How did this magnificent bird survive Hurricane Ian? — I did not know what to expect when I returned to southwest Florida more than a week ago. Hurricane Ian, a Category 4 storm, devastated our community in late September. Hundreds of houses were destroyed damaged, including my own. Once I surveyed the damage to my house, my wife and…

Who was this now-closed blood bank serving in North Carolina? — I think I found evidence of vampires living in North Carolina. While visiting Brevard, I came across a building that must have been vitally important to some of the most feared residents of the area. My research is incomplete, but I believe Transylvania Trust was a blood bank. The bank…

A Salvia feeding frenzy — I wasn’t planning on photographing hummingbirds yesterday. This season, despite planting more Salvia than last year, we’ve had fewer hummingbirds. We don’t know why, but we’ve missed them. Yesterday afternoon, as I was reading on our porch, a particularly animated hummingbird started browsing the flowers. …

A magnificent bird poses for a special photo — One benefit of kayaking in southwest Florida is the opportunity to see a variety of birds. On a good day, you are likely to see Osprey, Egrets, Blue Herons, Ibises, and an occasional Eagle. Beneath you and your kayak, there may be a manatee or even a dolphin. Smaller fish…

A feast of friends pose for pictures on a morning bird tour — Tired of politics, greed, consumerism, and lies? Spend a morning with the birds. That’s what I did. For more than two hours, a menagerie of colorful and, in several cases, fantastic birds reminded me that despite the pandemic, global warming, racism, it's good to be alive. My outing began this…

A real visit to a spot of ‘Jurassic Park’ I was already 27 years old when I saw my first Pelican. I was in Fort Lauderdale, my first trip to Florida, and saw several squadrons fly by my 12th-floor balcony. I was mesmerized. They looked like something from prehistoric times…

Don’t tell a Ranunculus that it is a poisonous weed — It’s springtime on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, a time of great beauty. That’s where the buttercups come in. A nearby farm has a large field that has become an ocean of yellow. That got my attention. Did the farmer plant them? That seems probable given their dominance. But appearances…

Fouling by fowl is, unfortunately, sometimes unavoidable — My apologies in advance for posting a picture of poop in SNAPSHOTS. I did not set out this morning on a photo expedition with either doggie poop bag dispensers or bird poop in mind. When I encountered this scene, however, something made me stop and snap the picture. At first…

Good thing I photographed him before he flew… —

I watched him feed for ten minutes before shooting him — No gun. My camera. The Limpkin is too beautiful a bird to harm. The day I spotted him peacefully feeding in a Florida marsh, he was almost too beautiful to photograph. …

We will be challenged on how to use our coming bounty We are about to have a berry problem. Thousands of berries are about to ripen in our garden. They will need to be picked within about two weeks. The first couple of berries have already ripened. …

A family of frogs lives in the drainage ditch by my mailbox. If we’ve had rain, they come out to forage for food. In warm weather, they stay safely out of the sun in a storm pipe. These frogs are sensitive to noise and danger. …

The arrival of the tassels means that fresh, sweet corn is on the way — Since mid-May, I have been monitoring the growth of several cornfields just outside our town. Every week or so, I pull my car over, get out, and photograph the plants. I plan to do a photo essay later this year, probably in October, depicting the entire season. So far, the…

Three salvia plants attract a steady stream of acrobatic diners — Ernst Friedrich Schumacher, a German-born British economist is credited with the concept of “Small is Beautiful.” He wrote a book with that title. It’s not about hummingbirds, but it should be. Although hummingbirds are among the smallest of birds, they are also among the most beautiful. Each year, we carefully…

But not of the trouble-making variety — We know them as cattails, reeds, bulrush, sausage tails, and even cumbungi. They grow in wetlands and are edible. Some of us cultivate them while others fight them as invasive weeds. I’ve never eaten a cattail and don’t plan to. My research, however, suggests they can be tasty. Here’s guidance…

Greeters at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum — After more than a year, I returned to the the Chesapeake Bay Martime Museum in St. Michaels, Maryland. The pandemic had kept me away from the museum’s collection of antique boats and the museum’s prize artifact, the 1879 Hooper Straight Lighthouse. …