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And, Now, For Her Next Trick —

Header Image: Roosting Cedar Waxwings Zucchini. Taste a slice. The word you are trying to avoid saying is “bland“. That’s why it is served with other stuff. Breading, cheese, onions, disguised in a salad with other bland ingredients to which a tasty dressing is added. Gini is a true magician. She took zucchini, mixed a few secret powders and potions, poured the resulting mixture into a loaf pan and placed it in… Read More

Category: Birds, Flora, Florida, Insects, Photography Tags: american white pelican, belted kingfisher, black saddlebags, blue dasher, butterfly, carpenter bee, cedar waxwing, damselfly, dragonfly, eastern phoebe, halloween pennant, prince paskettail, rambur's forktail, savanna iris, spring

Metamorphosis

I was recently reminded of a series of books developed for children which explained various aspects of science. That was a v-e-r-y long time ago, but one in particular stuck with me. It showed the life cycle of the butterfly. The fact that a caterpillar could turn into a beautiful butterfly was utterly fascinating. Still is. We have been blessed with an abundance of butterflies where we live and a few weeks… Read More

Category: Florida, Insects, Photography Tags: butterfly, gulf fritillary, metamorphosis

Diversity Training

Once upon a time (stop me if you’ve heard this one), our primary consideration in planning an excursion into the Great Outdoors was limited to researching what birds might be found at a particular location. Was fall or spring migration in progress? Could we hope for wintering birds? Perhaps new bird families would offer an opportunity to observe chicks pestering parents for food or practicing flight lessons. As time progressed, so did… Read More

Category: Birds, Flora, Florida, Insects, Photography Tags: black and yellow mud dauber, blue dasher, butterfly, colt creek state park, common buttonbush, dragonfly, great crested flycatcher, leaf-footed bug, leavenworth's tickseed, little blue heron, northern parula, pale meadowbeauty, purple passionflower, red-spotted purple, spurred butterfly pea, squirrel tree frog, wandering glider, wild turkey

Morning At Saddle Creek

“Sausage, grits and cantaloupe okay with you?” Once upon a time, there was a beautiful brown-eyed young woman who blinked those sublime eyes in disbelief when I revealed I did not care for grits. After all, my mother was raised in Mississippi, the virtual center of the “grits belt” of the southern United States. My father was from the panhandle of Florida, which is actually part of Alabama and Georgia, where a… Read More

Category: Birds, Florida, Insects, Photography Tags: butterfly, carolina wren, ceraunus blue, dragonfly, eastern lubber grasshopper, four-spotted pennant, needham's skimmer, prince baskettail, red-shouldered hawk, rookery, saddle creek park, swallow-tailed kite, tufted titmouse, white ibis, yellow-billed cuckoo, yellow-crowned night heron

Our Natural Places

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