No doubt about it, southeast Florida can be very hot in mid-August. So what do the birds do to keep cool?? Many birds, like Hawks and Wood Storks, soar overhead, circling above the wetlands to take advantage of high altitude currents where the air is cooler. Most birds try to keep their cool by being much less active […]
Quite by serendipity the other day, I was suddenly confronted by some news on social media that saddened and shocked me . . . a dear acquaintance had died quite unexpectedly at her home a few days ago. Nora was her name.I really didn’t know Nora very well – we’d met a couple of years […]
This past week, our Shabbat Torah reading, which was the second portion of the Book of Devarim (Deuteronomy), opened with one of the most poignant and moving statements ever made by the great leader Moshe Rabbenu (Moses). G-d has previously told Moshe that, despite Moshe’s great love for Eretz Israel, he will never enter the […]
There is something so lovely and graceful, yet vulnerable, about a juvenile Purple Gallinule. He is no longer a comical little ball of black fluff, toddling after his parents. But he is not yet a full-grown shimmering beauty like them either.I came across this young fellow clambering around in a low tree, and had the […]
A couple of weeks ago, we decided to go for a quiet little early afternoon walk at a park we’d never visited before. We thought we’d really enjoy our natural surroundings more if we left our phones in the car ;-). Unfortunately, we also left our jug of water in the car, a really foolish […]
As I wrote in a recent post, the current time period on the Jewish calendar, known as The Three Weeks, concludes with the observance of Tisha B’Av (the 9th of the Hebrew month of Av). On Tisha B’Av we mourn the most significant tragic events in Jewish history, including the destruction of the First and Second Temples in Jerusalem in 586 […]
This is the moment we’ve all been waiting for – the arrival of a large new group of Black-Bellied Whistling Duck babies!The Black-bellied Whistling Ducks are everyone’s favorite, I think – the adults always look so handsome, with their long necks, beautiful coloring, and upright posture. And the babies are just an absolute treat – […]
It always brightens my day when I see (or hear) a Red-bellied Woodpecker! I’ve grown to expect them, especially in the wooded areas along our wetland paths. Never quite understood why they seem like such a special treat till I realized recently that they are much more prevalent here in Florida than they ever were in New York […]
As the nesting season draws to a close, and the migratory birds have returned to their summer homes, we see fewer and fewer of our ‘regulars’ like the Great Blue Herons and Wood Storks here in the preserves. Some of the juveniles and a few baby birds, like the Night Herons, Cattle Egrets, and Common Moorhens (Gallinules) still remain, […]
I was wandering along, hoping to spot some of the elusive baby ducks, when all of sudden, I noticed this odd, striped, curved shape object (featured above) in the pond on my left. Somehow, it just didn’t look like a plant….! The pond on my right was open and deep, with lots of Lilypads floating […]
Birder's Journey 