Fall Colors

Blue Mistflower (Conoclinium coelestinum) and Tiny Spider in the Native Plant Garden

It has been raining here on and off for over a week and while I appreciate that we need the water, I have had a terrible case of cabin fever. I was so sick of gray skies and wet weather. What a relief when I looked outside this morning and saw blue sky and sun! It seemed like a perfect day to go to the State Botanical Garden of Georgia and scout around the native plant garden and the wildflowers growing along the power line easement.

Bee-Fly on Goldenrod

Very Hairy Fly on Goldenrod

Hungry Carpenter Bee on Yellow Crownbeard

Bright yellow swaths of Goldenrod, Camphor Weed and Golden Crown Beard dominated the sunny, open space and the hungry insects fed furiously. Days of rain had kept them from their primary tasks of eating and reproduction. They had to make up lost ground.

Buckeye on Yellow Crownbeard

Mating Fritillaries

At the edges, tall purple Ironweed beckoned to starving skippers.

Silver Spot Skipper on Ironweed

Another Skipper on Ironweed

Down below, tiny Eastern Tailed Blue butterflies the size of my thumbnail danced on the grass, while further down the path a giant Praying Mantis, nearly 5 inches long, swayed back and forth as it tried to focus on its catch. I kept distracting it and it would look at me disapprovingly. I have seen so many mantids since moving here!

Eastern Tailed Blue in the Grass

Praying Mantis 

In the wildflower understory, smaller plants provided additional color and nectar, as well as perches for dragonflies, grasshoppers and a doomed Tussock Moth Caterpillar, parasitized by a wasp.

Pearl Crescent Butterfly on Blue Mistflower

Blue Faced Meadowhawk Dragonfly

Tussock Moth Caterpillar with Wasp Larvae Cocoons

Just about everywhere I looked there was movement and color. What a contrast to the past week!

Gulf Fritillary on Crownbeard

Liatris sp.

I saw bright colored grasses and berries and watched the yellow leaves fall from tall trees. More signs of fall presented in the form of the dried summer flowers. Cotton Puffs of Fireweed seeds hung on dried stems. Spiky thistles. Soft fuzz on Pluchea. Brown River Oats.

American Burnweed (Erechtites hieraciifolius)

Thistle Head (Cirsium sp.)

Fuzzy Pluchea

Dangling River Oats (Chasmanthium latifolium)

At the end of my trip I felt like I'd been treated to a spa session. Nothing lifts the doldrums like blue skies, sunshine and nature's beauty.

Button Asters

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

"It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year…" I've had that tune running through my head all week. But not because the holidays are coming. They're still weeks away. And anyway, I'll have plenty of time for baking and parties in December. No, I'm thinking about Fall! That most wonderful time of the year when the temperatures and humidity drop and the windows pop open and people are sitting out on their porches enjoying the cool, dry air. The time of year when there are outdoor festivals and concerts on every weekend because its so pleasant to be outside. The time of year for migrating birds and butterflies and fall wildflowers! This is the time that Floridians live for. The perfect weather between too darned hot and cold enough that you need a coat. Fall! Spring is pretty great, too, but right now I'm living the moment. And the moment is Fall! Ahh.

Florida Friendly Landscape Tour

One small problem with the Most Wonderful Time of the Year is that, in Gainesville at least, everyone needs to fit their outdoor weekend events into a period of about 2 months. And Fall is further complicated by the Gator Football schedule. People plan weddings and even funerals around the football season here because there are so many people in town for the games that there are no hotel rooms available for miles around. So on a free weekend or away game, there will be so many things scheduled that you can't possibly do all of them. Festivals, Parades, Fun Runs, Nature Walks, Bird Counts, Clean ups, the list goes on. I feel like I've been signed up for most of them and I'm ready for the busy fall season to wind down so I can enjoy it a bit! In the past month I prepped our house to be on a tour of Florida Friendly Yards, sold photos at the Native Plant Sale, worked at the Florida Museum of Natural History Butterfly Fest, led a wildflower Walk at Morningside Nature Center, gave a talk to Alachua Audubon Society about Sharing Nature with Photography, and I have another wildflower walk this weekend. And all this on top of my regular life. Whew!

