Floridian Nature

  The last two weeks we have been hearing a mother fox calling out to her young in the woods behind our house. My son has been visiting and spends late hours out on our deck, which allows him to view Floridian nature http://www.floridiannature.com/redandgrayfox.htm up close and personal at times.  The young are probably between 3 and 4 months old and are becoming more and more independent.At birth the pups are blind, helpless, and   brownish-black. They nurse for about two months and stay with their parents for about 6 months. The den site is usually a dug out underground burrow, through they sometimes may enlarge the burrow of gopher tortoise or armadillo. The dens are usually 20-40 feet long and 3-4 deep, with multiple entrances. The red fox 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 w...

Now is the perfect time to visit Ravine Gardens State Park . The azalea's should be still blooming and our Florida weather could not be better. The 59 acre gardens were created in a natural steephead ravine by the City of Palatka, local citizens, the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA), the Federal Works Project Administration (WPA and the Civil Works Administration (CWA) in the 1930’S. Described in the 1934 Florida Municipal Record as the "Nations Outstanding Civil Works Administration. project," the 59 acre ravines were planted with over 95,000 azaleas including 64 varieties, 11,000 palm trees and more than 250,000 ornamental plants. The gardens were maintained by the City of Palatka until the park was deeded to the State of Florida in 1970. One of nine Florida state parks with New Deal Era structures, Ravine Gardens is the only park with a formal designed landscape. The extensive fieldstone terraces, rock gardens and massi...

One of the great things about Floridian nature is the ability to have a year round garden. For those of you thinking about starting a spring garden the time to get going is now! I started my garden last week and just need to get my green beans going before I am done. You can see the recommended Florida gardening planner at Floridian Nature . Vegetable gardening offers fresh air, sunshine, exercise, enjoyment, mental therapy, nutritious fresh vegetables, and economic savings, as well as many other benefits. Gardens may be grown year-round in Florida, but spring is the preferred season. Statewide there are over 1 million vegetable gardens, averaging 300 sq. ft. and a retail value of $300. Vegetable gardeners in Florida are lucky to have lots of sunshine and mild winters amenable to growing a multitude of food crops most months of the year. That said, Florida home growers face several challenges that northern gardeners do not. Florida soils in many locations...

One of my favorite Florida birds is the Great Blue heron. It can be found along the ocean shore or the edge of a small inland pond. An all white form is found from southern Florida into the Caribbean, and used to be considered a separate species, the "Great White Heron." The white form of the Great Blue Heron, known as the "great white heron," is found nearly exclusively in shallow marine waters along the coast of very southern Florida, the Yucatan Peninsula, and in the Caribbean. Where the dark and white forms overlap in Florida, intermediate birds known as "Wurdemann's herons" can be found. They have the bodies of a Great Blue Heron, but the white head and neck of the great white heron. Although the Great Blue Heron eats primarily fish, it is adaptable and willing to eat other animals as well. Several studies have found that voles (mice) were a very important part of the diet, making up nearly half of what wa...

The State of Florida has many natural resources, and at Floridian Nature we believe that Florida artists are one of our great assets.  The definition of an artist is wide-ranging and covers a broad spectrum of activities to do with creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. In honoring artists during Black History Month , we chose the Florida Highwaymen . In the early 1950’s through the 1980’s a group of twenty-six African-American artists painted beautiful landscapes that displayed the serene, undeveloped Florida landscape of their time.  They were from Fort Pierce, Florida and later became known as the "Highwaymen".  The 26 painters  latched onto art as a way to escape a more grueling fate: picking or crating oranges in the local groves. Their artwork was primal and raw depicting idyllic views of the Florida landscape, before rampant development would reconfigure the state's topography forever. ...

The tallest bird in North America, the Whooping Crane was once at the brink of extinction. It is making a steady recovery thanks to intensive management efforts in Canada and the United States, and As of April 2007 there were about 340 whooping cranes living in the wild, and another 145 living in captivity. The whooping crane is still one of the rarest birds in North America. Whooping cranes occurred naturally in the eastern United States until the mid-twentieth century, and there are records of whooping cranes in Florida until the 1930s. The whooping crane is endangered mainly as a result of habitat loss. At one time, the range for these birds extended throughout Midwestern North America. In order to help the whooping cranes endure, ultra light  aircraft has been used to bring them south for breeding.  Prior to 2009, all ultra-light led cranes wintered at the Chassahowitzka NWR, located near Crystal River, Florida. After a disastrous st...

There have been more and more black bear sightings in Florida . According to the FWC You are more likely to see a panther or a black bear today in Florida than someone here 40 years ago! There was a total of 2,257 Florida black bear sighting reports as of June 2014, with more than 500 of those reports containing uploaded photographs. Sightings of bears were reported in 59 of the state’s 67 counties. To report a bear sighting contact the FWC .  The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission may be poised to again allow bear hunts in the state. However, Citrus County will be among some of the counties exempt because of low populations of black bears. According to the Citrus County Chronicle, the controversial black bear management plan will be presented by officials at the commission’s meeting Feb. 4 to 5 in Jacksonville. According to FWC officials, the decision about the plan is mainly due to an increase in bear-human interactions which has in...