(Click on images to enlarge, click again to zoom.) You may be surprised to hear this, but Florida has “tourist attractions“. Beaches, picturesque old towns, prehistoric-looking person-eating hundred-foot-long alligators, cattle(!) drives, Seminole Indian reservations (complete with authentic casinos), fishing opportunities and the ultimate in planetary entertainment – an entire world built by a Mouse! Gini and I are both natives of The Sunshine State so we are quite familiar with these incredible… Read More
Category: Flora, Florida, Insects, Photography Tags: bandana of the everglades, bar-winged skimmer, blue dasher, bumble bee, fewflower milkweed, Florida, flower chafer, green anole, green swamp, hummingbird clearwing, little blue dragonlet, noyau vine, pearl crescent, purple thistle, showy milkwort, trumpet creeper, yellow fly
Header Image: Hummingbird Clearwing (Hemaris thysbe) “Those are some tall thistles!” My mistress of understatement was right. Soon, I would be threading my way through that sticky forest and would discover most of these plants were two to three feet above head height. Did I mention they were sticky? Our day began later than some as we were heading to one of Florida’s state parks. Apparently, adding the word “state” to a… Read More
Category: Birds, Fauna, Flora, Florida, Insects, Photography Tags: bandana of the everglades, bar-winged skimmer, blue dasher, bumble bee, carolina desert-chicory, carolina saddlebags, colt creek state park, cypress tree gall, eastern bluebird, eastern lubber grasshopper, flower beetle, great crested flycatcher, hummingbird clearwing, mexican pricklypoppy, palamedes swallowtail, pickerelweed, red saddlebags, swamp rose, white-tailed deer, wild turkey, zebra heliconian
It is 0645. Sunrise. Not a hint of a breeze. The grass path is wet from last night’s rain. Or morning dew. Both. In the distance, Limpkins call from opposite ends of the wetlands. Overhead, a pair of Black-bellied Whistling-Ducks whisper about their breakfast plans. Sandhill Cranes trumpet loudly from an adjacent pasture where they spent the night. Morning has begun in the marsh as it does every day. The difference today… Read More
Category: Birds, Flora, Florida, Insects, Photography Tags: bandana of the everglades, black-bellied whistling-duck, black-crowned night heron, bulltongue arrowhead, butterflies, common gallinule, common green darner, dragonflies, great blue heron, great egret, hyacinth glider, itchepackesassa creek wetlands, long-tailed skipper, pin-tailed pondhawk, spicebush swallowtail, string lily, whirlabout, white ibis
Our Natural Places
Our Natural Places