Seashell Valentine
February 14, 2021 4 Comments
Warm wishes for a Happy Valentine’s Day from Florida!
Nature Photography by Pam & Richard
February 14, 2021 4 Comments
Warm wishes for a Happy Valentine’s Day from Florida!
February 13, 2021 9 Comments
For Christmas Richard got me a BLINK automatic outdoor security camera. Instead of using it for security, we use it to take wireless videos of the birds that visit our feeder. We also put one inside our purple martin nesting gourd. I extracted screenshots from the videos to post here. Love the variety and color of birds right outside our door here in Florida!
February 6, 2021 4 Comments
Malabar Scrub Sanctuary is a protected rare scrub habitat in Brevard County, Florida. It is part of the Space Coast’s Environmentally Endangered Lands program. Visitors come to see rare plants and animals in a beautiful setting. It’s a great place to hike!
January 31, 2021 Leave a comment
We like to grow BIG plants at our home here in Florida. Eight years ago this Pachypodium was only 6 inches tall when we planted it. Now it towers above me! Our agave recently shot up a HUGE flower spike that is over 16 feet tall! Bees love the flowers. Our rare orchid (Laelia moyobambae) has grown a flower spike for over 5 months now, which has peaked at 6 feet tall! It is tied to a frame for stability and raised a bit off the ground for root aeration. The flower head at the top has individual flowers a pretty bronze and purple color. Not much is known about this variety of orchid other than it comes from Peru (http://tropicalplantbook.com/garden_plants/orchids/Laelia/laelia_moyobambae.htm). WOW – we love plants!
January 17, 2021 7 Comments
We especially enjoyed the LEGO art on display at McKee Gardens over the holidays. It was great to see such creative sculptures by talented artist Sean Kenney in “Nature Connects: Art with LEGO Bricks”.
Click on any of the pictures to enlarge and see details about how many LEGO bricks are in the sculpture and how many hours it took to create it. For example, the Polar Bear with Cubs sculpture is the most complex – it is composed of 133,263 LEGO bricks and took 1,048.5 hours to build.
See Sean Kenney’s tour schedule by Imagine Exhibitions at: https://www.seankenney.com/portfolio/nature_connects/ See more of his work at: https://www.seankenney.com/exhibits/
January 12, 2021 5 Comments
Bok’s December Entrance with Holiday Flowers (red impatiens and poinsettias, and white Snow Flake Bush (Euphorbia leucocephala)
Flowers in Bloom Display (Make of it the most beautiful spot on earth where the bird and human can rest and find themselves)
We visited Bok Tower Gardens in Lake Wales, Florida, in December 2020. Lucky for us it is only a day trip from home and it was easy to walk around in isolation. It felt oh-so-good to visit such a beautiful place during the Christmas holidays. https://boktowergardens.org/
November 15, 2020 5 Comments
A full SpaceX crew launched tonight at 7:27 pm EDT here in Florida. Four astronauts are on their way to the International Space Station! WOW – what a spectacular view and achievement!!! Such a beautiful warm evening – the rocket lit up the whole sky. This was the view from our backyard pond in Palm Bay, Florida. Watch full coverage of the Crew-1 mission on NASA TV at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21X5lGlDOfg&feature=emb_logo OR on SpaceX at https://www.spacex.com/
November 1, 2020 4 Comments
Rain showers made our yard lush and green and the flowers happy. Here is a little tour of what we see every day.
June 14, 2020 18 Comments
On Saturday morning in the predawn hour of 5:21 am SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station here on Florida’s east coast. The sight was spectacular – WOW!!! The rocket trail was illuminated by sunlight from below the horizon. The glow in the bottom picture is from the booster return landing on the drone ship “Of Course I Still Love You” offshore, which at that point was 350 miles away! Fifty-eight Starlink satellites and 3 Planet SkySats were sent into orbit. Read about it at: https://www.space.com/spacex-starlink-8-planet-satellite-launch-rocket-landing-success.html and https://www.space.com/spacex-starlink-8-launch-amazing-twitter-photos.html
June 6, 2020 4 Comments
It’s that time of year here in Florida – our Queen-of-the-Night cactus is blooming every evening! This unassuming snake vine cactus (Selenicereus pteranthus), which is unremarkable for most of the year, steals the show in early summer. It is easily propagated because there are rootlets all along the plant. Each bloom opens and lasts only one night. The flowers are the size of dinner plates – wow!
May 25, 2020 Leave a comment
We are so excited to have a pair of great crested flycatchers nesting in our yard! For identification, look for the bird’s pretty lemon-yellow belly. The picture inside the nest box was taken with our tiny Insta360 ONE camera. We could see 3 babies in the nest at the bottom (middle). Surrounding the babies are the flycatcher’s unique nesting materials – lots of feathers and even a bit of black and white fur (upper right). Flycatchers are well known for weaving snakeskins into their nest, and this one has one too – how exciting! The nest also has two round white empty mud dauber pots (top). I wish we had gotten a picture of the eggs – they are creamy brown with purple squiggles on them. Maybe next year! A previous post about flycatchers is at: https://naturetime.wordpress.com/2017/06/17/great-crested-flycatchers-are-nesting/
May 11, 2020 16 Comments
Paired with my other post about Florida’s egrets and other white birds in spring, this post is about herons and dark feathered birds during nesting season. These colorful birds and their babies make me smile!
