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Transition

(Click to enlarge images, click again to zoom.) We consumed the open sky and nearly infinite tan and green-flecked prairie as if it were an addicting and healing tonic. Which it was. We lingered at our breakfast as the serenade of Meadowlarks and Yellowthroats continued unabated. Sigh. Time to move along. A splash of bright purple flashed into view and a large white bird materialized among the greenery. Water. Pickerelweed and a… Read More

Category: Birds, Fauna, Flora, Florida, Insects, Photography Tags: black-necked stilt, common buckeye, crested caracara, eastern carpenter bee, florida betony, four-spotted pennant, great blue heron, great egret, limpkin, osprey, pickerelweed, raccoon, sandhill crane, southern beeblossom, three lakes wma, white ibis

Flowerful ! (Belated Part Two)

(So, has our absence made your hearts grow fonder? The year has provided more than its share of challenges for us. The vicissitudes of life have kept us from pursuing our love of exploring Nature. Things may be changing for the better. We made our first trip to the forest since April a few days ago. This post is a follow-up to our last one which describes our spring visit to the… Read More

Category: Flora, Florida, Insects, Photography Tags: bay lobelia, blackroot, blue-eyed grass, carolina wild petunia, coastal plain hawkweed, crab spider, eastern lubber grasshopper, green swamp, hover fly, oakleaf fleabane, palamedes swallowtail, phaon crescent, pickerelweed, pinebarren aster, smallfruit beggarticks, southern red-legged grasshopper, swamp rose, yellow fly, yellow milkwort

Among Flowers (Still)

(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

Category: Flora, Florida, Insects, Photography Tags: blue dasher, browne's savory, carolina wild petunia, coralbean, eastern leaf-footed bug, leavenworth's tickseed, lizard's tail, lyreleaf sage, panicled ticktrefoil, phaon crescent, pickerelweed, purple thistle, yellow milkwort

Audubon Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary

(Click on images to enlarge, click again to zoom.) I saw a pretty red flower. Gini whispered: “That’s an orchid.” We were enjoying the final leg of our anniversary road trip. About 30 minutes north of our hotel in Naples, Florida, is the Audubon Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary. Consisting of over 13,000 acres, the sanctuary is a testament to citizen action to preserve an ecological treasure. Logging threatened to completely destroy what remained… Read More

Category: Birds, Fauna, Flora, Florida, Insects, Photography Tags: american alligator, blue dasher, blue-gray gnatcatcher, bretonica peluda, brown anole, bulltongue arrowhead, buttonbush, cardinal airplant, chapman's arrowhead, corkscrew swamp sanctuary, cypress tree, great crested flycatcher, green magnolia jumping spider, leafy beaked ladiestresses, mexican primrosewillow, nuttall's thistle, orchid, pickerelweed, prairie/savanna iris, purple thistle, rabbitbells, rice button aster, southern dewberry, strangler fig, virginia sweetspire, white ibis, yellow-crowned night heron

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

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Our Natural Places

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