Florida | Our Natural Places

J.N. “Ding” Darling National Wildlife Refuge

(Click on images to enlarge, click again to zoom.) Sea breeze. Invigorating. Gulls calling, mullet jumping, the unique aroma of low tide, fiddler crabs scurrying for cover. Gini and I grew...

Category: Birds, Flora, Florida, Photography Tags: american white pelican, button mangrove, ding darling nwr, goatweed, great blue heron, grey plover, least sandpiper, little blue heron, osprey, red mangrove, red-breasted merganser, sea grape, white ibis, yellow-crowned night heron

More Big Cypress National Preserve

The sound of nature can be incredibly silent. We scanned in all directions and saw no sign of human existence. We strained to listen in all directions and heard no sound...

Category: Birds, Flora, Florida, Insects, Photography Tags: american crow, big cypress national preserve, blue dasher, cardinal airplant, common grackle, eastern lubber grasshopper, floating heart, moonflower, needham's skimmer, northern cardinal, pond apple, starrush whitetop, white ibis

Big Cypress National Preserve

(Click image to enlarge, click again to zoom.) We had not taken a road trip for quite awhile. March is the month in which we married, 56 years ago. Time to...

Category: Birds, Fauna, Flora, Florida, Insects, Photography Tags: american alligator, big cypress national preserve, blue-winged teal, cardinal airplant, great egret, halloween pennant, leafy bladderwort, northern flicker, palamedes swallowtail, palm warbler, saltmarsh morning-glory, sunrise

Blooms Among The Pines

(Gini and I have just returned from a week-long road trip to southwest Florida. We wanted a change of venue to celebrate our 56th wedding anniversary. Instead of exploring the familiar...

Category: Birds, Flora, Florida, Insects, Photography Tags: black-and-white warbler, blue-gray gnatcatcher, coastal plain honeycombhead, deer fly, florida toadflax, lake wales ridge state forest, lupine, netted pawpaw, northern parula, pileated woodpecker, pine warbler, pinebarren frostweed, rabbitbells, sawtooth blackberry, shiny blueberry, shortleaved rosemary, sweetscent

Shades of Green

(Click on images to enlarge, click again to zoom.) Spring. According to the calendar, it will be here next week, arriving precisely at 11:06 p.m. on March 19, 2024. Nature. It...

Category: Birds, Flora, Florida, Photography Tags: blackeyed susan, blue-gray gnatcatcher, blue-headed vireo, brown-headed nuthatch, carolina chickadee, floating bladderwort, green swamp, northern cardinal, pine savanna, red maple, smallfruit beggartick, turkey-tail, yellow-rumped warbler

Our Natural Places

Exploring - Naturally