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(Click on images to enlarge, click again to zoom.) Pre-dawn mist which had settled into depressions appeared as little ground-clouds across the vast pastureland adjacent to the Green Swamp. Morning flights of White Ibises were landing among the browsing cattle hoping for breakfast to be hopping and crawling away from moving hooves. Abruptly, now we were driving through what seemed like a tunnel of trees. Mostly long-leaf pines with an occasional bay… Read More

(Click on images to enlarge, click again to zoom.) “Withlacoochee”. I like the sound. I really like the river. The name may have evolved from Native American for “crooked river”, an apt description. Florida’s Withlacoochee River bubbles up within the depths of the Green Swamp and winds its way north and west for 140 miles where it empties into the Gulf of Mexico. It is a beautiful waterway. Near the place where… Read More

(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

(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

(Click on images to enlarge, click again to zoom.) “Sounds like an alley-cat convention.” Gini’s hearing, which is significantly superior to mine, was picking up at least a dozen individual Gray Catbirds calling. During pre-migration, this species forms up into groups of one to a couple of dozen birds as they prepare to return to their northern breeding territory. After some far-flung adventures, it felt good to be in our familiar “patch”… Read More