Cause of death: ingestion of foreign objects

Some of the contents removed from its digestive tract included:

plastic bags, multiple balloons, band aide, cigarette butt, electrical tape, cloth tape and much more.

Why, you ask do these federally endangered mammals visiting our beautiful coast every year? The pregnant females migrate every fall to the warm coastal waters off Georgia and Northeast Florida to give birth (calving). Then they travel back up north to their feeding grounds.

Right whales are skimmers: they feed by removing prey from the water using baleen while moving with their mouth open through a patch of zooplankton.

Adult Right Whales are generally between 45 and 55 feet in length and can weigh up to 70 tons.

Females are larger than males. Calves are 13-15 feet in length at birth.

There are only around 300 – 400 of these whales left in the world.

Right whales are the rarest of all large whale species and among the rarest of all marine mammal species.

They are injured and killed by boat collisions and getting entangled in fishing gear.

Right whale sightings may be reported to the Marine Resources Council at 888-979-4253.

Weeping Yaupon Holly

Weeping Yaupon Holly (Ilex vomitoria “weeping”) with its festive red berries. Only the female plants will develop berries which are first small white flowers. Grows along the coast all the way inland and is a great understory plant. Great cover and nesting plant.

Southern Red Cedar

Southern Red Cedar (Juniperus virginiana) with bluish rounded cones attract tree swallows, cedr waxwings, mocking birds, yellow-rumped warblers, bluebirds, flickers and yellow-bellied sapsuckers. Perfect specimen tree, provides cover, food and nest sites for birds and other wildlife. Airborne pollen may cause respiratory problems in some people.

Hackberry

Hackberry (Celtis laevigata) deciduous fast growing tree which is attractive to wildlife, including butterflies. And the dark purple/ red drupes attract catbirds, mockingbirds, robins, thrashers, rohees, cedar waxwings, flickers and especially yellow-bellied sapsucker woodpeckers.

Wax Myrtle

Wax Myrtle (Myrica cerifera) is an evergreen, multi stemmed shrub or small tree which is great for cover and nesting. The bluish drupes attract a variety of birds and is the winter host for the yellow-rumped warbler. Airborne pollen may cause respiratory problems in some people.

In May and June the Beautyberry blooms, small sometimes inconspicuous, pink to lavender flowers (see above).

Then by August the flowers are replaced by stems of purplish drupes that last through winter depending on how hungry the fruit eating birds such as Cardinals, Mockingbirds, Catbirds and Thrashers are.

Beautyberries can get pretty big in one growing season (4-8′), then they usually freeze back each winter. They can be severely pruned to maintain a more compact shape.

Great native plant book and sources:

Gardening for Birds

Floridata

My first visit to the new Marineland Dolphin Conservation Center was as a field trip while taking the Coastal Systems Module of the Florida Master Naturalist Program. It was great to walk around their facility and view the dolphins. If you want to swim with the dolphins they provide you with the opportunity (for a fee of course).

However, my husband and I love walking on the beach just south of the park.  There you can find one of Flagler’s many great beaches with ample parking, restrooms and shower.

At low tide the coquina rock formations are exposed and amazing.

On one of our walks this spring we each found a sharks tooth (its a good thing we both found one, or I would have been very jealous). You never know what treasure you might find, but get up and get out and explore this great place we live in.

It flowers from August – March and sporadically thru the year.

They can be found in north Florida (Volusia is as far south) west to Lousiana and north along the coast to North Carolina. It is the only epiphytic (a plant that grows upon another plant (such as a tree) non-parasitically, derives its moisture and nutrients from the air and rain and sometimes from debris accumulating around it) orchid in the US that is found outside of Florida.

The above photo was taken in Palm Coast Linear Park. It had just finished blooming. I spotted my first in the canopy of an oak in Tomoka State Park, Daytona Beach (Volusia). They grow primarily on live oak, but can be found on juniper, magnolia, sweet gum, tulepo and red maple and are often with resurrection fern (brown plant surrounding orchid in above photo).

We don’t use pesticides on our plants, so we have more visitors – good and bad.

Spotted Bee Balm is now in bloom, you can see it on roadsides and disturbed areas. It tends to spread so if you want to add it to your garden be prepared to share it with friends and neighbors after it gets established and seeds. Spotted Bee Balm likes full sun, but tolerates partial shade, especially in the lower south, it is also drought tolerant. It it is very tolerant of salt spray and partial to sandy soil making it great for Flagler Beach yards.

While taking these pictures I for once was bothering the bees.

For more information go to: www.floridata.com/ref/m/mona_pun.cfm

When you are speeding thru life you can miss some amazing things, so slow down and “smell the roses.”

The larvae form can be found chewing on native and nonnative species of Passiflora (host food plant).

I recently noticed the Gulf fritillary flying and landing for a second, then repeating this over and over. Taking a closer look I realized it was laying an egg each time it landed (this time it was on the Passiflora, but another one was on the block house).

Some of the favorite adult nectar sources are Tall verbena (Verbena bonariensis), pentas (Pentas lanceolata), and lantana (Lantana camara)

These photos were taken locally in pesticide free yards. Butterflies don’t like chemicals with their salad, so please keep them in mind before using pesticides in your yard.

For more information on Butterflies and Host Plants check out the below sites:

http://www.floridata.com/tracks/butterfly

http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/topic_butterfly_plants

http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/topic_butterflies

http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/topic_butterfly_gardening