Archives
Header Image: Carolina Redroot (Lachnanthes caroliana) Wait. Don’t you mean “Escape FROM The Swamp”?? We review the news from around the corner and around the world. Local roads and businesses are packed with people. Drama inserts itself into our lives unexpectedly. A dirt road leads into welcoming green pine forests where we soon encounter a small stream flowing under an old bridge. Cicadas buzz in a cacophonous wave which washes over our… Read More
Category: Birds, Flora, Florida, Insects, Photography Tags: bar-winged skimmer, blue dasher, carolina redroot, delta flower scarab beetle, eastern pondhawk, fiery skipper, four-spotted pennant, fungus, green heron, little blue dragonlet, needham's skimmer, obscure grasshopper, roseate skimmer, roundpod st. john's-wort, salt marsh morning glory, scarlet skimmer, slaty skimmer, viceroy, wild turkey, yellow garden spider
(Header image: Peace River swamp.) “The Butcher Bird’s been busy!” This was the third insect Gini had spotted stuck on a fence barb. The Butcher Bird is a nickname for members of the shrike family, in our case it’s the Loggerhead Shrike. They will capture a bug and impale it on a fence barb or thorn to make it easier for them to eat. It is not unusual to find caches of… Read More
Category: Birds, Florida, Insects, Photography Tags: american redstart, anhinga, black vulture, black-and-white warbler, black-throated blue warbler, blue-ringed dancer, eastern pondhawk, fungus, mosaic peace river park, northern parula, peace river, phantom darner, ruby-throated hummingbird, wild turkey, worm-eating warbler
Once upon a time (stop me if you’ve heard this one), our primary consideration in planning an excursion into the Great Outdoors was limited to researching what birds might be found at a particular location. Was fall or spring migration in progress? Could we hope for wintering birds? Perhaps new bird families would offer an opportunity to observe chicks pestering parents for food or practicing flight lessons. As time progressed, so did… Read More
Category: Birds, Flora, Florida, Insects, Photography Tags: black and yellow mud dauber, blue dasher, butterfly, colt creek state park, common buttonbush, dragonfly, great crested flycatcher, leaf-footed bug, leavenworth's tickseed, little blue heron, northern parula, pale meadowbeauty, purple passionflower, red-spotted purple, spurred butterfly pea, squirrel tree frog, wandering glider, wild turkey
June in Florida. Very early in the morning, one can imagine the air still has the lingering coolness most people associate with spring. It’s a hallucination. If you take more than two steps through the greenery, your feet and calves are immediately soaked in dew. Humidity manifests itself by making you feel as though you have stepped into a sauna. As there is no breeze, walking briskly helps evaporate the drops… Read More
Category: Birds, Fauna, Flora, Insects, Photography Tags: american white waterlily, arbuckle tract, bar-winged skimmer, bumble bee, butterfly milkweed, carolina satyr, eastern tiger swallowtail, eastern towhee, florida scrub jay, great crested flycatcher, green anole, lake wales ridge state forest, northern parula, red saddlebags, red-headed woodpecker, southeastern five-lined skink, summer tanager, tufted titmouse, wild turkey, yellow milkwort
Our Natural Places 