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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

Beyond The Bridge

Header Image: Green Anole (Anolis carolinensis) Why does a plain boiled egg taste better when consumed under the branches of a huge oak tree in the middle of a forest where no sound of man can be heard? Following our wading bird extravaganza as we paused at one end of the old bridge over the Little Withlacoochee River, we found a nice clearing for brunch just beyond the other end. Lush Resurrection… Read More

Category: Birds, Flora, Florida, Insects, Photography Tags: atlantic grasshopper, blackeyed susan, blue dasher, bulltongue arrowhead, carolina chickadee, climbing aster, green anole, green tree frog, northern parula, palamedes swallowtail, tarflower, wild petunia, withlacoochee state forest, yellow colicroot

Swamp Road

Header Image: Pygmy Rattlesnake Hot. Wet. Oppressive. Taking a breath almost requires effort. In the time it takes to walk from the car to the trailhead, your clothes are soaked through from the humidity. There is not even a hint of a breeze. We are in central Florida. The Green Swamp surrounds us. It is summer. Glorious! It is that time of year we simply LOVE to be outside! The stillness of… Read More

Category: Birds, Flora, Florida, Insects, Photography Tags: brown-headed nuthatch, clustered bushmint, eastern lubber grasshopper, familiar bluet, gray-green clubtail, little blue dragonlet, phaon crescent, prince baskettail, pygmy rattlesnake, richloam wildlife management area, rosy camphorweed, scarlet skimmer, swamp, tarflower, yellow milwort

Our Natural Places

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