North Florida's Natural Beauty

     Recently, my friend Dee and I brought our cameras for some time exploring  my immediate neighborhood and a roadside creek view a couple miles up the road. We both appreciate the natural beauty in coastal North Florida and often share tips about places to see and photograph water birds, hawks, eagles, or other wildlife. Dee had borrowed a camera from a friend to see whether she would like that brand and that particular zoom lens for herself. I just used my usual humble camera, but we both captured some good shots. Now, I will consider which of my photos might make or be a part of a future painting.

     The egret haunts a retention pond just a few houses away from our home. The grey skies and soft winter light made for subtle scenes at the creek.

     

 Question of the day: Do you take time to look around you daily?

Another Sign of Northeast Florida Spring--Flocks of Goldfinches

Each year, once in the fall and once in late March or early April, we enjoy flocks of migrating goldfinches and smaller numbers of other finches in our coastal North Florida yard. Sometimes, they stay in the area a few weeks; other times, they are here (at least in our yard) only a few days. We felt privileged to be home a few days ago to watch a flock in our backyard. Because they swoop in and out quickly and flit around, it was difficult to count them, but we had somewhere around 30 goldfinches that afternoon--possibly more. About 1/3 of them were males. Their song is sweet, long, and canary-like--a lovely spring chorus.

Finches love the thistle seed feeder we keep out for them and were also happily cracking the larger safflower seeds in the companion feeder. Most of all, they delighted in wildly splashy communal baths in the shallow birdbath at ground level. With trees, vines, and bushes nearby for safety, they seemed to feel free to frolic and sing up a noisy storm of joy. In my birdbath photos, some of the goldfinches are a fluffy blur of splash while others prepare to chase them out for their own turn.

I didn't dare open a door or window or step around to the back to get photos, so the best I could do was to give my simple little Canon its maximum 4X zoom and shoot through the patio door windowpanes. I hope you enjoy our cheery friends, too.

Question of the day: Don't you marvel at the beauty and variety of life on our precious Earth?

Exploring--Babcock Wilderness Adventures in Punta Gorda, Florida

Last week, Mark and I visited Punta Gorda, Florida, on Charlotte Harbor, a large bay off the Gulf of Mexico. Although it was much chillier than normal there (but a good 8 - 12 degrees warmer than we would have been at home in Jacksonville), we had a pleasant, relaxing visit to this beautiful area. We have explored other Gulf Coast cities and towns, but Punta Gorda was new to us. By far our favorite vacation outing was to Babcock Wilderness Adventures, a 90,000 acre working ranch and farm with an extensive nature preserve.

The history and present operation of the ranch fascinated us, but I won't report all that in this post. Interested readers can visit the Babcock Wilderness web site for more information.

The guided "swamp buggy" tour, lasting over 90 minutes, traveled through a variety of habitats, from sweeping Florida prairie, to deep woods, to silent cypress swamp. According to our guide, we were particularly fortunate in the number and variety of animals and birds we saw that day--many quite close. Several deer, one with a very young fawn, quietly watched us watching them, alert but showing no fear. Alligators who had found sunny spots on that cool day moved only a wary eyeball as we stopped to view and photograph them. Wild hogs and the unique Florida Cracker cattle breed are both protected here and gleefully ran to the bus (the hogs) or sauntered over (some of the cattle) to take corn feed from our guide. The photo ops were numerous, and I'll show you some of the animals and scenery in a future post.

Today's photos show a few of the magnificent birds we saw. The Great White Egret is taller than those we see in North Florida, but is otherwise very similar to ours. The Sandhill Crane blends so perfectly into the dry winter brush that we could spot it only by its characteristic facial markings. The male wild turkeys, apparently entering mating season, proudly displayed their tail feathers and strutted their stuff. Our visit seemed perfectly timed for sightings of these and many other birds, including ibis, red-tailed hawks, turkey vultures, and bald eagles.

Question of the day: What area within a four or five hour drive of your home would you like to explore, and what would you do and see there?