Red-tailed hawks are common in the Lost River Valley. They hunt from high perches over the open fields and swoop down to capture prey with a controlled dive and outstretched legs and talons.

Every spring I look out my kitchen window to see purebred Angus cows with their calves grazing in Branson's lush green pasture next door.

Lost City School. In 1892, Lost City became the site for a tannery, which requires water, wood for furnaces, and tannin from the bark of chestnut oaks. The town had 17 houses, stores, a barber shop, hotel, movie house, dance hall and a funeral parlor. Today, the old school is a community center which distributes clothing to families in need.

Brown Thrashers are secretive and hard to spot in their favorite dense thickets and shrubs. They are exuberant singers, like the Northern Mockingbird, with a repertoire of more than 1,000 different song types.

The Eastern Phoebe is a plump songbird with a medium-length tail. It consumes vast quantities of flying insects including wasps, bees, flying ants, moths, and butterflies.

Ann's garden

Robins build a bowl-shaped nest made of twigs and mud, lined with dry grass. The female sits on the nest to incubate the eggs and, later, the nestlings. This nest is above a window at the yoga barn. Eggs take two weeks to hatch and chicks fledge two weeks later. That should be around June 26. Good timing!

Barn in Fancy Gap

Meet Freddy, son of Fritzi

Canada Geese mate for life and the young goslings remain with their parents for their entire first year. Families feed on grasses, seeds, and berries. Flying in V-formation, northbound in spring, southbound in fall, Canada Geese signal the changing of seasons.

Florida Blue Jays are one of the loudest and most colorful birds of eastern back yards and woodlots. They are the first to sound an alarm about a Cooper's Hawk in the neighborhood. They will even attack hawks and owls by “mobbing” them, causing such a ruckus that other songbirds heed the warning about the raptors’ presence.

Florida’s central Atlantic coast has 35 miles of hard-packed sand that is great for wheels and walking.

Birds' feathers require constant care through preening and bathing to remove dirt and parasites that can cause infection and disease. Birds prefer shallow water they can splash around until their bodies are just wet enough. After dampening the feathers, birds preen to loosen dirt and keep feathers soft and flexible for flying.

Main Street, Safety Harbor

Gopher tortoises can live 40 to 60 years in the wild, spending 80% of their time near their burrow, feeding on low-growing plants in their environment. They nest and lay eggs in sunny locations near the entrance to their burrow. Gopher tortoises are ectotherms, depending on their burrow to maintain body temperature. The primary threat to the gopher tortoise is loss of habitat from urbanization and land development.

From Harbor Dish art mural. This organization works with local farmers, restaurants and other businesses to make healthy food for people in need so they may dine with dignity in a warm and welcoming environment.

This is a female Boat-tailed Grackle. Its male counterpart is glossy black. These grackles have long V-shaped tails, like the keel of a boat. They are gregarious birds with loud abrasive calls. They feed on small crustaceans, insects, lizards, and frogs.

Male anoles, in order to lure in females for breeding, puff their throats out as they bob their heads and do push ups.

The Mourning Dove, one of the most common birds from Canada to Mexico, breeds prolifically. A pair mates for life and may raise up to six broods per year.

Safety Harbor Pier

Main Street

Nora

The Laughing Gull, named for its call which sounds like someone laughing loudly, has long wings and looks graceful when flying. It has a black head white arcs around the eye. In breeding season, its beak and feet are red.

The Karol Hotel

A male Carolina Wren sings at first light. He has a repertoire of several different song variations and will sing one about 15 times before changing his tune.

A Zebra Longwing Butterfly emerges from its chrysalis. The life cycle, from egg to caterpillar to butterfly, takes about three weeks. When a caterpillar hatches from an egg, it eats voraciously for several days, then pupates (forms a chrysalis). During the next two weeks, the chrysalis transforms into a butterfly. After the butterfly emerges, it expands its wings and dries off, then flies off to forage for food (flower nectar and pollen).

Mangroves stabilize coastlines by reducing erosion from storm surges, currents, waves, and tides. The root system attracts juveniles of thousands of fish species. Mangroves also absorb and store carbon long term, making them a critical solution in the fight against climate change.

Dedicated in 1977, the Safety Harbor Gazebo serves as a Main Street gathering spot.

Daytona Beach

The Barn Owl has a distinctive white, heart-shaped face and dark eyes. It roosts in high places such as barn rafters and church belfries, preying on mice, rats and other small mammals at night. This Barn Owl resides at the Moccasin Lake Raptor Sanctuary.

Moccasin Lake Raptor Sanctuary provides permanent care for over thirteen species of raptors. It also provides community education and manages urban osprey nesting platforms throughout the county.

Florida's ample freshwater and the temperate climate explain why it is the most diverse turtle state in the U.S.

Safety Harbor Marina

Manatee at the Safety Harbor Pier. Manatees are an aquatic relative of the elephant. They graze on sea grass which helps maintain the health of shallow rivers, bays, estuaries, canals and coastal waters.

Swallow-tailed Kites spend most of their time in the air, capturing and swallowing their food in flight. Rarely flapping their wings, they soar and make tight turns, rotating their tail to steer.

Great Crested Flycatchers stay high in the tree canopy to avoid competition with other birds so they are difficult to see from the ground. The male has a gray throat and breast and a bright lemon-yellow belly.

While not as slender as a typical heron, the Yellow-crowned Night-Heron’s sharp black-and-white face and long yellow plumes lend it a touch of elegance. They forage at all hours of the day and night, stalking crustaceans in shallow wetlands

Fisherman, Safety Harbor Pier

Dog walker, Safety Harbor Marina

White Ibises forage by walking slowly in shallow water, sweeping their bills from side to side and probing at bottom, finding food by touch. They also forage on land, especially on mud or in short grass.

Northern Mockingbirds continue to add new sounds to their repertoires throughout their lives. A male may learn around 200 songs throughout its life.

Alligator Lake

The oldest recorded Great Blue Heron was over 24 years old.