The Trailblazer

  The Florida Birding and Nature Festival is coming to the Tampa Bay area October 17th - 20th, 2021! The festival, headquartered at FWC’s Youth Conservation Center in Apollo Beach, coincides with the peak migration of more than 180 species and features expert-led field and boating trips to the best wildlife sites in West Central Florida. The festival also will offer two days of Zoom broadcast seminars, where experts will cover topics such as swallow-tail kites, rattlesnakes, butterflies, coyotes and roseate spoonbills. A Nature Expo on Friday, Oct. 18, and Saturday, Oct. 19, at the FWC Youth Conservation Center will feature displays from numerous environmental organizations, nature-related businesses and artists.  Exhibitors will offer for sale artwork, binoculars, bird boxes and other products for nature lovers. There will be a silent auction each day. Hillsborough County's Conservation and Environmental Lands Management Department has partnered with the festival t...

  The end of summer in Florida is one of the most colorful times of the year, with a rainbow of fall wildflowers blooming all over the state. Get out and enjoy a bright and beautiful hike! Here's what's blooming in September in Hillsborough County's nature preserves and conservation parks. Partridge Pea Its beautiful, bright yellow flowers help  partridge pea ( Chamaecrista fasciculata ) attract bees and butterflies by the hundreds, providing nectar for many pollinator species into the late fall. Sensitive compound leaves give this plant a fluffy, delicate look and small, pea-like seed pods make an excellent winter food source for Florida's feathered friends. Look for this bright yellow beauty in open, sandy areas at Camp Bayou Nature Preserve   in Ruskin. Dotted Horsemint Sporting tall spikes of tiny, white- and purple-spotted flowers surrounded by pale purple and green leaves, dotted horsemint ( Monarda punctata ) makes a showy statement. Blooming in late summer and...

  Always know before you go! We've introduced the Wild Score to rate Hillsborough County’s conservation parks and nature preserves on a scale of 6 (tame) to 30 (wild). A high score doesn’t mean that spot is “better,” just that it’s more wild- if you’re looking for a more developed, people-centered experience, you’ll want to look for parks and preserves with a lower Wild Score.  We’ll use 6 metrics for this rating system, scored from 1 (most developed, most tame, etc.) to 5 (most wild). We’ll break down each rating for you and explain exactly how the park or preserve got its score. This month we rated Bell Creek Nature Preserve in Riverview, a 477-acre natural area which was purchased using funds from the Jan K. Platt Environmental Lands Acquisition and Protection Program, or ELAPP. One of the County's most popular nature preserves, this beautiful area is most often used for hiking, jogging, dog walking, and wildlife viewing. Surrounded by neighborhoods, Bell Creek provides a r...