Monthly Archives: June 2024

Familiarity Breeds Content

(Click on images to enlarge, click again to zoom.) This year has been a bit different than others. “Getting old“, my bride says, “is not for sissies.” Indeed. Hindsight indicates we should have purchased one of those extended service warranties for our bodies. Our appointment calendar sure has been filled with visits to all sorts of medical practioners, laboratories, imaging services and we are now on a first-name basis with the local… Read More

Category: Flora, Florida, Insects, Photography Tags: annual blue-eyed grass, bar-winged skimmer, blackroot, carolina desert-chicory, carpenter-mimic leafcutter bee, chicory, common sunflower, coralbean, four-petal st. johnswort, gulf fritillary, mexican pricklypoppy, spring ladies' tresses

More Ridge Riches

(Click on images to enlarge, click again to zoom.) A symphony during breakfast is a great way to simultaneously relax and be filled with anticipation at what other treasures Nature will reveal as our quest continues. The musical richness provided by this morning’s performers was simply incredible. Loud and declarative, the White-eyed Vireo kept telling us “I’m a Vireo. I’m a Vireo.”. Clear chirps in sets of two and three notes were… Read More

Category: Birds, Fauna, Flora, Florida, Insects, Photography Tags: american white waterlily, bigflower pawpaw, coastal plain hawkweed, florida scrub jay, florida scrub roseling, lake godwin, lake wales ridge, maryland meadowbeauty, northern parula, rolfs' milkweed, scrubland goldenaster, sherman's fox squirrel, smallfruit beggarticks, spatterdock, spicebush swallowtail, white-eyed vireo

Ridge Riches

(Click on images to enlarge, click again to zoom.) Our timing was good. Driving through the fringe of the city limits in the dark of pre-dawn is sometimes a harrowing experience. Drivers tail-gating, anxious to pass at the first opportunity, or in many cases, making their own (dangerous) opportunity. They either love their jobs so much they just can’t wait to get there, or they overslept again. We suspect the latter. On… Read More

Category: Birds, Fauna, Flora, Florida, Insects, Photography Tags: arbuckle tract, bachman's sparrow, blackroot, eastern cottontail, elliot's milkpea, grass-leaved ladies' tresses, grassleaf lettuce, lake wales ridge state forest, palamedes swallowtail, pinebarren aster, pricklypear, red saddlebags, roserush, white-eyed vireo, whitemouth dayflower

Among Flowers (Still)

(Click on images to enlarge, click again to zoom.) We continued our slow, stop-and-go travel along the old logging road. It seems we were behaving like the insects who land on a flower, enjoy it, flit away to another bloom and continue on their merry way in the same fashion. Our progress through the forest was slow. But ever-so-enjoyable. Birds continued their singing beyond our visual range. We anticipate seeing youngsters learning… Read More

Category: Flora, Florida, Insects, Photography Tags: blue dasher, browne's savory, carolina wild petunia, coralbean, eastern leaf-footed bug, leavenworth's tickseed, lizard's tail, lyreleaf sage, panicled ticktrefoil, phaon crescent, pickerelweed, purple thistle, yellow milkwort

Among Flowers

(Click on image to enlarge, click again to zoom.) The calendar for this excursion was near the end of April. Florida’s heat and humidity will be here soon. In the meantime, the mild clear mornings are glorious. We turned off the county highway onto an old logging road as the eastern sky began to lighten. A coating of dust on the plants beside the dirt track testified to the recent dry conditions…. Read More

Category: Flora, Florida, Insects, Photography Tags: black-eyed susan, citrine forktail, florida bellflower, longleaf milkweed, peelbark st. john's wort, pinebarren aster, southern beeblossom, spurred butterfly pea, swamp rose, tievine

Our Natural Places

Exploring - Naturally