Palm Beach Business.com

09/24/2024

A little fall color on a plant commonly called winged sumac, Rhus copallinum, which reminds me of home back in Western Pennsylvania. Photo taken at the Dupuis Wildlife and Environmental Area near Lake Okeechobee.

09/17/2024

You're barreling down through JW Corbett WMA (joke here. If you're going more than 5 mph on that road, good luck), rain is pouring down and this guy "darts" in front of you, what do you do? Get out of your car, get soaked and move him to side. But first, take a pic. BTW he's a striped mud turtle, Kinosternon baurii. https://wildsouthflorida.com/striped.mud.turtle.html

09/14/2024

09/11/2024

Taking a second look at Martin County's Halpatiokee Regional Park

09/07/2024

Thinking of cooler times to come: The South Fork of the St. Lucie River as photographed from Halpatiokee Regional Park in Stuart last January. Halpatiokee happens to be the Seminole word for alligator waters and indeed there are alligators abiding in the St. Lucie. Across the way is Atlantic Ridge Preserve State Park.

08/20/2024

Blackberry blossoms spotted along the trail at Allapattah Flats in Martin County. Reminds us of our days growing up in Pittsburgh picking blackberries at the KQV transmitter where our dad worked. These are sand blackberries, one of three blackberry species found in South Florida. Don't know the species of the blackberries we picked, but we certainly enjoyed eating them.

08/05/2024

Narrowleaf blue-eyed grass, an iris that looks delicate but is tough enough to be used as a ground cover. Photographed at Haney Creek Trail in Stuart.

07/04/2024

This is one of those wildflowers that can be easily overlooked. But when you see it up close you know why it's called showy milkwort. Photographed at Tradewinds Park in Broward County.

06/25/2024

The huge eyes of a black horsefly, Tabanus stratus. Horseflies generally rank among my least favorite insects. They are massive as flies go, and have scissor-like mouth parts that they use to cut into your skin and draw blood, then lap up your blood using a sponge-like body part called a labella. And then you have an itchy welt for weeks. Fun. Photographed at Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge in the Cypress Swamp.

06/05/2024

This is another one of my favorites, a small, unassuming flower called toadflax (there are two species of toadflax, Florida and Canadian, and it's beyond my skill level to tell the two apart). It's so small you could find yourself in a field full of them and not notice. But if you do happen to notice, you've found one cool plant. Photographed at Seacrest Scrub Natural Area in February.

06/04/2024

Dark flower scarab doing its thing on purple thistle at Jonathan Dickinson State Park. Came across him at the end of a day's hike.

04/29/2024

Tolumnia bahamensis, aka Florida dancing lady orchid. The plant only grows in Palm Beach and Martin County, and at one time was so rare that the number of plants known could be counted on your hands, probably with fingers left over. Still rare, but efforts are being made to restore it.

04/27/2024

Little things that catch your eye: Rambur's Forktail damselfly resting on a bed of duckweed.

04/27/2024

Osprey over Castillo de San Marcos and the Matanzas (Massacre) River. Few birds more photogenic than an osprey in flight!

03/27/2024

Sometimes size matters ...

03/04/2024

THIS IS NOT A DRILL - We have eggs. We repeat...we have eggs. 🥚🥚🦅🦅

The first egg at the National Conservation Training Center (NCTC) eagle cam nest was laid last week, on Tuesday, February 27th. The second egg was laid on the afternoon of March 1st.

The female bald eagle will spend the most time incubating the eggs, but the male will incubate as well. After about 35 days, if the pair is successful keeping the eggs warm and safe from predators, they will hatch. Bald eagle pairs will defend their nests from predators like owls, hawks, mammals and even other bald eagles.

Follow the National Conservation Training Center page for all the eagle cam updates.

Photo from the NCTC Eagle Camera

02/17/2024

Common love bug, Plecia nearctica, photographed one day late at the Hobe Sound National Wildlife Refuge.

02/17/2024

What's for dinner? An unfortunate moorhen. At Green Cay

02/14/2024

Coming at you ... Red-shouldered hawk taking off at Green Cay Nature Center. This is a male red-shouldered; his mate was in their nest behind me either sitting on eggs or watching some very young offspring.

02/12/2024

Perfect light. Caspian tern on the hunt at Green Cay.

02/08/2024

Zig-zag bladderwort, Utricularia subulata, one of the deadliest plants on earth — if you're a microscopic critter. It is a carnivore, but unlike a Venus flytrap, the flowers — which might be an eighth of an inch across max — aren't the killing part. Instead, it has tiny bladders attached to its roots that do the job. The bladders are open, armed with trigger-like hairs that cause them to shut when disturbed. What's ever in the bladder stays in the bladder, dies and decays, becoming nutrients for the plant. This allows zig-zag bladderwort to live in nutrient-poor soils. Two more things about it: it gets the common name from its stolons, or underground stems, that grow in a zig-zag pattern. The flowers on zig-zag bladderwort can produce seeds the old fashioned way, through insect pollination, or on their own without ever opening up. Word for the day, cleistogamy.

02/01/2024

South Florida's answer to Victoria Falls. Vertical drop must be at least a foot! Magnificent ain't it? Ok, it's part of a drainage ditch, but it still counts, doesn't it? Photographed at Atlantic Ridge Preserve State Park near Stuart, Martin County.

01/27/2024

Scarlet rosemallow, Hibiscus coccineus, photographed at Green Cay in Boynton Beach, Palm Beach County on Jan. 15. These plants usually die back in late September and go dormant until April or so, but a small cluster of them not only have stayed green, they bloomed continuously through the fall and so far this winter. Strange.

11/23/2023

Happy Thanksgiving to all my friends and family! (This Osceola turkey is thankful for county parks, where hunting isn't allowed!)

07/16/2012

Delray Beach, Caron Foundation consider settling lawsuit

http://www.pbbusiness.com/delray.beach.caron.foundation.consider.settling.07-15-12.html

Delray Beach and the Caron Foundation are on the verge of settling the drug rehabilitation centers lawsuit challenging city ordinances that limit so-called sober houses in residential neighborhoods.

06/08/2012

Take Heed, Prometheus and other odds and ends

Take Heed, Prometheus and other odds and ends http://conta.cc/MoKFD2

That in a sentence is the first ever Seek in the City scavenger hunt that the nonprofit council of the Delray Beach Chamber of Commerce has planned for Saturday. As many as 50 teams of five members each will using clues to scour find local landmarks and businesses.

06/01/2012

The Outlook - More Heat (Maybe) Boca Blast and Bon Iver

The Outlook - More Heat (Maybe) Boca Blast and Bon Iver http://conta.cc/L9kfpp

Productive Mondays, 8:30 - 10 a.m., TED Center, 401 W. Atlantic Avenue Suite O9 Delray Beach. A Business Networking Group for Serious Business Owners. Bring your Business Cards, Brochures, Scheduler/Appointment Tool.Be sure to have a 30 second elevator speech ready and identi…

05/28/2012

Palm Beach Business.com

The paper for May 28,2012

05/28/2012

The paper for May 28,2012