Flora | Our Natural Places

Morning Refuge 1/3

(Click images to enlarge, click again to zoom.) In the near-dark, Common Gallinules were gabbling and the calls of distant gulls confirmed we were near the coast. Weather reporters, excuse me,...

Category: Birds, Flora, Florida, Photography Tags: blackpoint wildlife drive, bonaparte's gull, bottlenose dolphin, glossy ibis, great egret, indian blanket, little blue heron, merritt island nwr, osprey, shite ibis, snowy egret, sunrise, tricolored heron

Colt Creek State Park

(Click images to enlarge, click again to zoom.) Standing still, eyes closed, head tilted one way then another. I hear the distant call of a Red-shouldered Hawk, the guttural “caw-caw-cawwww” of...

Category: Birds, Fauna, Flora, Florida, Insects, Photography Tags: american alligator, ceraunus blue, colt creek state park, coral bean, gopher tortoise, gulf fritillary, hover fly, red-banded hairstreak, red-shouldered hawk, rice button aster, river otter, savannah sparrow, shortleaf wild coffee, sunshine mimosa, tree swallow

Return With Us Now — *

(Click on images to enlarge, click again to zoom.) Yesterday we were sweeping up the place after our extravagant holiday reveling. There, among the bits of discarded shrimp, crumpled paper hats,...

Category: Birds, Flora, Florida, Insects, Photography Tags: band-winged dragonlet, carolina spreadwing, cassius blue, ceraunus blue, climbing aster, downy woodpecker, great blue heron, great southern white, groundsel tree, long-tailed skipper, rambur's forktail, red-shouldered hawk, roseate skimmer, sharp-shinned hawk, sleepy orange, variegated meadowhawk, yellow-rumped warbler

Around The Lakes

(Click to enlarge images. Click again to zoom.) It was mid-November and plans were in progress for Thanksgiving. Family and food. Not enough of the former and too much of the...

Category: Birds, Flora, Florida, Insects, Photography Tags: anhinga, bald eagle, blue-gray gnatcatcher, brown pelican, cloudless sulphur, eastern carpenter bee, eastern phoebe, great egret, green lynx spider, little blue heron, northern cardinal, northern mockingbird, red-shouldered hawk, variegated fritillary

Falling Toward Winter

(Click to enlarge images, click again to zoom.) Winter solstice begins in two days. That may not mean too much, temperature-wise, to us here in central Florida, but in many areas...

Category: Birds, Fauna, Flora, Florida, Insects, Photography Tags: american beautyberry, carolina satyr, chapman's blazing star, colt creek state park, eastern bluebird, eastern phoebe, four-petal st. john's-wort, goldenrod, gray wall jumper, gulf fritillary, house wren, narrowleaf sunflower, northern cardinal, prairie warbler, swamp sparrow, tropical checkered-skipper, white ibis, whitetailed deer, wood stork

Our Natural Places

Exploring - Naturally