May 2, 2020 21 Comments
We love our Florida birds, especially in spring. This post shows egrets and other white birds during nesting season, when feathers are plumed and colors are bright. If you are lucky, you will see great egrets, snowy egrets, and cattle egrets together in one big breeding colony – it is quite a sight! Sometimes wood storks and white ibis nest there too!
April 28, 2020 8 Comments
We have so many purple martin babies! Did a backyard count here in Florida and the grand total for our nesting colony is 201 purple martins (107 babies, 22 eggs, and 72 adults). Ages range from eggs to newborn pinkies to older babies with pinfeathers. Love this time of year! Learn more from the Purple Martin Conservation Association at: https://www.purplemartin.org/
UPDATE May 16, 2020: Lots of babies fledging this week! Constant activity at the nesting gourds – great time of year!
April 6, 2020 18 Comments
We love the variety of wildlife in our backyard here in Florida. So much fun!
February 16, 2020 7 Comments
Did you know that vanilla flavor comes from an orchid? Each bean pod of Vanilla planifolia contains thousands of tiny black seeds – these are the black specs in vanilla bean ice cream! Pure vanilla extract in your spice cabinet comes from vanilla beans mixed with water and alcohol. In nature, Vanilla planifolia flowers can only be pollinated by hummingbirds and special bees. For commercial production, the orchids must be pollinated by hand. Orchids get more interesting all the time! Now who is hungry? Read more at: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/vanilla-comes-from_n_5021060
December 24, 2019 14 Comments
Warm wishes from the beach here in Florida for a wonderful holiday and happy new year!
August 9, 2019 16 Comments
We watched a stunning rocket launch yesterday at dawn here on the Space Coast of Florida! An Atlas V rocket blasted off at 6:13 am and successfully placed a communications satellite into orbit. Sunlight from below the horizon lit up the rocket’s exhaust plume and ice particles formed from it at high altitudes. The resulting effect was spectacular space art in the sky – WOW!
July 20, 2019 15 Comments
Snoopy (by Charles Schulz of “Peanuts”) is famous as being a safety mascot for NASA. Since Snoopy was “First Beagle on the Moon”, he went to Iceland with us in June to see where the astronauts trained for the Apollo moon missions. NASA is working in Iceland now testing the latest Mars Rover for the upcoming 2020 mission. Astronaut Snoopy will be a featured balloon in the Macy’s Thanksgiving parade this Fall.
Happy 50th Apollo Moon Landing Anniversary from all of us here on the Space Coast of Florida!
If you want to see what Neil Armstrong’s parents said on the day he was confirmed as an astronaut, you can watch a sweet vintage 5 minute video from “I’ve Got a Secret” at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zd7eWKCOk-A&t=16s
June 12, 2019 23 Comments
Our night blooming cactus put on the best show ever on Sunday night – over 60 huge flowers were in bloom! This snake vine cactus (Selenicereus pteranthus – Princess of the Night) is only 7 years old and grew from a tiny cutting. Moths pollinate the flowers. What a spectacular sight! (click any image to enlarge)
March 2, 2019 5 Comments
We enjoy going to Sebastian Inlet State Park on Florida’s central Atlantic coast. It is a spectacular place to visit! The weather this winter has been especially beautiful. We made this collage of our favorite scenes at the inlet (click on the picture to enlarge and see details). Info and live cam links are available at: https://www.floridastateparks.org/parks-and-trails/sebastian-inlet-state-park
January 21, 2019 5 Comments
Last night (Sunday), January 20, we watched the “Super Blood Wolf Moon” Eclipse. It was stunning! It was “Super” because the moon was passing Earth at its closest point in orbit, so it appeared bigger and brighter than usual. It was a “Blood” moon because it turned coppery-red during the eclipse. And it was a “Wolf” moon because in January the moon is associated with increased wolf activity and howling.
It was a crystal-clear evening here in Florida and the sky was full of stars. The eclipse began at 10:34 pm EST, totality started at 11:41 pm, and the peak coppery-red color appeared at 12:10 am. What a beautiful sight! The next total lunar eclipse will not be visible in the United States until 2022.
January 6, 2019 5 Comments
Bok Tower Gardens in Lake, Wales, Florida, is spectacular over the holidays! The decorations are beautiful at the Pinewood Estate, and the camellias and azaleas are gorgeous too (peak bloom time is January and February). Plus the weather can’t be beat! More info is at: https://boktowergardens.org/christmas/
October 20, 2018 12 Comments
We watched a beautiful launch from Cape Canaveral here on the Space Coast of Florida at 12:15 am on Wednesday morning (October 17, 2018). It was a warm starry night as the ULA Atlas V rocket soared across the sky. The advanced communications satellite successfully reached orbit about 3.5 hours later.
