Around the State
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.
Our Most Recent Report
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2026 Roar Before the Rolex 24
The 2026 racing season is underway. We kicked it off with a trip over to Daytona International Speedway to shoot the Roar Before the Rolex 24. The Roar is a 3-day practice session for teams preparing for the Rolex 24, the iconic 24-hour endurance race.
40 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac Exiting the International Horseshoe at Daytona International Speedway – 2026 It seems like every year the Roar manages to land on the coldest weekend of winter. This year was no different as temperatures started off near freezing. But skies were clear, so the sun helped to warm things nicely. Although it never reached 60 degrees, the lack of wind helped immensely.
9 Pfaff Motorsports Lamborghini in Garage Area at Daytona International Speedway – 2026 The Rolex 24 is an amazing motorsports experience. It brings together drivers from around the world to compete in the ultimate team racing event. Drivers from many of the other top series like IndyCar, F1, and NASCAR join the regular teams in the Weathertech IMSA series for the 24-hour race. The incredible part of endurance racing is that 4 different classes of cars race at the same time. There are 61 cars entered. The high-tech hybrid GTP cars are the fastest. They are million-dollar machines with many advanced features that eventually find their way to passenger vehicles. The remainder of the field is comprised of cars from Lamborghini, Ferrari, Corvettes, Aston Martin, Porsche, Mercedes AMG, Lexus, BMW, and Mustang GT.
4 Pratt Miller Motorsports Corvette Heading Toward Turn 1 at Daytona International Speedway – 2026 
64 Ford Multimatic Motorsports Mustang Heading Toward the West Horseshoe at Daytona International Speedway – 2026 
93 Meyer Shank Acura and 8 Tower Motorsports LMP2 Exiting the International Horseshoe at Daytona International Speedway – 2026 The Roar and the Rolex 24 are amazing fan-friendly experiences. Not only are ticket prices very affordable, but fans have open access to the garage areas, and they are allowed on pit lane to view the cars prior to the race. There is even a huge camping event for Boy Scouts during the Roar and parking for all fans during the Roar is free. It is definitely one of the best events for families in all sports. It’s also a great opportunity for photographers without credentials. Using a small step ladder, we can get over the fences around the infield to get clear shots of the cars as they fly past.
What is truly incredible about this event is that after 24 hours of continuous high-speed racing, from daylight through darkness and back to daylight again, sometimes through periods of pouring rain, the margin of victory for the class winners is often just a few seconds! If a person was looking to attend a marquee auto race, this one should be very high on the list.
31 Whelen Cadillac Heading Toward the West Horseshoe at Daytona International Speedway – 2026 
7 Penske Motorsports Porsche Exiting the International Horseshoe at Daytona International Speedway – 2026 
10 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac Heading Toward Turn 1 at Daytona International Speedway – 2026 
6 Penske Motorsports Porsche and 8 Tower Motorsports LMP2 Exiting the International Horseshoe at Daytona International Speedway – 2026 
93 Meyer Shank Acura Heading Toward the International Horseshoe at Daytona International Speedway – 2026 
52 Bryan Herta Autosport LMP2 Heading Toward the West Horseshoe at Daytona International Speedway – 2026
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Port Manatee
Last week I had the pleasure of joining a group of some of the top birders in Manatee County, Florida for a field trip to Port Manatee. The trip was hosted by the Army Corps of Engineers due to a number of highly restricted areas. The fields and ponds consist of silt dredged from the…
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Great Day For a Great Horned Owl
Yesterday turned out to be a great day to capture some photos of a female great horned owl guarding her nest. Great horned owls usually find the absolute worst spot in a tree for a successful photograph. It seems like they always want to sit on the darkest branches facing away from the sun amongst…
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Green-winged Teal
I mentioned in my previous post that we found a very large flock of green-winged teal ducks on Thursday. Finding the green-wings completes the “teal trifecta” for me for 2021. There are 3 species of teal in North America – blue-winged, green-winged and cinnamon. Two weeks ago we found a cinnamon teal which is a…
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Myakka River State Park
One of my favorite places for nature photography in this area is Myakka River State Park in eastern Sarasota county. It is a huge park consisting of 37,000 acres with the Myakka River cutting through the center. Along the way, the river is dammed creating a large lake and vast wetlands. There is a wide…
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New Eagles
I spent the last two days photographing a pair of bald eagles with their two new chicks. The nest is in the open, so photo opportunities are amazing. The parents stay busy. We watched them hunt for fish and today they brought back a whistling duck. When they’re not feeding the chicks, they fly off…
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Cinnamon Teal
This past weekend I had the opportunity to photograph a cinnamon teal. It’s a bird I have never seen in the wild. Cinnamon teal are seldom spotted east of the Mississippi River so finding one here in Florida was a real treat! They are beautiful birds, especially in flight where you can see their light…
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Black-chinned Hummingbirds
The other day I posted about seeing several birds this season that are very uncommon in Florida. Black-chinned hummingbirds are typically found in the western states, most often across the rocky mountain region. While most migrate to western Mexico, there have been sightings across the gulf coast in recent years. We were fortunate to see…
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Wood Storks
I recently had the pleasure of capturing some fun birds in flight images with my neighbor and artist, Jerry Horine. We found an active area where wood storks were moving from their morning roosting spots. Storks are great targets because they tend to slowly glide a long way before landing. I also never realized how…
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Rarely Seen Birds
It seems each year we are seeing more birds that are seldom seen in Florida. Most of the birds are typically found much farther west. This year has been no exception. A few of the uncommon sightings include a black-chinned hummingbird, black scoter ducks, ash-throated flycatcher, scissor-tailed flycatcher and scaly-breasted munias. We even had a…
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Backyard Bunting
2020 was a good year for at least one thing. I put my bird feeder up in late October and attracted a male painted bunting in full color in early November. To our delight, he has stayed with us since his initial visit. I have been on a mission to get a photo of him…
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Happy New Year
It’s been a while since the last post. And there has been a lot happening. I’ll break out the specifics in separate posts, but I wanted to report that the migration is in full force. We have been seeing numerous visitors for several weeks including many species of ducks. The robins have been everywhere. Some…
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Landfill Eagles
The landfill is always a good place to capture some good photos of bald eagles. The days after a holiday are even better as all the scraps from those big meals eventually find their way to the landfill and the birds have their feast. In addition to the eagles, there are vultures, crows, and countless…