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A female lubber takes her last late-summer breath on the banks of the Hillsborough River. Six months ago, she emerged from its shores as a pill-sized nymph. She laid waste to the forbs of spring and by solstice was transformed into the grandest of grasshoppers. Triumphant over the perils of water and wind, and theContinue reading “AUGUST 20, 2025—HILLSBOROUGH RIVER”

The Two Terrors|October 14. Two birds rule the underwater hunt, terrorizing fish and frog from cypress swamp to mangrove forest. The anhinga (aka snakebird, American darter, water turkey, Tupi, and devil bird) and the cormorant (aka crow-duck, lawyer, shag and Taunton turkey). Nature has not spared these birds its sovereignty over design, tuning form andContinue reading “The Two Terrors: Hunt of the Anhinga and Cormorant”

August 8 | Waccasassa River: Thousands of eastern lubber grasshoppers (Romalea microptera/R. gutatta) descend upon the Waccasassa. They move along the shoreline in the slow, deliberate cadence of a drunkard’s gait. Both hind- and fore-wings are underdeveloped, leaving the grasshopper flightless1 and seemingly helpless. Yet the lubber thrives in great swarms that emerge from theContinue reading “Lubber, not a Fighter”