Vacation Post- South Florida

Greetings to all from sunny Florida! For a Naturalist, Florida is a land of contrasts: incredible wildlife and sprawling, habitat destroying, development. Winter bird feeders can have gorgeous visitors like this Painted Bunting

Invasive species on the other hand are a big problem, as this link on the latest research on Burmese Pythons in the Everglades explains: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/environment/article15399467.html

During my time here I visited local nature centers, restored wetlands (Green Cay and Wakodahatchee), wildlife management areas and I even went down to the Dry Tortugas, 70 miles west of Key West, for several days. Below are a few of the highlights. Soon it will be time to head back to Colorado and recalibrate to a spring that is just arriving.