WaterNotes

My morning plan for a hike in the coastal hammock was foiled elegantly by the rain. Florida doesn’t usually have rainy days of fog and mist and hours of falling water.  We’re much more inclined to sudden cloud bursts and passionate thunderstorms with lightning strike theatrics and the thunder ad-libbing its lines.  They’re too full [...]

In my three years of Lagoon exploration I can count on one hand the number of times I have seen white pelicans. Actually, I can count it on just two fingers. While scouting locations for a field trip program late last year I happened upon an enormous flock of white pelicans and cormorants treading water [...]

Usually, when the lightning starts, we run. I dont know why humans are so afraid of a thunderstorm but willingly stand in a miniature waterfall in the bathroom everyday of their lives. Perhaps it is the lightning. We lose more people to lightning strikes than to sharks every year. Not that the lightning is a [...]

For the last few months my personal challenge was to memorize and list all 32-36 species of oceanic dolphin, all five species of freshwater dolphin, and all six species of true porpoise. But perhaps I should back up a few squares first and relate a bit about the dolphin family tree. There are roughly eighty [...]

On very ambitious mornings I sometimes like to grab coffee, my swimswuit, a towel, and a camera and head out to the coast to watch the sunrise. I’m not a morning person at all, so this plan – often made at 10pm the night before – doesn’t always congeal into fruition. In fact I once [...]

Its true that Florida has an extensive highway system crisscrossing through all manner of habitat types. The interesting thing is that this past few weeks I have noted a rather shocking number of different wildlife dotting the roadside landscape in numbers I have never before seen (or perhaps noticed). For several mornings now a small [...]

While most of the country celebrates groundhog’s day, I believe all the Floridians should switch over to celebrating an animal far closer to home. Gopher tortoises are a unique part of the Florida landscape and build burrows every bit as elaborate as those pesky northern mammals. Perhaps, since we dont usually worry about the potential [...]