Florida offers so many opportunities to explore. We’ll chronicle our encounters with nature and interesting places and share our stories about the fun events we attend.
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Bobolinks
Each spring and fall the migration brings an amazing variety of birds through the area. Like their human counterparts, several choose to make Florida their winter home. But many are only passing through on their way to more southern destinations. One species that spends a brief period here is the bobolink. They are related to…
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Coastal Sarasota
Along the coastal areas of Sarasota are several small nature preserves and parks that provide shelter for some different birds. This past spring brought a couple of new birds for me and my good friend Art Nadelman. One of the birds was a tropical kingbird. It is a member of the flycatcher family. It’s rare…
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The Celery Fields
An area in eastern Sarasota County that was once farmland, was purchased by Sarasota County in 1995 and eventually transformed into a park. The area was known for growing celery and is comprised of ditches and wetlands. Today it is a popular destination for birders, walkers, and runners. There is a man made hill in…
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Sarasota County Eagles
For the past several years, we’ve had the opportunity to photograph a family of bald eagles in Lakewood Ranch. Their nest was incredibly accessible and gave us countless great shots. Unfortunately, hurricane Ian took out the nest and several surrounding trees last fall and the eagles moved on to another location. But we have a…
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Spring Migration at Fort De Soto
The spring migration was amazing this year. Each year is different depending on the weather patterns. One of the absolute best places to be when the birds come through is Fort De Soto Park in St. Petersburg. The park is located where Tampa Bay empties into the Gulf of America and is a destination for…
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Backyard Bottlebrush
We’ve been fortunate the past few years to have some beautiful visitors come to our bird feeders. The painted buntings are marvels. The males are some of the most colorful birds we see. Their combination of a deep blue head, green back and bright red breast and belly is stunning. Even the females are distinctively…
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All Quiet on the Posting Front
The past several months has been a quiet period for getting out in nature. We had been focusing all our energies on our beloved and precious 4-legged girl Izzy. Sadly, she passed. Just a few weeks shy of her 14th birthday. We lost her best friend, Gabby, back in October and Izzy was never the…
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IndyCar Firestone Grand Prix
The IndyCar series rolled into St. Petersburg in early March for their annual street race. It was great to see the 2023 versions of teams and cars. Once again, the beautiful Florida weather cooperated for the three days the teams were here, and record crowds turned out to see the action. Race day turned out…
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Vermilion Flycatcher
Earlier this spring, my wife Pam and I got our cameras out and took a ride over by Orlando to find a rare bird that had been reported in the area. The bird is a Vermilion Flycatcher, and the males are beautiful. They are normally found in South America, Central America, Mexico, and the very…
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Mergansers
The past few years we have been fortunate to find several groups of hooded mergansers that picked this area as their winter home. They are small diving ducks that like to feed on little fish, snails, and water insects. When they find a good food source and get into a feeding frenzy, they will dive…
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Audubon Bird Count
Over the holidays, I joined my friend Art Nadelman for the annual Audubon Christmas Bird Count. The event takes place across all North America and parts of South America. This was the 123rd Christmas Bird Count. We were assigned a specific area to record. We started around 7:30 am and completed around 12:30 pm. We…
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Rare Butterfly
The area has a new group of guests this year. In fact, these visitors are quite rare. A flock of Atala butterflies has found their way here from southeastern Florida. They were once feared to be extinct in Florida due to the elimination of their host plant. The butterflies only lay their eggs on the…