My Booth at the Native Plant Sale. I got rained out about half an hour later, but the next day was beautiful!

I have no idea why I agreed to do so many things in such a short period. I can only think that when I was saying yes back in the heat of summer, I must have had some memory the vigor and enthusiasm I feel in this most wonderful time, and I let it get a little out of control. But it's fine. It may sound like it, but I'm not complaining. Having too much to do is a whole lot better than the alternative. And there is an upside. Our yard looks marvelous, I bought lots of native plants, and sold some photos. And lately I've been out at Morningside a whole lot, scoping out the possible wildflower walk routes, and that is like a source of self sustaining energy for me. When I get out exploring and hiking and taking photos, I recharge my jets and I'm ready for more. Walking the trails these past 2 weeks made me realize how busy I had become, how my activities were keeping me from getting out in the field, and how much I loved the quiet sounds, the smells and the colors. It is completely soothing, like a nice massage or meditating. All the worries and stresses slip away. Yet again I am reminded that if I just build time out in nature into my life schedule, I'll will be so much happier. Coincidentally, just yesterday I heard a story on the local radio about a health initiative in Washington DC where pediatricians and the Park Service have teamed up to prescribe time out in nature as a therapy! You can read more or listen to the radio spot  here: Health in a Heartbeat--A different kind of prescription.

This is what I look forward to for all year! Summer Farewell in the Sandhill

Fall is really the best time to to see Wildflowers in this part of Florida. You can find flowers in one place or another all year, but fall, especially in the Sandhills, is when you'll see the biggest displays. And the flowers at Morningside this year are gorgeous! They take my breath away, like they do every year. Every year, the conditions are just a little different than the last. There has been more or less rain, cooler or warmer temperatures and the land management team might or might not have been able to burn. One year there may be no real color in a certain area, and then the next, it's splashed with purple. Last year there had been a late season burn in the area I usually lead people through on the walks, and the vegetation was just barely growing back. But in another section of the park, there was Liatris everywhere--purple spears waving in the wire grass. This year the color is white. Acres of Summer Farewell, looking like soft cotton mist, spread all over the sandhill that just last year was newly charred from a prescribed fire. Every year is a surprise.

Summer Farewell--Dalea pinnata

Here are some of the surprises I saw on my walks through the wildflowers at Morningside while I was preparing to guide people. If you would like to come along for a little nature therapy and see some of these wonders on the Wildflower Walk, I will be meeting people in the Morningside parking lot at 9 am on Saturday, October 18. Bring water, bug spray, a hat, and your camera if you're so inclined. It should be a gorgeous morning. If you can't make it to my walk, there will be one more on October 25th. I believe it will be led by Gary Paul, who is a Morningside expert. And you will see why this is the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

Blue Curls--Trichostema dichotemum

Blue Sage (With Beetles)--Salvia azuria

Buckeye Caterpillar on its host plant, Black Senna--Seymeria cassioides

Cloudless Sulphur feeding on Florida Paintbrush--Carphephorus corymbosus

Yellow Crab Spider on Golden Aster--Chrysopsis sp.

Young Buck on the Trail--I took this with my macro lens. He watched me and then stomped his foot a few times to let me know he didn't like me. Then he bounded off with a flip of his white tail.

Delta Flower Scarab on Florida Paintbrush--Carphephorus corymbosus

A profusion of Dog Fennel Flowers--Eupatorium compositifolium

Little bee inside of False Foxglove--Agalinis fasciculata
(FYI--we won't see this one on the route I will take on Oct. 18.)

