September was an off month due to Hurricane Irma.
I was away for Labor Day weekend and returned home to Florida to get straight into hurricane prep. I managed to squeeze one short hike in that week, and it was that cloudy and windy morning before the hurricane arrived about 12 hours later. And of course, it was all about mushrooms!
I was curious to document the findings on my walk and return after the hurricane to see how things had changed but was unable to because that park was flooded for weeks afterwards. I knew that was a possibility but the flooding from Irma was certainly more than usual (and now about 6-7 weeks later some homes along the rivers are still flooded).
After the hurricane it was all about clean up, and many of the trails were closed anyway, so lingering trips to explore and take photos were out of the question. Although here a few from the local bird banding site.
The photo above is a before and after the hurricane from the bird banding site. It was flooded and as you can see washed out the trail and left it an ugly muddy mess. And here is one last mushroom, found in a friend's yard while helping in the hurricane clean up efforts...
Another day I arrived at the Orlando Wetlands to help in the clean up efforts and was surprised to find the park quite crowded. Unbeknownst to me, a Baird's Sandpiper had taken up there and was getting a lot of attention. Here is my terrible photo of it.
