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Lake Apopka was essentially a dead lake in the 1960’s. Damage from pesticides and large-scale fertilizer runoff from muck farms was thought to be irreparable. To visit this area today is enough to make you believe in miracles. If we did not know the lake’s history, we would assume we were enjoying one of Florida’s premier birding locations and prime water recreation destinations. So much has been done to reclaim Lake Apopka… Read More
Header Image: Field of Purple Passionflowers We spent a couple of hours the other day ambling through one of our our favorite venues, Colt Creek State Park. Twenty minutes from the house, it is an easy decision to go often. Located on the edge of the vast Green Swamp, the habitat of pine and mixed hardwood forest, a couple of lakes, a couple of creeks, a bit of wetland, some open grassy… Read More
Header Image: Immature White Ibis Why does food taste better in the forest? I mean, a boiled egg is a boiled egg. Eaten at the dining table in comfortably conditioned air and protected from natural elements, it is satisfying. Taking a bite of that same hen fruit under a canopy of pine boughs, surrounded by yellow blooms, purple berries, hammering woodpeckers, yammering jays, brown-eyed deer and with a background of a cacophonous… Read More
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
Our Natural Places 