"Bee Killer" Robber Fly with Bumble Bee prey

Flower Moth on Yellow Buttons--Balduina angustifolia

Golden Orb Weaver Spider that didn't bite me on the face when I walked through her web. I feel a little wimpy because I shrieked and dropped my camera.  She didn't seem too happy with me either, and I can't blame her.

Gulf Fritillary Butterfly feeding on Summer Farewell--Dalea pinnata

Little Orange Caterpillar covered with debris on Yellow Buttons--Balduina angustifolia

Colorful Katydid Nymph on Hawkweed--Hieracium sp.

Long Gayfeather Spear--Liatris tenuifolia

Lopsided Indiangrass--Sorghastrum secundum

Male mosquito feeding on Eupatorium mohrii (Males don't feed on blood. They like nectar!)

Pink Palafox--Palafoxia integrifolia

Procession Flower--Polygala incarnata

Rayless Sunflower--Helianthus radula

Red Banded Hairstreak on Black Senna--Seymeria cassioides

Tattered Tiger Swallowtail feeding on Florida Paintbrush--Carphephorus corymbosus

Southern Toad in a Gopher Tortoise Burrow

Check In

It surprises me how much I've come to love the nature of Florida. I was not born here. This is not my ancestral home. And yet I've come to know it and love it like no other place. I try to get out to walk, observe and explore as often as I can, but when I get busy and can't, I feel anxious, like I'm missing something important. Even when I'm traveling and visiting other places with great things to see, I think about what's happening at home in Florida. I can't wait to get back and see what changed when I was gone. I love the way the flowers and other plants come and go with the seasons. I look forward to the migrating birds--the kites, the hummingbirds, the robins and especially the sandhill cranes. I mark the coming of fall with the rolling calls of the cranes as they fly in from the Great Lakes, and the end of Winter as they head back again in hundreds of V-formations. I relish the changing seasons as the temperatures climb and the humidity sets in, and after enduring summer, how we are rewarded with delightful cool, dry fall; when freezing winter sets in and the ice flowers explode from the stems of dead flowers, and when la Florida earns its name as the flowering shrubs and trees color us into spring. I cherish each day here in this beautiful place.

This has been one of those periods where I have been too busy to get out. I am preparing to leave on a long trip to South America. It will be wonderful, but I've had a lot on my plate trying to get ready and have started feeling the familiar, anxious pull. My favorite places that I haven't seen for what seems like weeks run like a newsfeed through my mind. Are the Kingfishers chattering on La Chua Trail? Can I see one more Harvester Butterfly at NATL before winter hits? Have all the Hummingbirds at Kanapaha Botanical gardens gone south on their migration? I'm headed for great and wonderful adventures in Argentina but I'm anticipating all the things will happen while I'm away. I won't hear the sound of the cranes as they come back to their winter home. I'll miss the migrating warblers. The Garberia is just starting to bloom in our yard. In an effort to check in one more time before December, I grabbed a morning and headed out to Morningside Nature Center to catch one last glimpse of the Fall wildflower colors.  Although it's late in the season, I managed to find a few patches of flowers, but it appears that winter is soon upon us. Much of the brilliant color is done and mostly seed puffs and grasses remain.

Pityopsis Puff

Fingergrass, Eustachys sp.

Foxtail and Crab Spider

I did find some late bloomers--Euthamia and Salvia azuria. The butterflies found them, too.

Blue Sage, Salvia azuria

Euthamia caroliniana and Butterflies

I spied a couple of the last assorted Carphephorus. The crab spiders are taking advantage of tall perches.

Carphephorus paniculatus

Carphephorus corymbosus and Crab Spider

The Buckeye caterpillars have eaten almost all of the Agalinis.

Buckeye Caterpillar eating Agalinis purpurea

Dogs or coyotes running wild in the park left a treat for the dung beetles and I spied this one as he trundled along, working so hard.

Dung Beetle

Now that I've checked in, I think it will be ok to head out and explore new places. And the cranes will still be here when I get back. I wonder if they will have missed me?