When the tide rolls out, it leaves behind more than wet sand. It unveils a secret world—a place of shifting boundaries, strange creatures, and quiet wonders. These places, known as tidal flats, are some of the richest, muddiest, most magical ecosystems on Earth. They’re also one of my favorite places to explore. What Is a … Read more
If you’ve ever walked near a Florida shoreline and looked up, there’s a good chance you’ve seen an osprey—sometimes called a “fish hawk”—circling high above the water, its wings bent like the letter M. With sharp yellow eyes and dark-banded wings, the osprey is one of the most skilled hunters in the sky. It lives … Read more
If you’ve ever crossed the Sunshine Skyway Bridge in late spring or early summer, you might’ve glanced out across the vast sweep of Tampa Bay and wondered what was happening just beneath the surface. Here’s a surprising answer: sharks. Lots of them. Not in a movie-scene frenzy, but in something far older, quieter, and strangely … Read more
As dusk falls and the tide rolls in, the Florida shoreline becomes something more than sand and sea—it becomes a nursery. Beneath the surface, buried in the dunes, tiny sea turtles begin to stir. And as the moon climbs, they emerge in the hundreds, scrambling toward the waves in a fragile, instinct-driven dash for survival. … Read more
Florida’s beaches and backroads hold more than beauty—they hold stories. And for writers, these stories bubble up from the land itself. Abandoned hotels, drowned towns, pirate legends, roadside tabernacles, and oyster shell mounds—it’s all here, just waiting to be turned into fiction.Every rusted sign and weather-beaten boardwalk has a memory baked into it.There are whispers … Read more
Nature isn’t neutral. The swamp has moods—sometimes breathless and waiting, sometimes thick with secrets. The sky carries warnings in the curl of a cloud or the hush before a storm. Trees don’t just provide shade—they lean and whisper, they bear witness. They’ve seen generations pass beneath their branches. I write these spaces the way I … Read more
There’s something unhurried and ancient about the way a manatee moves—like a drifting cloud beneath the water. These gentle sea cows, as they’re affectionately called, are more than just symbols of Florida’s natural beauty—they’re living links to a wilder, slower world. Who Are the Manatees? The West Indian manatee (Trichechus manatus), found in … Read more
It looks soft. Gentle. Innocent, even—like a rosette of green velvet drifting quietly on the water. But water lettuce (Pistia stratiotes) carries with it one of the most curious and controversial stories in aquatic botany. Is it native or introduced? Sacred or invasive? Helpful or harmful? The answer, as with so much in nature, depends … Read more
There’s a place in Florida where the horizon seems to float. Where sawgrass hums with the breath of wind, and herons lift like ghosts above still waters. This is the Everglades—an ecosystem often misunderstood, often threatened, but never quite tamed. It is not a swamp. It is a slow-moving river, twenty to fifty miles wide … Read more
Gliding just beneath the surface of Florida’s coastal waters is a creature so graceful it seems to fly underwater. With wing-like fins and white spots that shimmer against deep indigo skin, the spotted eagle ray (Aetobatus narinari) looks like it was painted by moonlight. I’ve watched them before—near the edge of a sandbar or drifting … Read more