Park Residents

Here are a few pictures we’ve taken of some of the residents of Lake Wappapello State Park.
I have to make nectar everyday to feed our peeps.

There are actually four skunks in this family. They all walked so close together it was hard to tell. They were on a mission and totally ignored us.

This is a brown jumping spider, which jumped on my leg for a brief second until I did my spider dance. Luckily he didn’t bite me since it doesn’t sound like a pleasant experience.
The jumping spider is probably the most common biting spider in the United States. People are caught by surprise and scared when they see the spider jump, especially if it jumps towards them. Bites from a jumping spider are painful, itchy and cause redness and significant swelling. Other symptoms may include painful muscles and joints, headache, fever, chills, nausea and vomiting. The symptoms usually last about 1-4 days.

And finally we have several families of white tailed deer, or maybe we keep seeing the same one in different parts of the park.

The fawns are so cute.

And last night we saw our first buck.

At the Black Bears of Missouri naturalist program last weekend, we learned that although the black bear population is increasing in the state, only one has ever been spotted in the state park. Guess we can quit looking.