I hadn’t been to Babcock-Webb WMA outside of Punta Gorda for a few weeks. The high temperatures were keeping most of the critters down for the day. We have been having some rain lately and the mornings are a little cooler so I thought I would take a run out to see what it was like now.

The recent rains had flooded a lot of the low lying areas of the recreational area.  Not deep but a good few inches of water all around.  Here is a shot of normally dry ground next to Seaboard Grade.

I was very pleasantly surprised. The management had clearly been working on the roads. The Seaboard Grade run between Tuckers Grade and Tram Grade had been completely redone. The cross sump that allows drainage was new and the road had been graded and covered with fresh gravel.

The left picture is the new cross drain and the right a view down the road from the cross drain.  I had previously reported this as being suitable only for high ground clearance vehicles but, now, I believe that any car could travel on it.

Once I got to Tram Grade, I kept heading north on Seaboard to the gates to the hunting area.  This area is closed to vehicles except in hunting season but, there is a pedestrian gate which makes it a great place to walk.  It’s fairly well off the beaten track and used for cattle grazing in the off season.  It’s a grass track here used by farm vehicles.

The picture on the left is looking back to the end of the gravelled section of seaboard and the right picture is of a couple of locals I found about a 1/4 mile down the grade.  I did see a pair of young deer running for the sheer joy of it parallel to the grade.  They were too far away to get a decent shot but, watching the backlit spray as they ran was a great picture.   As I returned along Seaboard, I found this Southern Leopard Frog on the edge of the water.