Gary
The Regal Florida Panther
Hunted to near extinction by the mid-1950’s, the Florida panther was listed as endangered by the U.S. Department of Interior in 1967. The population decreased to approximately 20 Florida Panthers in the wild. The Florida panther is actually a subspecies of the American mountain lion. It lives in hardwood hammocks, cypress swamps and pinelands in […]
The Buzz at Arbor Lakes
On a mid-February Florida afternoon, Anne steps out the back door and hastily retreats. “There are lots of bees flying in the backyard.” As I opened the door, I instantly hear the faint, but distinctive hum of bees. There are dozens of small bees flying inches above the ground and hovering over what looks like anthills […]
I Do Not Know Mushrooms
Mushrooms are ubiquitous. Mushrooms grow on mulch in gardens, on rotting logs and leaf litter of forest floors and in manicured lawns. Some are so distinctive that they are easy to identify. Others look so similar that it is difficult to discern one from another. During my career as a biologist in New York, I was determined to […]
The Stink in Arbor Lakes
On a recent walk to the clubhouse, I spied octopus-like tentacles rising out of the wood chipped gardens from subterranean eggs. The tentacles were cheese doodle in texture and color. The interior of the tentacles were coated with olive-brown slime. It is a stinkhorn fungus. If you see it, DO NOT touch it! It has […]
The True Snowbirds
z The Urban Dictionary defines a snowbird as “an elderly Yankee that migrates down to the South to winter when their natural habitat of New York, Ohio, or Michigan is too cold for them.”1 But the real snowbirds are from Canada. They are truly birds called dark eyed juncos. A junco is a medium-sized sparrow. […]
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