind of bird that giant feather came from in photo 11, that would be nice too. Do wild turkey feathers get that big?

- John

[happythoughts 0]

Sandhill crane

Probably one of those. A very large, grey bird.
They are mostly grey with a red crest.

It is the wrong time of year to eat Florida oysters, but A. bay has the best.

[Brains 2]

The skull is hard to tell for sure because there is nothing in the picture to give reference to size. If i had to guess by looking at the shape of the teeth and size of the eye socket i would guess a ringtail cat. Purely a guess though.

Never look down on someone, unless they are going down on you.

[JohnRich 4]

  Quote

The skull is hard to tell for sure because there is nothing in the picture to give reference to size. If i had to guess by looking at the shape of the teeth and size of the eye socket i would guess a ringtail cat. Purely a guess though.

Oh yeah, I should have done that. The skull was about the size of my fist. So I would guess an animal about the size of a raccoon.

Attached: my photo
Note that the nose piece is rotted away, so some of it is missing.

Ringtail cat skull:
http://www.boneclones.com/BC-158.htm

They are similar, but different. The ringtail eye socket is different, and mine doesn't seem to have the fang teeth.

The only thing I can find with a big eye socket like that is a bobcat, but the teeth don't seem to match.

I've posted the photo in a taxidermy forum to see if anyone there can identify it.

[skygirlpc 0]

Omg! When I was young my Dad used to take my sister and I to that state park to go hiking! Many great memories!

"Life is either a great adventure or nothing." - Helen Keller

[FlyingJ 0]

Looks like a turkey feather to me. That's one of my favorite Florida parks. I spent two years with Florida State Parks as an AmeriCorps member and did a fair amount of work in that park - mostly doing chainsaw work clearing and blazing trails. A beautiful place for sure!

Killing threads since 2004.

[JohnRich 4]

  Quote

Looks like a turkey feather to me. That's one of my favorite Florida parks. I spent two years with Florida State Parks as an AmeriCorps member and did a fair amount of work in that park - mostly doing chainsaw work clearing and blazing trails. A beautiful place for sure!

Turkey feather is my vote. Maybe one of those big tail feathers that they fan out to impress a mate.

Sounds like a cool job. I did notice a lot of trees that had fallen across the trail, and been cut to clear the path. So that was you, eh? Small world!

[JohnRich 4]

  Quote

I've posted the photo in a taxidermy forum to see if anyone there can identify it.

The word from the folks in the taxidermy forum is that the skull is a doe deer, very small, like a fawn. That would explain the herbivore teeth. And perhaps why the eye socket looks so huge, because the rest of the skull still had a lot of growing to do.