February 22. There is no doubt in my mind that the annual Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC) is the most impressive citizen science endeavor in the world. Run by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Audubon, and Canada’s Bird Studies, the GBBC rallies global birders to go out and bird, submitting checklists of their sightings. This…

February 5, 2016 You wouldn’t think that manatees and power plants go together. Manatees are gentle mammals, nicknamed “sea cows.” Herbivores, they chew on aquatic plants as they slowly float and paddle from one place to another. Power plants are, well, power plants. Large industrial structures, they sport huge smokestacks spouting steam into the sky while…

January 22, 2016 As the new blogger for the Florida State Parks system, I have been traveling to different state parks to describe what it’s like to visit them for the first time. Usually I’m on the look-out for different bird species, but at Hillsborough River State Park outside of Tampa, it was the lizards…