by terranovabay
I spend so much time taking wildlife/nature photographs at the Oslo Riverfront Conservation Area (ORCA) that people must have questions about it. The best place to start is to click here to visit the official ORCA website.
Categories: Nature • Tags: Florida Medical Entomology Laboratory, FMEL, IFAS, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, ORCA, Oslo Riverfront Conservation Area
by terranovabay
Most try to avoid being around the dead but these Common Green Bottle Flies can’t get to a fresh corpse fast enough where they will lay their eggs which hatch within hours so their progeny can dine on rotting flesh. The mortal remains of a freshly killed Eastern Mole, circumstances unknown, found along the shaded trail to the Boathouse at the Florida Medical Entomology Laboratory at the Oslo Riverfront Conservation Area was quite the magnet for innumerable Green Bottle Flies […]
Categories: Nature • Tags: Blow Fly, Common Green Bottle Fly, Eastern Mole, Florida Medical Entomology Laboratory, FMEL, IFAS, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, Lucilia sericata, Mole, ORCA, Oslo Riverfront Conservation Area, Scalopus aquaticus
by terranovabay
The University of Florida Medical Entomology Laboratory (FMEL) and Pelican Island Audubon conservation stewardship class ended this past weekend after six Saturday afternoon sessions. The class featured a tour of FMEL where the latest in mosquito research was showcased and where I channeled my inner Rod Serling to cast the tour photos as sixth dimensional cousins of the The Twilight Zone. In the FMEL Boathouse, Dr. Nathan Burkett-Cadena, a research scientist at FMEL, gives an introduction to FMEL prior to […]
Categories: Dog's Tail • Tags: Florida, Florida Medical Entomology Laboratory, FMEL, Indian River County, mosquito, ORCA, Oslo Riverfront Conservation Area, Pelican Island Audubon Society, Rod Serling, The Twilight Zone, University of Florida
by terranovabay
Dr. Jon Moore’s talk on the herpetofuana of the Oslo Riverfront Conservation Area to Saturday’s FMEL-ORCA conservation stewardship class included a reference to the long neck of the Florida Softshell Turtle (Apalone ferox) that it extends while underwater. Something seen below in the last image. Another trait of these creatures is its long nose that it effectively uses as a snorkel allowing the rest of its body to stay underwater or covered in mud while it lays in wait for […]
Categories: Nature • Tags: Abalone ferox, Florida Medical Entomology Laboratory, Florida Softshell Turtle, FMEL, herpetofuana, ORCA, Oslo Riverfront Conservation Area, Pelican Island National Wildlife Refuge, PINWR, Softshell Turtle, UF, University of Florida
by terranovabay
The 21 February 2015 FMEL-ORCA conservation stewardship class ends my five week stint doing Saturday bird talks for the group. I had a lot of fun doing it and will miss it though I am sure the students would have something different to say — probably happy to be taking a break from my droning on endlessly. Tomorrow’s talk is on Backyard Birds and features this female Painted Bunting (Passerina ciris) clinging to the wire of a bird feeder, along […]
Categories: Nature • Tags: Bunting, Florida Medical Entomology Laboratory, FMEL, ORCA, Oslo Riverfront Conservation Area, Painted Bunting, Passerina ciris, University of Florida
by terranovabay
Dr. George O’Meara, professor emeritus of Physiology and Ecology at the University of Florida’s Medical Entomology Laboratory (FMEL) at the Oslo Riverfront Conservation Area (ORCA) in Vero Beach, Florida, was the guest speaker at the 14 February 2015 FMEL-Pelican Island Audubon conservation stewardship class. His talk on Life in the Pits and the Treetops focused on critters that live in the water that pools in epiphyte plants — the treetop part — and those that live down in the burrows […]
Categories: Nature • Tags: Cardisoma guanhumi, Crabhole Mosquito, Deinocerites cancer, Florida Medical Entomology Laboratory, FMEL, Great Atlantic Land Crab, Mangrove Rivulus, mosquito larvae, ORCA, Oslo Riverfront Conservation Area, Pelican Island Audubon Society, Rivulus, Rivulus marmoratus, UF, University of Florida
by terranovabay
Photos from the FMEL-ORCA conservation stewardship class walk through the overgrown South ORCA scrub on Saturday afternoon, 7 February 2015. I did not hold out much hope of seeing birds, which kept the class focus on the plants, but was happily surprised to see this Black Vulture (Coragyps atratus [Coragyps, “raven vulture” in Greek; stratus, dressed for mourning]) perched atop a dead tree trunk. Note the gaping hole in the trunk, most likely caused by a Woodpecker cavity rotting out. […]
Categories: Nature • Tags: Bald Eagle, Black Vulture, Cathartes aura, Coragyps atratus, Florida, Florida Medical Entomology Laboratory, FMEL, Haliaeetus leucocephalus, Indian River County, Indian River Lagoon, ORCA, Oslo Riverfront Conservation Area, Oslo Road, South ORCA, Turkey Vulture
by terranovabay
At last Saturday’s FMEL-ORCA conservation stewardship class, I talked about birds of prey including the Barred Owl (Strix varia) that I photographed on a local ranch . . . . . . . . and the Great Horned Owl (Bubo virginianus) photographed at Pelican Island National Wildlife Refuge in the process of stealing an Osprey nest for its own use. A question was asked about the hearing ability of Owls, which led me to discover that an Owl’s skull has […]
Categories: Nature • Tags: asymmetrical, Barred Owl, Bubo virginianus, Florida Medical Entomology Laboratory, FMEL, Great Horned Owl, ORCA, Oslo Riverfront Conservation Area, Pelican Island National Wildlife Refuge, PINWR, Strix varia, Treasure Hammock Ranch
by terranovabay
Those who stuck around long enough after the field trip portion of Saturday’s Florida Medical Entomology Laboratory-Pelican Island Audubon Society conservation stewardship class were treated to the sight of two adult Bald Eagles (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) and a juvenile Bald Eagle soaring overhead above the Audubon House located at the Oslo Riverfront Conservation Area. Juvenile Bald Eagles, like the one pictured above, don’t attain the classic Bald Eagle appearance until four to five years of age when they molt into their […]
Categories: Nature • Tags: Audubon House, Bald Eagle, Eagle, Florida, Florida Medical Entomology Laboratory, FMEL, Haliaeetus leucocephalus, Indian River County, ORCA, Oslo Riverfront Conservation Area, Oslo Road, Pelican Island Audubon Society, PIAS, UF, University of Florida, Vero Beach
