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Header Image: Picnic Lake At Sunrise A liter of water and about 60 grams of coffee beans, for me, is a pleasant way to begin a morning. One of my favorite Central American coffees is lightly roasted at a small local roastery. The flavor is wonderful, but I wished it could be “more“. I tried increasing the amount of beans to the grind but, although stronger, it didn’t increase the flavor. When… Read More
Header Image: Park Road We didn’t have much time to spend exploring today, but at Myakka River State Park, any time at all is well worth the trip. This is one of Florida’s oldest and largest state parks. The river for which the park is named is not very long, only 72 miles. Typical of Florida rivers it also is not very deep and can be narrow at several points along its… Read More
Header Image: Purple Gallinule ‘Tis the season. Each year around Christmas, birders across the land scatter to assigned sectors before dawn to listen for nocturnal birds and, once the sky has lightened, continue throughout the day counting species and individual birds until “warbler neck” has disabled them completely and they return to their own nests exhausted, hungry, dirty and mumbling about how horrible this year was compared to past years when flocks… Read More
(Header Image: Sandhill Cranes) One of the interesting things about the annual Audubon Christmas Bird Count is that observers are assigned to a specific geographic area within which to conduct a census. In our area, we have urban, suburban and rural spots which include lakes, parks, wetlands, forests and pasture land to explore. This diversity of habitat provides great potential for seeing a good mix of species as well as large numbers… Read More
(Header Image: Swamp Sparrow) Is our “patch” TOO convenient? I mean, within ten minutes we can be in the middle of some pretty decent birding territory. So it is no wonder we tend to visit it more often than other, more distant locations. As Gini said on this morning, we always see SOMETHING special out here! Today was no different. Central Florida has only four species of sparrow which breed within the… Read More
Our Natural Places 