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After the discovery of the head of one of our beloved nesting ospreys on our front walk on Jan. 14, I surmised that a pair of great horned owls had killed it in the process of taking over the osprey […]

    I was appalled by a gruesome discovery this morning just outside our front door. The head of one of our magnificent ospreys had been severed and was lying on the ground. A pair of ospreys has been nesting […]

A group of local naturalists from the Peace River and Sarasota Butterfly Societies and some native plant enthusiasts were excited to visit the yard of Englewood, FL, resident Mary Brown who is famous for her skills in raising butterfly caterpillars, […]

Mother Nature has given us some beautiful gifts this holiday season in conjunction with unusually warm weather. The insect world has been especially active. This spectacular mangrove skipper was attracted to a Mexican mallow in our yard. A pair of […]

  Although there is still interest in the northern fall and winter landscape for the naturalist, certainly it is more fun to see lots of critters moving around instead of mostly being inactive. Thus I find never-ending joy in observing […]

Although I am generally anxious to leave our VA farm soon after the first frost, this year it has been unexpectedly warm in FL even into November. This is a shock to humans unused to such hot and muggy weather, […]

On Oct. 18, 2015, while walking along the beach on Palm Island, Charlotte County FL, just south of Stump Pass, I noticed one tiny shorebird, a sanderling, that had bands on its legs. This bling was unusual since there were […]

If you are at the beach you might look up and notice that an interesting migration of dragonflies is taking place just over your head. Dragonflies are heading south to escape the frozen north in considerable numbers and I watched […]

As we headed south from our VA mountain farm to our eventual destination in SW FL, we visited family in the Piedmont of NC (Chapel Hill). Early October in the piedmont has some cool nights and warm days so that […]

If you become jaded with the natural wonders of your home turf, a trip is just the thing to add spice to your enjoyment of nature. On an annual family visit to Utah we find the desert and mountain worlds […]

Although signs of the fall season are usually evident enough from changes in the weather, there are many clues from nature that a seismic shift in the seasons is occurring. Even if you did not have a calendar, you should […]

Although there are wide variations in flower color at all seasons, I tend to think as summer as being the time of many yellow flowers of the aster family. Hence the derivation of the term for the many often unidentified […]

If you manage a field, you face a conundrum in deciding your specific goals and if, when, and how often to mow. If you want to retain the field, you must eventually mow it, but preferably no more than once […]

When you think about ways to attract butterflies, this generally involves planting flowers that supply nectar for the adults or leaves for the caterpillars. However an alternative technique is to offer salts, especially sodium, which butterflies crave because their vegetarian […]

Nothing expresses summer time more than the whirl of life around a pond. There is an intensity of competition and predation, but also great beauty among the intricate web of life that revolves around a small body of water. The […]

Although the typical means of enjoying nature would be by walking, I have found that biking can be a great way to find natural wonders in any area which has biking trails. The rails to trails paths are ideal since […]

Our beautiful sourwood trees (named for the sour oxalic acid in the leaves) are in bloom and they have a myriad of tiny white bell-shaped flowers that hang down. If these flowers remind you of blueberries, you are correct since […]

In late June and early July, wildflowers produce a myriad of blooms and butterflies take full advantage of the availability of nectar. We have planted a series of polllinator fields and the most recently planted, in 2012, is now a […]