Established in 1931 to protect habitat for migratory birds (and as we now know Monarch Butterflies) in the Big Bend Region of Florida’s Gulf Coast, St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge is one of the oldest refuges in the National Wildlife Refuge System. Located 25 miles south of Tallahassee and just east of Florida’s Forgotten Coast […]
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Storks are creatures of folklore. As North America’s only native stork, when Europeans arrived, wood storks assumed the role of baby delivery from White Storks. This celebrity status did not protect them. Populations plunged from 20,000 nesting pairs in the 1930s to less than 5,000 pairs by the 1970s. Almost all nesting in the Everglades […]
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“The annual Wings Over Water festival is held each October to celebrate the wildlife and environment of coastal North Carolina. This wildlife festival includes over 90 trips & programs involving birding, paddling, photography, art, and natural history, and helps raise funds for local National Wildlife Refuges.” Ann and I attended the 2022 festival. Even though Ann […]
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In field guides, this species is listed as Swainson’s Thrush, with a note that they are often called Olive-backed. And a case can be made for Salmonberry Bird, at least for the population on the NW coast of the U.S. and the coast of Canada’s Inland Passage. I’m going with Olive-backed because it could be […]
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A male Ruby-throated Hummingbird caught in the act of ‘hawking’.
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Female Ruby-throated Hummingbird feeding on a tiger lily bloom: I say feeding because she could be sipping nectar or eating insects attracted to the nectar. Hummers rely much more insects than it appears because we are spoiled by the sight of them on flowers. 60+%, depending on time of year, of their diet can be […]
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At 16,500 acres, Sapelo is the fourth largest island along the one hundred miles of Georgia coastline. 97% of the island is state-owned and managed entities primarily focused on environmental, marine, and wildlife research. Their ‘lab’ the largely intact and near-pristine habitats on and surrounding the island. Entities include the University of Georgia Marine Institute, […]
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Loggerhead Shrikes are nicknamed Butcherbird (not to be confused with true butcherbirds of Australia). An apt moniker as demonstrated by the shrike and unfortunate grasshopper below. Loggerhead Shrikes are song birds that are Raptor-mini-me’s. Skilled hunters from perches, they use their strong hooked beaks’ “tomial teeth”, pointy projections on the upper cutting edge, to dispatch […]
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“A string of counties studded with emerald-like gulf waters, deep springs and rivers, stretching along the same Florida coast” John Muir 1867 https://www.naturecoaster.com/discover-the-history-of-floridas-nature-coast/ “A string of counties”: Eight counties to be exact. Eight counties carved from the Big Bend Coast geological region. Eight counties that came together in the 1990s to form an unofficial region […]
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This Sandhill Crane pair is raising their family in Sweetwater Wetlands Park in Gainesville, Florida. When Ann and I lived in Gainesville in 1977-78, the 125 acres that now comprise the park had been ‘murdered’. Sweetwater Branch was the recipient of treated and untreated wastewater from Gainesville’s sewage plant. It caught trash from overflows of […]
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