Tag: florida
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Sunset Birds
Nature is painting for us, day after day, pictures of infinite beauty, if only we have the eyes to see them. ~John Ruskin While we saw a variety of wildlife on our Florida adventure, I was a bit surprised we had not seen as many birds as I had hoped. As I mentioned in an Read more…
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Big Cypress
If, in the name of progress, we want to destroy everything beautiful in our world, and contaminate the air we breathe, and the water we drink, then we are in trouble. ~Marjory Stoneman Douglas, in response to critics saying that conservationists were trying to halt progress in Florida by preserving Big Cypress Swamp Big Cypress Read more…
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Everglades
There are no other Everglades in the world. They are, they have always been, one of the unique regions of the earth, remote, never wholly known. ~Marjory Stoneman Douglas, author of The Everglades: River of Grass, 1947 Sitting by the fire yesterday afternoon, I can hardly believe I spent last week in the Florida heat Read more…
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The Long and Short of It
I admire herons, herons of all sorts. They have a stately posture, epitomize patience, and have bright eyes that can stare down anyone. My recent trip to Florida had lots of heron highlights. Here I report on the long and short of it, Great Blue Herons and Green Herons. Standing four feet tall with a Read more…
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More than his Belican
A wonderful bird is the pelican, His bill will hold more than his belican, He can take in his beak Enough food for a week But I’m damned if I see how the helican! ~Dixon Lanier Merritt American White Pelicans (Pelecanus erythrorhynchos) are always a treat to see. When I first moved to North Carolina Read more…
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One Town’s Waste is Another Species’ Treasure
Without a doubt, the highlight of my trip to Florida to visit cool birding sites and see lots of birds…..was to a wastewater treatment “plant”. It seems as though it is common practice, at least in that part of Florida, to create wetlands as part of wastewater treatment for municipalities. The benefits to humans are Read more…
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This Refuge “Merritts” a Visit
High on my list of places to visit on my trip to Florida was Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, adjacent to the Kennedy Space Center. The refuge is huge, over 140,000 acres, consisting of a variety of habitats – coastal dunes, saltwater estuaries and marshes, freshwater impoundments, scrub, pine flatwoods, and hardwood hammocks. Winter brings Read more…
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In a Fog
In nature, everything has a job. The job of the fog is to beautify further the existing beauties! ~Mehmet Murat ildan I just got back from a whirlwind trip south to the so-called Space Coast area of Florida. I have always wanted to visit Florida in winter to see the bird life and now finally Read more…
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Roads End Naturalist 