One of the pleasures of living in Florida is the bird watching, which is so different from that in the North. Not that we don't have our share of blue jays, cardinals and mockingbirds here, but the landscape on any given day is also dotted with ibis, storks, cranes, herons and ospreys.
When we moved into our house 30 years ago, we were routinely visited by coveys of quail. Unfortunately, they disappeared with the growth of the community and loss of habitat. But I still find amazing the flocks like those below (white ibis) that roam the yards in our community.
Once in a while a majestic great blue heron will leave its watery environment and stride through our yard. Recently, a large owl showed up, perched on utility wires near the house. I wish I'd had my camera for both.
I've set myself a new gardening task, which is to take over the fertilizing of my shrubs and trees. Until now I had been using a service, largely because of my previous work schedule. I think I can do a better job to specialize the fertilizing for the variety of plants that range from tropical to northern. To help with the task, I am putting together a notebook calendar that borrows from Web sites. A very helpful site I found is The Garden Calendar based on University of Florida research and expertise. It gives Florida gardeners a monthly guide for what to plant and do in their gardens based on Florida’s climate zones--North, Central, and South . It also includes links to other useful gardening Web sites.
That's all for today.
No comments:
Post a Comment