RHPhotoAdventures and Hiking Club

10/23/2026

A little update for my hiking and photo group friends: as many of you know, in addition to my full time job as a mental health clinician, I’m also in a full time masters program at FGCU. To say life has been busy is an understatement.

But the weather is cooling off! It’s time to dust off our cameras and find our favorite hiking shoes. Life may be chaotic, but nature brings peace and happiness so it needs a prominent place in life! 💚

So this weekend, I’ll be putting some hikes and photo walks on the calendar.

Let me know if there’s some place you’ve been wanting to explore!

Looking forward to seeing you all soon!

🍂🍃🍀🍁🌲🪾✨

06/29/2026

This is terribly sad! You know I love alligators. I enjoy watching them do gator things and taking photos of them. However, I also have great respect for them and their potential deadliness as apex predators.

It’s Florida. If there is fresh water, there will inevitably be alligators at some point. They are opportunistic hunters. If they’re hungry and you’re near the shore, well… don’t get too close to shore. And if you’re actually in the water you’re fair game to them. On land, give them a good thirty feet at a minimum with sixty feet or more being preferred. They can and will chase you, and that zig-zag thing you were taught is a myth.

Please be safe out there. It’s our world to share with those who were here long before we came along. Alligators are amazing animals! But they command respect, and rightfully so.

A 31-year-old woman lost her life Saturday afternoon after being attacked by an alligator while swimming with friends in the Little Big Econ River near the Bar Street Trailhead in Geneva, Seminole County. The attack occurred around 1:30 p.m., and the victim was rushed to a regional trauma center, where she later died from her injuries. Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officers, the Seminole County Sheriff's Office, Seminole County Fire Rescue, and a contracted nuisance alligator trapper all responded to the scene. The alligator was reported to be approximately 10 feet long, and efforts to locate and remove it were still active as of Saturday evening.

According to FWC records, this is the first fatal alligator bite in Central Florida in at least a decade, making it a grim and sobering milestone for the region. The victim's identity had not been publicly released. Equally alarming is the broader trend: at least two other people were bitten by alligators in Central Florida in the week leading up to Saturday's tragedy. Authorities are urging residents and visitors to stay out of freshwater rivers, lakes, and canals, especially during summer months when alligators are highly active and encounters in the water become far more dangerous.

📍 Sourced from verified news outlets. We summarize, we don't report.

06/29/2026

Roseate Spoonbill at Circle B Bar Reserve - Lakeland, Florida.

06/25/2026

This is bittersweet. Absolutely grateful the kitten was rescued and will be rehabilitated, but so sad it was presumably abandoned by mama.

06/23/2026

Grateful for those who continue to work to conserve and protect our amazing natural spaces.

More information if you’re curious:

https://npshistory.com/brochures/nwr/pelican-island-story.pdf

In 1903, Theodore Roosevelt was told he could not legally protect a small mangrove island in the Indian River Lagoon from plume hunters who were slaughtering its nesting birds for the fashion industry. He asked if there was any law against it. When told there was not, he said simply: I so declare it. And Pelican Island became the first national wildlife refuge in United States history. 🦅🌊✨

The story of Pelican Island is the story of American conservation in miniature. By the early 1900s, the brown pelicans, herons, egrets, and other wading birds that had nested on the small mangrove island in Florida's Indian River Lagoon for generations had been reduced to a fraction of their historic numbers by plume hunters supplying the fashion industry, which prized the breeding plumage of wading birds for women's hats. A German-born ornithologist named Paul Kroegel had been informally protecting the island with a r***e and a rowboat for years, but he had no legal authority to stop the hunters.

When the issue reached President Theodore Roosevelt, who was already deeply committed to conservation, he asked his attorney general whether any law prevented him from declaring the island a federal bird reservation. Told there was none, he signed an executive order on March 14, 1903, establishing Pelican Island as the first national wildlife refuge in the United States. The system that grew from that single executive order now encompasses over 560 refuges protecting more than 150 million acres across the country. The original island is still there, still nesting pelicans, still protected, the tiny seed from which one of America's greatest conservation achievements grew. Did you know Pelican Island's story? Drop a comment and follow The Real Florida for more stories about the places worth protecting. 🌴💚

06/22/2026

Input needed. So we have this hike planned on Saturday for Lover’s Key. The heat index has us up to 110°+. Should I cancel??

06/22/2026

This is super cool. Makes me think of how snail kites beaks are evolving to better accommodate the larger invasive channel apple snails that comprise their diets. Mother Nature is awesome!

Your bird feeder is actively rewriting the evolutionary code of American hummingbirds.

Millions of Americans enjoy hanging backyard bird feeders, but this simple hobby has emerged as a major evolutionary force. A groundbreaking study published in the journal Global Change Biology reveals that supplemental feeding has driven rapid physical and geographical transformations in Anna's hummingbirds (Calypte anna).

Originally confined to the warm habitats of Southern California, these tiny birds have successfully expanded their range hundreds of miles north, reaching all the way to Alaska and British Columbia. This massive migration was fueled by the year-round availability of artificial feeders, which provided a reliable food source in otherwise uninhabitable climates.

Beyond expanding their territory, these hummingbirds have undergone physical evolutionary shifts in just a few decades. To navigate crowded, highly competitive backyard feeders, Anna's hummingbirds have evolved longer, more tapered beaks. These elongated bills allow them to consume nectar more efficiently before being displaced by rivals. Additionally, male hummingbirds in feeder-heavy areas have developed pointier beak tips to help them defend territory. Meanwhile, birds colonizing colder northern regions have evolved shorter beaks to better conserve body heat, highlighting how human habits and environmental pressures are simultaneously reshaping urban wildlife.

source: Alexandre, N. M., Romero, F. G., English, S. G., Grames, E., Garzón-Agudelo, F., Epperly, K., & Rico-Guevara, A. (2025). Supplemental Feeding as a Driver of Population Expansion and Morphological Change in Anna's Hummingbirds. Global Change Biology, 31(5).