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Early One Summer Morning

(Click on images to enlarge, click again to zoom.) The turn-off is immediately after the bridge. I almost always miss it and have to do a U-turn. One problem is the highway is a shortcut for 18-wheelers heading for Interstate 75, typically from Interstate 4 to the south. The road saves them quite a bit of time as they don’t have to travel to where the two expressways intersect on the edge… Read More

Category: Birds, Flora, Florida, Insects, Photography Tags: amanda's pennant, bar-winged skimmer, eastern black swallowtail, golden-winged skimmer, green swamp, loblolly bay, peelbark st. john's wort, pine savanna, pitted stripeseed, roseate skimmer, roundpod st. john's-wort, showy milkwort, spotted orbweaver, tarflower, tufted titmouse

Return With Us Now — *

(Click on images to enlarge, click again to zoom.) Yesterday we were sweeping up the place after our extravagant holiday reveling. There, among the bits of discarded shrimp, crumpled paper hats, Frank Sinatra album cover, underw— (oops, how’d that get there?) – we discovered some bits and bobs that escaped from the darkroom. We thought we would share. The pictures, not that other stuff. It was all the way back near the… Read More

Category: Birds, Flora, Florida, Insects, Photography Tags: band-winged dragonlet, carolina spreadwing, cassius blue, ceraunus blue, climbing aster, downy woodpecker, great blue heron, great southern white, groundsel tree, long-tailed skipper, rambur's forktail, red-shouldered hawk, roseate skimmer, sharp-shinned hawk, sleepy orange, variegated meadowhawk, yellow-rumped warbler

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

Small Pleasures

(Reminder: Click to enlarge images. Click again to zoom.) A cool morning! Okay, perhaps not “cool“, but “not as hot“. It was a few minutes past sunrise and our target area for exploration was already buzzing, literally, with activity. Birds were chattering and insects were beginning to move about as the dew evaporated. Today was one of those unplanned excursions and we hoped to find a few subjects willing to pose for… Read More

Category: Birds, Fauna, Flora, Florida, Insects, Photography Tags: abbot's bagworm moth, common ground dove, dainty sulphur, fire on the mountain, four-spotted pennant, green anole, horace's duskywing, hoverfly, mason wasp, milkweed assassin bug, needham's skimmer, plains snakecotton, rainbow scarab, rambur's forktail, roseate skimmer, spicebush swallowtail, variegated fritillary, wedge-shaped beetle

Stuck In Summer

We have turned back the clock to mid-July. I guess it is a testament of sorts to how busy we have been that there are several trips which have gone unreported. As we have an opportunity, we shall attempt to catch up. Weather-wise, today in the first week of September, it could just as easily be the middle of July. High temperatures, equally high humidity. Regularly scheduled thunderstorms. We recognize that the… Read More

Category: Birds, Flora, Florida, Insects, Photography Tags: american kestrel, eastern amberwing, green lynx spider, gulf fritillary, northern cardinal, roseate skimmer, snowy egret, spicebush swallowtail, swallow-tailed kite, variegated fritillary

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