Floridian Nature

All of us had been driving down the road and got a sudden whiff of a dead skunk in the area. There are two varieties of skunks found in Floridian Nature . The most common is the familiar looking striped skunk. Striped skunks are easily recognized by their characteristic colors and pattern. The fur is black with a white stripe that begins as a triangular shape on the top of the head, forks into two stripes that travel down the sides of the back, and usually merges again near the base of the tail. Another white stripe runs from the base of the snout between the eyes and ends on the forehead. Stripe width and length vary with each individual. Stripes sometimes occur on the tail, but more often the tail is composed of both black and white hairs intermixed. Striped skunks are nocturnal, sleeping during the day in underground burrows and emerging around dusk to search for food. They use scent marking to communicate presence and reproductive state to oth...

Two different types of fox call Floridian nature home the common red fox and the grey fox. We have at least one red fox that lives in the woods behind our house and I can often hear her "yips". The red fox ( Vulpes vulpes ) has the appearance of a small dog and weighs from 10 to 15 pounds and measures up to 2 feet long with another foot for a bushy tail. The end of the tail is black, tipped with white. The Red Fox is most commonly a rusty red, with white underbelly, black ear tips and legs, and a bushy tail usually with a distinctive white tip. The "red" tone can vary from dark chestnut to golden. Because the gray fox  frequently has quite a lot of red hair, it may be confused with the red fox. The red fox is essentially a nocturnal animal, but it occasionally feeds during the day, and more at dawn and dusk. The red fox is probably not native to Florida except in the northern Panhandle. It has been introduced by hunting clu...

There are good reasons to appreciate bats in Florida . One of the wonderful things that most bats do is eat insects !  By eating their body weight in insects each night, bats are the most important controller of night-flying insects, including many crop pests. Some bats eat fruit, nectar and seeds from plants. When the bats spit out the seeds or leave them in their droppings, they help new plants to grow. They also pollinate many kinds of plants, including vanilla beans, peaches, bananas and avocados. Found throughout the state, the most common species of solitary bat found in southern Florida is the northern yellow bat. A large, yellowish-brown bat with short ears and long, silky fur; These bats are larger than the red and Seminole bats. Clumps of Spanish moss make good daytime roosting places for northern yellow bats. Small groups of males or slightly larger groups of females are often found roosting together in foreste...

Fall is definitely in the air in Florida and my air conditioner was able to take a much needed break yesterday. It was a cool 54 degrees yesterday morning and 52 degrees today. The seasons in Florida are determined more by precipitation than by temperature, with the hot, wet springs and summers making up the wet season, and mild to cool, and the relatively dry winters and autumns, making the dry season. Fall foliage is a common sight in North Florida starting around late November, and into Winter, and some trees either lose their leaves or change colors in the central region. Overall the best way to recognize that it is fall in Florida is through the onset  of College Football. As the weather cools down college football is heating up with the Seminoles ranked at number one and the Florida Gators pulling off a sloppy win in Tennessee. With the cool weather came the lovebugs . They seem to appear from nowhere twice a year with some seasons being much...

  Florida is famous for its beautiful beaches  Many people may not realize that Florida has a longer coastline along the Gulf of Mexico than the Atlantic Ocean. Of course when you visit beaches like this one in Key West the Gulf and the Atlantic merge as one beautiful setting. With 580 miles along the Atlantic Ocean and 770 miles along the Gulf of Mexico the state of Florida has a total of 1,350 miles of coastline! No matter where you are in Florida, there is a beach just a short drive away.   The  Canaveral National Seashore , including Merritt Island, is located midway on Florida’s east coast between Daytona Beach and Melbourne. The 100 Timucuan Mounds that are within it's boundaries are evidence of past generations of people that lived here. Canaveral National Seashore covers 57,000 acres and  the 24 mile stretch of undeveloped beach  is the longest stretch  on Florida's east coast. The refuge is  home t...

While most snakes in Florida are harmless and provide important services such as controlling rodent colonies, we do have six venomous snakes that call Florida home. By learning to identify these snakes we can protect both our self and  non-venomous snakes that live in Floridian nature . This rat snake was enjoying investigating my fence and although I was startled when I saw him, I was happy to see he was not a deadly snake! All five of Florida's deadly pit vipers, including the Dusky Pygmy Rattlesnake can be recognized by their stocky bodies, relatively small necks, large triangular heads, and eyes with vertical slit pupils. The coral snake is easily recognized with its color band design (red on yellow kill a fellow). The Florida Cottonmouth or Water Moccasin , is a serpent that strikes terror in the hearts of hikers, swimmers, and freshwater fishermen. This snake is a heavy bodied pit viper with a large triangular head. The coloration of the Cotton...

It has been a wet summer in central Florida and all this rain is getting frogs out and about like this green treefrog I saw peeking in my living room window. The Green Treefrog is one of the most common treefrogs found in Floridian nature . Green treefrogs don't seem to mind sharing their environment with people and are often spotted on windows or the exterior walls of homes. This species of frog doesn't croak but makes a sound more like a ringing bell. Usually vivid green, the Green Treefrog can change to brown quickly. The well defined strip that runs the length of its side makes identifying the Green Treefrog easy. When a heavy evening rain is impending during the spring or summer, many frogs and toads begin to call. This is the first signal of intense breeding activity. Frogs and toads generally mate at night, since the darkness conceals them from sharp-eyed predators, especially wading birds. As rain starts to fall more and more frog voic...