Newsletter

We have a lot of blue colors here in Florida. The water and the sky are ubiquitous, of course, but some of the most striking examples are among our birds. This includes such regulars as the great blue heron and the blue jay. We also have the belted kingfisher and the male painted bunting.

As many of you are probably aware, the monarch butterfly, Danaus plexippus, was recently classified as Endangered. These beautiful creatures are a frequent sight in Florida and have been under increasing pressure over recent years.

Right now, we are in the middle of one of my personal favorite ‘seasons’: sea turtle nesting season. In particular, July is the time when some of the earliest laid nests of the season are beginning to hatch, so we are in the overlap time of both nesting females and emerging hatchlings.

One of the points I like to emphasize with my writing about nature is that all too often we think about it as a nebulous concept or a distant wilderness. But that is not at all how things are. Nature is all around you, often right outside your door. We like to think of ourselves as separate

What's that sound? Just a woodpecker making a racket. We have 8 different species of woodpeckers that live in Florida, and all of them are adept at being loud when they want to be.

You’ve probably had a close brush with ferns. Ferns are everywhere. More than likely, each of you reading this is not far away from a living fern plant right now. The distinctive shape of the fern frond is so well known that they can be recognized at a glance.

It’s early May here in South Florida, and that means that the rainy season is starting to get in gear. This is one the largest seasonal shifts here and a number of behavioral and physiological changes accompany it for numerous plants and animals. However, this time we’re going to be talking about

The term ‘vulture’ has gained numerous negative connotations in our language. The idea of feeding on the dead is abhorrent to humans, and so our modern vernacular has demonized them to an extent. However, some earlier cultures actually venerated vultures and I think that much more appropriate, as

In April, there is one bird that has taken a long journey and is just starting to arrive. They are the reason why this time of year is always one of my favorites. Swallow-tailed kites are back.

This week, we’ll be talking about the distinction between two related and important terms and looking at examples of each here in South Florida. These terms are ‘exotic’ and ‘invasive’.