It’s been awhile, but I swear I have a good reason — we bought a house! (And I haven’t stopped thinking up new and interesting post ideas).
On one of our first mornings in the new house, I looked out the front window to see a flock of brown ibises hunting for bugs in our front [...]
Royal terns remind me of grumpy older men, because they have these partial-black caps that make them look bald and stick up in the back like cowlicks.
You’ll often see them in flocks on the beach here in Naples — I did recently on a cold day and they all stood with their orange beaks facing [...]
There’s something almost silly about these birds. They’re pink, a surprising color if you’re seeing them in the muddy, green swamp, and they have bald heads and bills that really do look like spoons.
When I saw them fishing at Corkscrew Swamp sanctuary, they were sticking their beaks into the water and swishing their heads side [...]
You’ll see a pelican nearly every time you go to the beach in Southwest Florida — and they’re always fun to watch.
They’re big birds with large, heavy bodies, long bills with big pouches and long, broad wings. You’ll see them flying impossibly close to the water while hunting for fish — and diving from many [...]
Forget about those fake Elvises in Vegas — this bird is one of the best impersonators out there.
Walking to my car after a run today, I saw a northern mockingbird singing in the parking lot. These little gray songbirds love to sing, imitating other bird’s sounds and stringing the calls one after another. They’ll keep [...]
When someone told me that white ibises used to be called “Chokoloskee chickens” it made me laugh.
Chokoloskee, pronounced “Chuh-col-uh-ski,” is an island near Everglades City, Florida, and in 2000 it was home to about 400 people. Calusa used to live there, and later it had a reputation as a hideout for outlaws. The next time [...]
Painted buntings are a bird I’ve never seen, and hopefully, sometime soon I will. In photos, they’re incredible.
There’s a Native American legend about painted buntings. It says that the Great Spirit ran out of paint when coloring the birds, and so the painted bunting ended up dabbed with all different colors.
Male painted buntings have a [...]
Today I stopped at an intersection, looked out my window and saw a great egret stalking prey in the plants in the road’s median. Once, I saw one land on top of a car in downtown Naples, hitch a ride for awhile as the car drove about 25 mph, and then take off when it [...]
Today I rescued my first injured animal for the Conservancy of Southwest Florida.
One of my good friends works in the Conservancy’s Wildlife Rehabilitation center, and I signed up to volunteer. The center takes in injured wildlife from all over Naples and nurses the animals back to health so they can be released back into [...]
