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Ordinary Days, Extraordinary Moments

(Reminder: Click to enlarge images, click again to zoom.) Gini and I tend to develop a routine when it comes to exploring. When we become familiar with a particular area through repeated visits, a pattern becomes “comfortable“. Today’s visit to one of our favorite “patches” is a perfect example. Tenoroc Fish Management Area is spread out over several geographically separated venues and consists of nearly 8,000 acres. That is a bit more… Read More

Category: Birds, Flora, Florida, Insects, Photography Tags: american redstart, band-winged dragonlet, barn swallow, barred yellow, blue dasher, carolina chickadee, goldern-reined digger wasp, great pondhawk, green anole, green lynx spider, northern parula, northern waterthrush, olive-shaded bird-dropping moth, roseate skimmer, salt marsh moth larva, savannah false pimpernel, tenoroc fish management area, turkey vulture, variegated fritillary, viceroy, white peacock

Morning In The Wetlands

I gave up wearing hiking boots. For one thing, my days of going on lengthy hikes over rough terrain are in my rear view mirror. Water-resistant linings and treatments for preventing water soaking through footwear can be somewhat helpful, but walking through Florida’s eternally wet grass is pretty much like wading a stream and your feet are just going to get wet. So I now have a pair of very comfortable shoes… Read More

Category: Birds, Fauna, Flora, Florida, Insects, Photography Tags: bandanna of the everglades, black-crowned night heron, blue dasher, bumble bee, common buttonbush, eastern gama grass, eastern pondhawk, great blue heron, great egret, itchepackesassa creek wetlands, marsh rabbit, pickerelweed, purple gallinule, queen, rambur's forktail, sachem, scarlet skimmer, seven sisters

The Ridge (3)

Header Image: Great Crested Flycatcher We had been spotted by a gang and were soon surrounded. Either side of the path was covered with dense Saw Palmetto as far as the eye could see. Our only choice was to forge ahead and hope we would not be assaulted. Late summer in Florida. Some of our smaller avian citizens begin to form in mixed groups as they prepare for long migratory flights to… Read More

Category: Birds, Flora, Florida, Insects, Photography Tags: arbuckle tract, blackroot, blue dasher, blue-gray gnatcatcher, great crested flycatcher, lake wales ridge state forest, peelbark st. john's wort, pricklypear, sandweed, shrubby false buttonweed

‘Tis The Season

Header Image: Coreopsis I think Gini should have become a television meteorologist in Florida. She looks good, knows how to use her pointer finger (as a weapon, at times) and can enunciate “mostly cloudy” better than most. The ability to be correct 50% of the time is way below her lifetime average of 100%. Instead of all that fame, glory and untold wealth, she chose a life with – me. I continue… Read More

Category: Birds, Fauna, Flora, Florida, Insects, Photography Tags: american alligator, american bird grasshopper, blue dasher, carolina desert-chicory, colt creek state park, coreopsis, eastern carpenter bee, eastern lubber grasshopper, great blue skimmer, green lynx spider, leavenworth's tickseed, little blue dragonlet, mischievous bird grasshopper, mock bishop's weed, nuttall's thistle, oakleaf fleabane, pearl crescent, phaon crescent, swallow-tailed kite

Beyond The Bridge

Header Image: Green Anole (Anolis carolinensis) Why does a plain boiled egg taste better when consumed under the branches of a huge oak tree in the middle of a forest where no sound of man can be heard? Following our wading bird extravaganza as we paused at one end of the old bridge over the Little Withlacoochee River, we found a nice clearing for brunch just beyond the other end. Lush Resurrection… Read More

Category: Birds, Flora, Florida, Insects, Photography Tags: atlantic grasshopper, blackeyed susan, blue dasher, bulltongue arrowhead, carolina chickadee, climbing aster, green anole, green tree frog, northern parula, palamedes swallowtail, tarflower, wild petunia, withlacoochee state forest, yellow colicroot

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