April Shows DO Bring May Flowers – Discovering the Panhandle – Barrier Islands
This month there were many more plants flowering… it is true that April showers do bring May flowers. May not only brings more flowers but more tourists. Everyone is out enjoying the weather, including some wildlife. I was happy to include Florida Master...
Cnidarians: Stinging Nettles of the Animal Kind
“Ouch, something just stung me.” This is a common phrase to hear someone say (I’ve heard myself say it) while enjoying the otherwise soothing waters along our beautiful Gulf Coast. We host an amazing variety of marine organisms that possess the ability to sting when...
3 Ways You Can Help Keep Our Bays Healthy
Following a previous article on the number of ways you can help sea turtles, this week we will look at ways that local residents can help keep our waterways clean. Poor water quality is a concern all over the country, and so it is locally as well. When we have heavy...
5 Things You Can Do to Help Sea Turtles During Nesting Season
It is May and this is the official beginning of the sea turtle nesting season. These ancient creatures have followed this nesting cycle for centuries traveling the open ocean, feeding and resting on reefs, then returning to shore in the spring and summer to breed and...
Identify Cogongrass Now – Look for the Seedheads
We are well into spring and a wide variety of plants are showing off their colorful blooms. As lovely as most of the blooms are, some springtime colors are an unwelcome sight. Such is the case with the showy, white seedhead that is produced by Cogongrass (Imperata...
Insectary Meadows Provide Food for Pollinators and Homes for Good Bugs
Bees have been disappearing at an alarming rate and continue to vanish without a trace. Why should anyone care? Well, they matter a lot more than most people think. Bees are the overwhelmingly dominant pollinator for most food crops. Native bees in the United States...
Does your pond need fertilization?
These days many ponds are just backyard recreational ponds. Management goals vary from owner to another. Some pond owners want very little productivity (very little fish removed). They want little vegetation with just a few fish. This pond is just meant for...
April Showers Bring May… Snakes
This rhyme has been around for decades suggesting that rain increases during the month of April. In recent years the amount we have received has caused local flooding, and most in Escambia County will remember receiving 26” of rain in 24 hours! These heavy localized...
Springtime is “Just Right” for Using Aquatic Herbicides
Similar to Goldilocks’ porridge, water temperature doesn’t need to be too hot or too cold, it needs to be just right for using aquatic herbicides (70o - 80o F). Here in Florida, these optimum water temperatures occur in the spring. Water temperature largely regulates...
“And then it began to rain”… the April edition of Discovering the Panhandle
As we left the winter months and headed into spring I was expecting a lot of new blooms, new animal tracks, and more live encounters with wildlife... and then the rain began. I do not know if the entire panhandle has been getting what Pensacola has but the rain has...