Linear view vs. Masonry View

Visiting the Past

Tatum House
Painting of Tatum House
Curious Deer
Carolina Wren (Thryothorus ludovicianus)
Red-shouldered Hawk (Buteo lineatus)
Yellow-crowned Night Heron (Nyctanassa violacea)
Squirrel with Nesting Material
No Time to Waste
Woven Rainbow
Creeping Oxeye (Sphagneticola trilobata)
Caesarweed (Urena lobata)
Bobcat Scat
Racoon Scat
Tropical Soda Apple (Solanum viarum)
Alligatorflag (Thalia geniculata)
Myakka River Watershed
Cracker Cowboy Sculpture
Boop
Cracker Cabin Replica
Morning Harvest
Goat Bathing

After my brief tour of Myakka River State Park I headed down a country lane to the slowly disappearing town of Old Miakka. My destination was the Crowley Museum & Nature Center for a taste of Old Florida.

A small nonprofit cares for 191 acres of along the Myakka River, preserving the ranching landscape of early settlers. Tours of the property are self-guided so I started with the Tatum House, a historic home that was moved to the Center from neighboring Sarasota to save it from demolition.

Built in 1889, the house was a decent size for the era, though it’s hard to imagine a house that size holding a family with 11 kids!

After the house, I stopped in the yard to give Sweet Pea (one of the resident pigs) a quick scritch behind the ears. Then I moseyed over to the boardwalk. It just recently opened after a full rebuild, thanks to devastating damage caused by Hurricane Milton two years ago.

Then I toured the Cracker exhibit in the old barn, an informative display about the first cowboys in the United States. Growing up out West with all the cowboy lore it’s easy to presume that’s where they began. However, since the first cattle in America were brought over by the Spanish when they landed in La Florida in 1521, it makes sense that the first cowboys came from here too.

A few friendly goats helped me wrap up my visit – definitely a enjoyable morning.

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Bathing Beauties

Limpkin
Great Egret
Wild Turkeys
Black Vulture
Turkey Vulture
Bald Eagle

Last week I left before dawn and drove down south to explore. My ultimate destination didn’t open until 10am so I decided to swing through Myakka River State Park first.

There was a line of cars waiting patiently for the park to open at 8am. Good thing I wasn’t there for alligators, as I didn’t see a single one. Once the rainy season starts to fill the watershed, they spread out across the park’s 37,0000 acres.

Since sunrise was 30 minutes earlier, the first flurry of hunting and scavenging was over and most of the birds were absorbed in their postprandial ablutions.

A pleasant start to the day…
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Watery Ways

Rooftop View of Tampa Bay
Sparkly
Shimmer
St. Pete Mascot
Paddling Downtown
Sandbar Shallows

Uncharacteristically, Florida has decided to participate in Fall this weekend. Since that nor’easter is bringing us cooler, dryer weather I have a bunch of outdoor plans.

Sadly though, most of them are yard and house chores that I’ve been delaying because of the heat. So, I thought I’d share photos from the beginning of the month when I had time to play.

Started that weekend with yoga on the rooftop of St. Pete’s newest, old hotel. The Cordova Inn is an innovative property that blends new amenities with a historic building (and welcomes locals for special events).

From the top I caught a glimpse of Tampa Bay, the water I would later be kayaking with friends. We launched from the municipal marina downtown and paddled out to a sandbar just offshore. As we relaxed in the shallow water a dolphin cruised by, a ray made a splashy jump, we found some living sand dollars and even a small sea star.

Just another great weekend in St. Pete!
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More than a Mural Tour

By Ernesto Maranje
Florida Wildlife Corridor Poster
By Johnny Vitale
By Mize
By Dulk Part 1
By Dulk Part 2
By Cristi Lopez
By Ricky Watts
The Panther and Egret, Ernesto Maranje

Every second Saturday galleries and art studios stay open late in St. Petersburg. This month I joined a mural tour centered on works in the warehouse district, just south of downtown.

Our tour was hosted by the Florida Wildlife Corridor, which runs Wild Space Gallery. The motivation behind the gallery is that art can help us relate to, appreciate, and even fall in love with nature – all of which will hopefully encourage us to protect it.

Our guide, Jenee Priebe, former director of the Shine Mural Festival, is a passionate supporter of the arts and her energy was contagious. All the murals and public art around town are part of why I love this area. Since its inception in 2015, the Shine festival has added 199 colorful murals and they aren’t done yet.

The evening was bracketed with murals by Ernesto Maranje, a self-taught painter from south Florida. I was absolutely captivated by his most recent work, The Panther and Egret. While the basic shape of the panther is easily identifiable from a distance, Ernesto has the outline dissolve into the swamp and forest, as though one is not separable from the other. An even closer look reveals a myriad of other Florida natives that rely on this shared environment.

