Monthly Archives: August 2023
Header Image: Carolina Wren (Weather Note: Hurricane Idalia passed a couple of hundred miles west of us this past Tuesday and Wednesday. We experienced periodic intense rainfall and gusty winds up to about 50 mph. We are safe and had no problems. Please keep all those along the storm’s path who suffered damage and the many who are still without electric power today in your thoughts.) Our morning in the Lake Wales… Read More
Header Image: Brown-headed Nuthatch “Rubber Ducky!” We were meandering along the forest road toward Lake Godwin, a small lake surrounded by Longleaf Pine trees and Saw Palmetto understory. Gini’s sharp ears heard the squeaky calls of Brown-headed Nuthatches as they foraged among the tops of the pines. Late summer finds these gregarous birds remaining in loose family groups, sometimes with two or three families intermingled. In typical nuthatch fashion, the little birds… Read More
Header Image: Florida Scrub Jay Wisps of fog hugged the pastures. Still just below the horizon, the sun was turning the eastern sky pink as we drove past the fields of drowsy cattle and moved through several miles of orange groves. Big Lake Reedy loomed to the north as we turned eastward toward the even larger Lake Arbuckle. We slowed to scan the wetlands on either side of the road and made… Read More
Header Image: Common Ground Dove “It’s orange!” The mistress of understatement flung her index finger toward the top of a small tree. I followed the track and located the indicated insect. It was, as described, orange. Not only that, it was something new, to us. The bright bug was a Clay-colored Leaf Beetle (Anomoea laticlavia), in the Family Chrysomelidae. There are over 1700 species in that Family, many of which have not… Read More
Our Natural Places 