A Bucket List For Local Adventurers

Residents of Indian River County are often astonished to learn that many miles of hiking trails, often rather modest in duration but extensive in bio-diversity, meander through quiet stretches of our area. Last fall, I began seeking them out with photographer and naturalist Wil Jones and together we trekked through more than 30 miles of preserved terrain with the intent of sharing what we found.

As would be expected of a place on the Great Florida Birding Trail, hiking here rarely disappoints if one’s objective is to see birds. But oddly, perhaps owing to the weather or the time of year, the bugs and butterflies were for us as memorable as protected nesting birds at the 110-year-old Pelican Island National Wildlife Refuge. A trip up the observation platform of the Oslo River Conservation Area (next to the University of Florida’s Florida Medical Entomology Lab) one warm morning in October also turned up not a single of the winged creatures

Read the entire article in the May 2013 issue