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- A magnificent pink trumpet or Tabebuia tree in bloom is an extraordinary sight
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- The yellow milkwort is beautiful at a smaller scale
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- Glades lobelias are a tiny wonder in damp areas
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- Lemon Bay is filled with mating groups of hermaphroditic ragged sea hares
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- Monarch butterflies are visiting flowers such as this jatropha
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- A royal tern is in breeding plumage and posturing for a potential mate
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- This herring gull is in breeding plumage but has to travel far north before actually nesting
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- A female screech owl peeks out of her nest box in our yard
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- An exotic iguana basks in the spring sunshine
The calendar tells us that official spring is here and we can see that ourselves by our observations of nature. One of my favorite harbingers of spring is the glorious flowering of the pink trumpet tree, Tabebuia, at the end of Panama St, near the Palm Island ferry dock. It is an extraordinary sight of this exotic and unusually large Caribbean tree in full bloom with pink blossoms showering down. Some of our native flowers are also showy if at a much smaller scale. This yellow milkwort at Myakka State Forest is a pretty sight in damp pine flatwoods. The tiny glades lobelias are now blooming in masses in damp areas along ditches or even in lawns.
One of the startling sights in shallow bay waters of Lemon Bay is the mass breeding of the hermaphroditic ragged sea hares. They gather in groups or even in lines to alternately exchange sperm or eggs with their partners. If you gently squeeze them you get a surprise when they eject a dark purple ink; this reveals their molluscan relationship with the Murex snails which produced the royal purple dye beloved of ancient royalty.
Butterflies are still in somewhat short supply but we have had some monarchs finding nectar on a variety of flowers such as this jatropha.
At the beach the birds are assuming their breeding colors and behavior. A royal tern had its characteristic black cap and was strutting as if to impress a mate. A nearby herring gull will not be nesting until it migrates to Canada, but it was in breeding plumage.
Our screech owls are nesting in a box and the female was seen peeking out at the world. The reddish male roosts nearby in a thicket and calls to his mate at night.
Reptiles are showing more activity. I have seen many black racers and noticed this exotic iguana in Rotonda basking on a pole.
So enjoy the onset of spring and all the wonders that it brings. If you are soon heading north for the summer, you will be in essence time traveling back to an earlier and cooler season and this provides many opportunities for enjoying a more prolonged spring than we get in Florida.