October 7, 2018 4 Comments
The Atala butterfly was thought to be extinct in Florida until a small colony was discovered in Miami in 1979. This beautiful iridescent butterfly was protected and expanded its range over time. We saw this rare butterfly for the first time in Sebastian a couple of weeks ago. The Atala’s only native host for its eggs is the coontie – a small palm-like cycad. If you live in Florida and want to do your part to help the Atala hairstreak butterfly, plant a few low-maintenance coonties in your yard. The butterflies will travel miles to find these host plants by smell! Locally, Busy Bee Nursery in Vero Beach sells coonties and regularly holds butterfly gardening seminars: http://archive.tcpalm.com/specialty-publications/vero-beach/careful-gardener-uncovers-rare-butterfly-species-in-indian-river-county-ep-1233688624-340516281.html
August 12, 2018 6 Comments
We had a beautiful launch of NASA’s new Parker Solar Probe last night. Only a few hardy souls managed to be up watching at 3:31 am for the second night in a row (first night was scrubbed). Nevertheless it was spectacular! The night was very humid with heavy water vapor in the air. Can’t wait to see what discoveries will be made about the sun! As a bonus, I saw a Perseid meteor streak by below the arc of the launch. Wow! Read about the solar probe at: https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-ula-launch-parker-solar-probe-on-historic-journey-to-touch-sun
June 9, 2018 27 Comments
Our night blooming cactus was in its full glory this week – 30 HUGE flowers opened at once! It was spectacular! In the old days of Florida people would have parties in the evening centered around the blooms. Our snake vine cactus (Selenicereus pteranthus – Princess of the Night) was grown from a cutting planted only 6 years ago!
May 19, 2018 9 Comments
Mama raccoon in our Florida backyard now has four little babies – what a handful! The babies play, wrestle, and roll around together. They are like puppies, except they climb. One time I caught them swinging in the hammock at night for fun! I was surprised to go outside recently and see this baby raccoon inside the bird feeder. Even so, they are really cute.
UPDATE JUNE 2018: A raccoon made the national news because she climbed a 25 story skyscraper in Minnesota! Read about it at: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/13/us/mpr-raccoon-building-climb.html
May 12, 2018 10 Comments
Our purple martins are nesting now. So many birds – it is the best year ever!!! Purple martins are here in Florida from about January to July, and spend the rest of the year in Brazil. Current totals are 20 nests containing 63 babies, 50 eggs, and 42 adult birds (one pair is on the verge of laying eggs) — grand total 155! Wow! Many of the babies are in the process of hatching, and a couple of nests contain older nestlings. The tiniest babies are called pinkies, for obvious reasons. One stumper is the nest containing 10 eggs; normal is 4-6. We don’t know if it is a re-nesting attempt after the first eggs didn’t hatch, or another bird laid in there too. Love this time of year! More info is at: https://www.purplemartin.org/
February 8, 2018 12 Comments
On Tuesday I watched an epic SpaceX Falcon Heavy launch at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. It was incredible! I had purchased the “Feel the Heat” package to view liftoff from the closest public viewpoint at the Apollo/Saturn V Center at KSC (only 3.9 miles from launch pad 39A across the Banana River). We could hear and feel the rumble of takeoff when the engines ignited and everyone wildly cheered!
While we waited in the viewing stands, we were entertained by Bill Nye “The Science Guy”. Earlier we got the chance to walk on the shuttle runway. The runway is so long (~3 miles) that you can’t see from one end to the other because of the curvature of the Earth. Locals call it a “gator tanning facility”, because alligators like to warm up in the sun on the concrete.
This launch was the historic demonstration flight of the world’s most powerful rocket. It launched from the same pad used by the Apollo moon missions. Nestled inside the rocket was Elon Musk’s personal red Tesla roadster, including a dummy driver named Starman in a SpaceX astronaut suit. Usually demonstration flights include demo payloads like a block of cement as weight, but Elon Musk wanted to make it more interesting. And he certainly did, based on camera images beamed from the roadster! My favorite one, which simply looks unreal, is a picture of the car after payload release showing Starman driving the bright red cherry roadster through space with Earth in the background. Until the batteries give out, the song “Space Oddity” by David Bowie will play on the car’s stereo. A display panel in the Tesla says “Don’t Panic” – a reference to the sci-fi classic book “A Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”. Ultimately the Tesla roadster will endlessly loop around the sun for billions of years in an orbit past Mars and the Asteroid Belt.
As if all of that wasn’t enough, just as thrilling was to see the twin side boosters simultaneously descend to Earth and land on target at Cape Canaveral. Their speed was so great they generated double sonic booms. The third core stage was set to return to the drone ship “Of Course I Still Love You” in the Atlantic Ocean offshore. Unfortunately the core crashed into the water near the platform. But that was a minor hiccup in an otherwise flawless and amazing spectacle. WOW!
The space center seems to be booming lately with private enterprise, and it is exciting to see new projects in the works. Hopefully these launches capture people’s imaginations about future possibilities! A great article about the launch is at: https://spaceflightnow.com/2018/02/07/spacex-debuts-worlds-most-powerful-rocket-sends-tesla-toward-the-asteroid-belt/
If you would like to visit Kennedy Space Center (highly recommended), learn more at: https://www.kennedyspacecenter.com/
Click on any of the pictures to enlarge for more detail.