Wildlife Calendar   

Wildlife Viewing in Florida    

Where to go.  Pictures of wildlife. Backyard viewing.  Wildlife Calendar. (No, this is not where you schedule your parties.)

Birdsource.org  

Matilda  the Muscovy Duck Muscovy ducks are native of Central and South America

Backyard Wildlife Viewing  

"Ninety-five percent of Americans participate in wildlife watching activities around the home. Sixty four percent observe wildlife in their yards, and twenty percent maintain plantings or natural areas around their yards to attract wildlife."

Are you a member of that 20%?  Read short articles mostly on what to plant to welcome all birds, butterflies, and animals to your backyard.  Find out why wax myrtles are so bird-friendly. 

Backyard Wildlife Habitat™ Program of the NWF ---- Get certified 

Have your backyard certified as a Backyard Wildlife Habitat™ by the National Wildlife Federation   

Florida Bird Resources Major Site

Birds - Pictures and descriptions in Florida

Florida Audubon Society

Great Florida Birding Trail  

Great Florida Birding Trail - West Section this is a PDF file

From the web site: "Each of these sites has staff on hand to answer questions about the Trail, kiosks with information about the Trail structure and their visitor centers offer information about birding classes and events occurring across the state. Hop on the Trail at a Gateway and get off to a flying start!"

Christy's Bluebird Project  

Christy is the nice lady in Sarasota County who decided to help bring the Bluebird to the areas south of Ocala.  While Terri and I have been feeding the homely Muscovy ducks like Matilda (see above), the Bluebird Lady has been working hard to establish the beautiful Bluebirds in west central Florida -- a much better choice of birds!  

She offers a perfect project for your children or any group of children on how to build and set out nesting boxes.

Florida's Bat Center  

Which famous Florida university has the most successful bat house in the world? 

Big Cat Rescue  

In Tampa.  Web site is a resource for big cats.   They offer tours.

Nature Net

Venomous Spiders  

Good pictures for identification.  There are two main poisonous spiders in Florida, the black widow and the brown recluse

Pest Web - Yikes a SPIDER or Insect - Help.

What is that SNAKE!!???    

For the Coral snake, don't rely on a poem about where yellow is next to red, just remember: See a BLACK HEAD -- you're dead! 

Coral Snakes and Coral Snake Wannabes Page  

Poisonous Plants  

From Cornell University

In July 2004, there were reports that children were getting poisoned by Angel Trumpet.

Poisonous Plants -- Southern  

Florida Aquarium

DolphinQuest  --- Eco-Tour of Tampa Bay aboard the Bay Spirit  

Tampa Bay Estuary Project

Southwest Florida Water Management District

USGS Water Resources in Tampa Bay

Hillsborough County Lake Atlas

Lots of interesting data.  Its relation to Lake St
Charles is unknown!

Butterfly and Hummingbird Gardens  

Florida Federation of 
Garden Clubs -- Butterfly Sanctuaries   

Turn part of your yard into a butterfly factory -- get a list of what to plant.  

Butterfly Trivia:  The same type of plant in sun or shade will attract different kinds of butterflies. [OK, who said, "yes, those with and without sunglasses."?]

Sarasota Butterfly Club  

Best west Florida butterfly web site.

Gardening with Florida Yards & Neighborhoods  Jan 29

University of Florida's IFAS site has a long list of gardening websites, begin here for all things gardening.  

What is IFAS?  The University of Florida's Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) traces its roots to 1862 when Abraham Lincoln signed the law establishing the nation's land grant university system.  From the IFAS web site:

The University of Florida's Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) is a federal, state, and local government partnership dedicated to develop knowledge in agriculture, human and natural resources, and the life sciences and to make that knowledge accessible to sustain and enhance the quality of human life.  While extending into every community of the state, UF/IFAS has developed an international reputation for its accomplishments in teaching, research and extension. From developing orange juice concentrate to educating tomorrow's leaders, from helping establish agricultural universities in Africa to helping local citizens buy their first home, UF/IFAS is making a difference.

Florida Friendly Landscaping Newsletter PDF  (Feb.4)

A quarterly publication packed with useful articles on landscaping and natural Florida.

My favorite this quarter is their friendly reminder that it is NOT necessary to whack crape myrtles back to the nub like you see so often.  How the practice got started of cutting them off each year is a mystery to me.   Trimming for shaping as with other plants is, of course, OK; and if you just want to cut the plant back that's OK too, it's just not something that is necessary. 

And there is this important fact to further show how useful the newsletter is:

Dragonflies are one of the fastest insects, flying 50 to 60 mph.