Hopefully the Florida Wildlife Corridor can expand protections for these important wild spaces…
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It’s a Growing Concern

09-2026

Thought I’d share what my yard looks like now compared to when I bought the place six years ago.

09-2020
02-2021

It was a neglected weedy lawn but I’ve always liked a challenge. I’m pretty proud of how it’s turned out. It makes my heart happy that birds, bees, and other wildlife consider it home as well.

For the record, I do not have an irrigation system. I sculpted my yard with berms and swales to take advantage of rainwater. These are drought tolerant plants (mostly native) that not only survived saltwater flooding two years ago but our recent five month drought. Since rainy season started they are absolutely thriving…
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Protein for Breakfast

I feed the birds first thing each day. What began five years ago with one feeder has evolved into two feeders (one in the front yard, the other in the backyard) and a crow station.

Crows will eat most anything (dumpster divers that they are) and two years ago I noticed them stealing the crunchy food I put out for the neighborhood cats. So, I built a little platform for their own serving of cat food (hoping they’d leave my furry friends’ portion alone).

Now, every morning crows perch on the power lines overhead, impatiently waiting for me before descending on the platform and scooping up protein-rich bits. After the big birds fly off, jays, grackles, and starlings swoop in to grab whatever crumbs are left behind.

However, this was not a typical morning. Shortly after feeding I heard the crows making an unusually loud ruckus. So, I stepped back outside to see what the fuss was all about. Boy, was I surprised!

Not only was a White Ibis on their platform daintily eating their cat food but my crows, which clearly outnumbered him, were doing nothing about it. Crows are known bullies so I found this rather interesting. Apparently ibis is above crow in nature’s pecking order. Who knew?

The other thing I found odd was how the ibis knew about the free buffet. I occasionally see ibises in my yard, poking around in the soil looking for bugs and small reptiles. But until today, I hadn’t noticed them near my feeders.

If this keeps up I wonder what kind of feeder I’ll have to build next…
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Myakkahatchee Morning

Myakkahatchee Creek
Turkey Tails
Christmas Lichen
Not Lichen
Foliose Lichen
Moss
Deer Prints
Chokeberry?
Marsh Rabbit (Note Small Ears and Dark Fur)
Eastern Cottontail Rabbit (Note Large Ears and White Tail)
Zebra Longwing
Lubber
Beautyberry
Raptor Feather
She Spun a Rainbow
Wild Webs
‘Headless’ Red-shouldered Hawk
Red Water of the Myakka River

I took advantage of a relatively cool morning last week to explore a couple nature areas that have long been on my list. I started at the Myakkahatchee Creek Environmental Park.

I arrived a bit later than planned thanks to Sarasota’s ever worsening traffic issues. The sun had already chased away most of the low lying fog by the time I hit the trail. Excepting some wildlife, I had the place to myself which was relaxing and yet, for reasons that I couldn’t explain, also a bit haunting.

I later learned that the land had been part of a large, planned housing development in the early 80s. That plan was scuttled after earth moving equipment uncovered ancient artifacts and human remains. Brief archaeological surveys of the land revealed it to be the site of a large Manasota village.

Though never fully excavated, thankfully someone realized the site was worth saving. It contains evidence of human occupation stretching back 10,000 years but most importantly, it is a rare inland village (all other major village sites were located along the coastlines of Florida). Though the creek looks small now, back then it was a major transportation route from the Gulf, some 20 miles west.

Now the 160 acres are protected. According to state records, with the exception of a mere handful, hundreds of archaeological sites have been “lost” (aka bulldozed and destroyed) in Sarasota county.

On my way to my next destination, I made a quick stop at the entrance to another important archaeological site. Little Salt Spring is a small, 250′ deep, anoxic cenote (sinkhole) which has preserved human and animal remains as well as other typically perishable detritus. The majority of the artifacts recovered from the depths date back 7,000 to 12,000 years.

The 112 acre site was gifted to the University of Miami in 1982 for ongoing research and protection. Beyond the insights that can be gleaned from this treasure trove of organic matter there is the question of how. How did all these people (at least 44 individuals thus far) and animals wind up in this sinkhole?

Did they just fall in? Possibly, in the case of the animals (think Pleistocene megafauna, like Giant Ground Sloths and Saber Tooth Tigers). Though not likely in the case of the human remains. The discovery of two greenstone pendants, which were not sourced locally, hint at ceremonial burials. For a quick look behind the scenes, check out this short video by one of the researchers, Steve Koski.

My last stop was Sleeping Turtles Preserve, a long, narrow strip of protected land that meanders along the western edge of the Myakka River. The slow moving water, darkened by tannins from overhanging vegetation, acted as a mirror and I spent some time capturing reflections.

As the sun burned off the clouds and the temperature rose I reluctantly returned to my car and headed home. There is so much more I want to explore in Florida (though maybe not in the middle of a hot and humid summer)…

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