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Back On Track

(Click on images to enlarge, click again to zoom.) For ten miles, the road stretches in a straight line through the Lake Wales Ridge State Forest. Multiple trails lead from the road into pine woods, oak scrub and sandhill habitat dotted with saw-palmetto. We stop often to inspect the fine reddish-colored sand to see who has passed in the night. On this cool morning, Wild Turkey prints were abundant. There were also… Read More

Category: Birds, Flora, Florida, Insects, Photography Tags: bachman's sparrow, eastern meadowlark, flattened pipewort, florida scrub frostweed, florida scrub jay, four-petal st. johnswort, gray catbird, great crested flycatcher, lake wales ridge state forest, netted pawpaw, northern parula, palamedes swallowtail, pricklypear, smallfruit beggarticks, wild turkey track

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

More Ridge Riches

(Click on images to enlarge, click again to zoom.) A symphony during breakfast is a great way to simultaneously relax and be filled with anticipation at what other treasures Nature will reveal as our quest continues. The musical richness provided by this morning’s performers was simply incredible. Loud and declarative, the White-eyed Vireo kept telling us “I’m a Vireo. I’m a Vireo.”. Clear chirps in sets of two and three notes were… Read More

Category: Birds, Fauna, Flora, Florida, Insects, Photography Tags: american white waterlily, bigflower pawpaw, coastal plain hawkweed, florida scrub jay, florida scrub roseling, lake godwin, lake wales ridge, maryland meadowbeauty, northern parula, rolfs' milkweed, scrubland goldenaster, sherman's fox squirrel, smallfruit beggarticks, spatterdock, spicebush swallowtail, white-eyed vireo

Spring Resurrected

(Click on images to enlarge, click again to zoom.) March was a busy month around here. Several family birthdays, annoying medical appointments, an anniversary road trip. During an overdue cleanup of the OurNaturalPlaces office complex, we discovered an old shoebox filled with dust and cobwebs which also contained images of one of the year’s first significant Spring swamp forays. We have tried to clean the pictures enough so you may enjoy what… Read More

Category: Birds, Fauna, Flora, Florida, Insects, Photography Tags: blackeyed susan, brown-headed nuthatch, citrine forktail, common blue violet, floating bladderwort, green swamp, lyreleaf sage, purple thistle, savanna iris, smallfruit beggarticks, white-tailed deer

Our Natural Places

Exploring - Naturally