USF Botanical Gardens Calendar  

Each year the Gardens have a Spring Plant Festival 
April 9 & 10, 2005  - 17th ANNUAL SPRING PLANT FESTIVAL  Saturday 10am - 4pm; Sunday 10am - 3pm

From the web site: "The largest plant festival in the Tampa Bay area! Visit our own Plant Shop and Book Store plus over 70 vendors offering a huge variety of plants, art, food and drinks!"

Separate from the Plant Festival, try the weekend tours of the gardens.

Ask the EcoFlorida Magazine Editor    

Many short articles answering questions from the public on everything about nature:

Do alligators hibernate?  Are there flying squirrels in Florida?  How do I start a butterfly garden? Do alligators really attack people? And many more, great to browse this overview of the Florida outdoors.

Hillsborough County Extension Service  

Lawns, plants and pests and soils and landscaping, and gardening.   

Buy seeds, plants, and trees  

Florida Department of Agriculture classified ads for buying and selling seeds, plants, and trees.  For most seed items, you send a couple of dollars and a self-addressed, stamped envelope. The seller will send it to you.  I have not tried ordering any seeds from this web site, but it might be a good way to get hard-to-find items.  If you have a cow, you might be able to trade the cow in for some magic beans just like Jack did.

Florida Wildflowers  

Beautiful pictures of wildflowers.    

Plant Database  

Has some of the best pictures for identification of plants.  If the other web sites don't have a good picture, try this site.

The Garden Web

Southern Gardening

Riverview Flower Farm (wholesale, but a good resource and has list of retail stores)

Master Gardner at the Riverview library  The Library Happenings web site has a listing of times.

University of Florida Institute Food and Agriculture Sciences (IFAS)

The granddaddy of all Florida "information and educational materials on issues such as sustainable agriculture, competitiveness in world markets, natural resource conservation, energy conservation, food safety, child and family development, consumer credit counseling, and youth development." 

Better Lawns  

While the site is called Better Lawns, it is about all home garden topics.  

It has well-written articles in Joani's Corner.  

In March she is all abuzz about solo bees.  According to Joani, about 90% of all bees are Solitary Bees.  From the web site: "In Florida we have two types of solitary bees. And you may have a few nesting in your yard right now. This is the time of year that they are building nests and laying their eggs. If you notice a cluster of little mounds of sand about 3" across with a single hole about the size of a pencil, chances are you have solitary bees."  OK Joani, I will go check the back yard ...... hey, you are right, I see them! 

Parks and Gardens in Tampa

National Arbor Day Foundation  

Join and get free trees!

Florida Plant Societies

A World of Orchids

Keep it Green  

In Apollo Beach. Largest selection of hybrid orchids and Bromeliads in the Tampa Bay region

Colorful Talavera Mexican Pottery. 

Invasive Plant List

USF Botanical Gardens

Florida Gardner

Your Florida Backyard

Florida Native Plant Society

Quote Garden   

Florida's Ancient Islands  

The world-famous Lake Wales Ridge.  It's a north-south sand dune that existed at the edge of an ancient ocean..  It can be seen from space -- in the middle of the state or seen on this map.

Changing Florida Shoreline

About 650,000 years ago Florida's Ancient Islands were the only part of peninsular Florida above sea level.   The Lake Wales Ridge is the oldest and highest land in peninsular Florida. 

About 20,000 years ago the water was much lower and  Riverview was about 120 miles from the Gulf coast and in the middle of the east and west coasts.  Florida's shorelines during the past 650,000 years.

Today the Gulf water is just right, exactly at the borders of the state. :) 

One of the best ways to visit the Lake Wales Ridge and its unique treasures is to spend a day at Bok Tower.

From the Florida's Ancient Islands web site:

The Lake Wales Ridge area "shelters one of the largest collections of rare organisms in the world..."

Scrub

It's "scrub has helped to make the Lake Wales Ridge famous and is home to a large number of narrowly distributed plants. In fact, Highlands County, Florida, is ranked 11th in the nation for having the highest number of threatened and endangered species.

Florida's Desert

"Scrub is Florida's version of a desert. Clumps of shrubs, mostly oaks and blueberry relatives, cover the sandy knolls and are interspersed with open patches of bare sand. Lichens often dot the surface. With little ground cover to carry a fire, scrub is maintained by infrequent (every 20-to-80 years) but intense fires.

"Although scrub receives as much rain as other habitats in the state, its well-drained sand allows water to pass through rapidly.... 

Look Up

'Paradoxically, conservation efforts in Florida continue to focus on wetlands, for which the state is more famous, despite the fact that virtually all endangered species in the state rely on upland, rather than wetland habitat.'"

 

Home  Page    Message Board       Index of Links         Top of Page