We are experiencing a very hot and dry summer this year. Our annual flowers need to be watered once or twice a day and even our many native plants are often drooping.
It is therefore rather appropriate that we recently installed a rain barrel. Not only does it provide a little relief from a probably astronomical water bill, but it also keeps some storm water out of the sewers.
One decent rainfall fills up the barrel and the overflow diverts back into our downspout. The rain barrel has a cover because we do not want to to breed mosquitoes in it. And the barrel’s earth tone even matches our house. The way things are going with the heat we might even purchase a second barrel to take even greater advantage of the occasional rainfall. The only downside is that we’ll have to store them indoors or in the garage over winter.

On our last day in Florida we headed to Six Mile Cypress Slough Preserve in Fort Myers. While less famous than the other reserves we visited, our walk was very fruitful. The 1.2 mile boardwalk began at the Gator Pond, where we indeed saw two immature alligators. Across the pond, a wood stork landed in a tree. Double-crested cormorants rested on a platform in the pond while we spotted a common moorhen at the water’s edge just a few feet from our overlook. As the sun grew hotter, we were grateful that much of the boardwalk wended through the woods. At one overlook we were amazed to watch an anhinga as it beat a fish on a branch repeatedly, probably to make it easier to swallow. An ibis landed in a tree next to a pavilion surrounded by people, oblivious to them.
It was amazing how tame all the wildlife was. While I was glad that I was not carrying my tripod and long lens (due to exhaustion) I regretted that decision when we observed a pileated woodpecker hammering at a tree just a few feet from the boardwalk. Oh, hindsight!
All in all, we spotted: Great egret; wood stork; anhinga; double-breasted cormorant; alligator; common moorhen; red-bellied and pileated woodpecker; white ibis; vultures; turtle; and a water snake. I have never been able to identify two small species in the woods. Perhaps they were warblers.
All in all, this preserve was an unforgettable experience during an amazing trip.

Last week, we spent several days in the Fort Myers area of Florida. On the second day, we headed to Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary. We soon learned to join groups of people with binoculars. Our first surprise was a Pileated Woodpecker in a tree next to the shelter, entirely oblivious of people.

Since I am a public speaker covering backyard habitats, it is very important that I keep up on my reading about environmental topics. There are few books which have influenced my husband and me as much as Douglas W. Tallamy’s “Bringing Nature Home: How You Can Sustain Wildlife with Native Plants.”
This book is my bible now and I often mention it during my presentations. I can attest that we detect more and more insects in our yard, the more native plants we are planting.
Professor Tallamy discovered that our native insects cannot digest alien plants. Alien plants are any plants which were, accidentally or on purpose, introduced into the United States. These “aliens” often bring with them alien insects (e.g. the marmorated stinkbug as a recent example). Alien plants do not provide any host plants for native insects, and thus are not part of the natural food chain.
A large part of the book focuses on plants you should plant to create a healthy habitat. The back of the book lists the plants by geographical area.
I highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in gardening.