In my wanderings among the woods and fields I often encounter beetles, which are not usually considered among the most colorful of the insects, as are the butterflies. However there are some striking exceptions to this rule, one of which […]
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It is a considerable pleasure to visit unusual new places to compare their life forms with those we are familiar with. It does our brains good to be confronted with strange new shapes and colors and challenges us to evaluate […]
While on one of my daily nature walks I looked down and spotted one of the true beauties of the woods, a red eft (see photo, background). They wander around, especially after rains and are very slow-moving and unafraid. […]
While surveying the kingdom this morning I was struck by the beauty of several of our fields which were planted in “wildflowers” in previous years and cut as often as once a year, and sometimes burned every three years. […]
Flowers are of course some of the most beautiful objects within Nature’s realm and they can be considered at a number of emotional and intellectual levels. If one thinks simply of the amazing variations in color and form, flowers can […]
One of our favorite places to stop while traveling through GA is the Botanical Garden in Athens. Now I hope we may be forgiven for revealing that we do not always focus entirely on the fabulous plants, both exotic […]
Fred Bernstein and I did a survey of the birds on the Myakka River Rookery Island just south of the US 41 bridge today in North Port (4.2.10). This island lies adjacent to the Myakka State Forest and just […]
We are “migrating” north to our VA farm tomorrow from SW FL and the most interesting natural event this morning locally was a virtual swarm of large greenish darners flying around at Cedar Pt park. The only one I could […]
We had a small weather front a few days ago and some interesting birds are trickling through our Florida yard on their way north. Today we had a male orchard oriole (see photo nectaring on Cape honeysuckle from S […]
This time of year in Florida we sometimes hesitate to leave our yard since some really interesting birds are migrating through. We have recently had hooded (see photo) and parula warblers, white-eyed and blue-headed vireos, scarlet and summer tanagers, and […]
The extraordinarily wet Winter conditions have proven a barrier to our usual explorations of the ecological wonders to be found at Myakka State Forest (MSF) in Sarasota County, FL. However we threw caution to the winds today and drove our […]
Joan McGowan sent me a photo of a caterpillar she has in her garden in Florida (but which occurs widely in eastern N. America) that has been eating her exotic penta plants that are good for attracting butterflies that […]
While dip-netting in a FL canal I came across one of the most interesting and beautiful fish in freshwater, the bluespotted sunfish, Enneacanthus glorious (see photo). This fish is well named since the adult males are covered with brilliant […]
As I was returning from a visit to the Alva, FL, area where there are a number of interesting Lee County nature parks I was startled to see two crested caracaras (a federally threatened falcon) walking around in someone’s […]
While the weather remains somewhat less than ideal in VA/NC you folks up North are starting to see some really nice birds and are beginning to experience early Spring in a way that is beginning to excite my envy. […]
I am always interested in ways to avoid using pesticides and to instead utilize natural methods of biological control. Well in Florida we have plenty of pest insects and it is hard to avoid spraying them occasionally. However I […]
I noticed today that a large Jimson weed ( Datura or angel’s trumpet) plant in our field was infested with eastern leaf-footed bugs ( Leptoglossus phyllopus) – see photo attached. Several things about this were interesting- Jimson weed is […]
I first have a photographic record of a white ibis I named “Stumpy” on Nov. 10, 2007. It had a broken right leg that was twisted and extended forward in an awkward position and hopped on its one good […]
This seems to be an unusually good year for great horned owls near our house in Englewood, FL. There is a pair using an osprey nest directly over our house up 50 feet in the top of a Norfolk Island […]
I know all of you Eskimos up North are having fun with Winter sports in the ice and snow but just to let you know what is coming your way in another 2-3 months I thought I would send […]