Category: wildlife

• OUR URBAN OASIS

  

  A Place of Calm in the Middle of Chaos We live on the southeast side of Tallahassee, but when we drive a mile from our home to a city park, it’s hard to believe we’re so close to an urban area with a population of 200,000. We call it Piney Z after the name of…

  P. C. Zick

  August 12, 2025

  environment, Life in the United States, mindfulness, Ramblings of a Writer, travel, wildlife

  camping, Florida, Florida environment, hiking, kayaking, natural Florida, nature, outdoors, Tallahassee, travel

• ACADIA NATIONAL PARK – COASTAL MAINE

  

  By P.C. Zick @pczick.bsky.social “Are you going to Acadia?” This question popped up at first mention of our impending trip to Maine. If it hadn’t been on the Road Scholar agenda, we might have had to cancel because any other answer, “but of course” would not satisfy the askers of the question. I understand the…

  P. C. Zick

  August 5, 2025

  travel, wildlife

  Acadia National Park, Atlantic Puffin, Bar Harbour, fjord, island life, Maine, Maine Coast, Mount Desert Island, national parks, Road Scholar

• NEVER IGNORE A “LITTLE OLD LADY IN TENNIS SHOES”

  

  By P.C. Zick – @pczick.bsky.social “I’m just a little old lady in tennis shoes.” So said Margaret Hames when other more glowing titles followed her name. Environmentalist, conservationist, defender of wetlands, scrubs, and hammocks, and savior of public places in Brevard County, Florida, are more accurate descriptions of this “force of nature,” her daughter, Pat Baxter,…

  P. C. Zick

  July 29, 2025

  Books by P. C. Zick, environment, Environmental Concerns, Life in the United States, mindfulness, Ramblings of a Writer, Trails in the Sand, wildlife

  Brevard County, Enchanted Forest, Florida environment, Florida fiction, Manhattan Project, Margaret Hames Nature Center, native plants, Turkey Creek Sanctuary Preserve

• DESSIE SMITH PRESCOTT – A WOMAN FOR THE AGES

  

  By P.C. Zick – @pczick.bsky.social As a freelance writer, I’ve been fortunate enough to write about some interesting events and people. In a few instances, I’ve even had the privilege of interviewing a handful of famous or infamous folks. Dessie Smith Prescott could be categorized as both famous and infamous, and the interview with her…

  P. C. Zick

  June 24, 2025

  Books by P. C. Zick, interview, Life in the United States, Ramblings of a Writer, travel, wildlife

  Cross Creek, Dessie Smith Prescott, Florida fiction, Florida nonfiction, Florida Women’s Hall of Fame, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, north Florida, rural Florida, St. Johns River, women pioneers

• SMALL TOWNS ROCK – CEDAR KEY, FLORIDA

  

  When I moved to a small north Florida town in 1980, I loved the location in the middle of the state. We could drive to the Atlantic Ocean in less than two hours, or we could be sitting at a bar overlooking the Gulf of Mexico in less than ninety minutes. Harry Cruise, a Florida…

  P. C. Zick

  May 27, 2025

  Books by P. C. Zick, environment, Environmental Concerns, Life in the United States, Ramblings of a Writer, Small Town, wildlife

  Atlantic Ocean, Carl Hiassen, Cedar Key, Florida Fiction Series, Florida small towns, Gulf of Mexico, Harry Cruise, hurricanes, lumber, oysters, small towns, Sunshine State, Tortoise Stew, University of Florida

• CELEBRATING EARTH DAY 2025

  

  Fifty-five years ago on April 22, 1970, the first Earth Day was celebrated. Maybe the word “celebration” doesn’t quite fit here because its inception came as the result of some horribly tragic events—an oil spill and the discovery by a woman scientist/writer of the harm done to wildlife and humans from pesticides. All those years…

  P. C. Zick

  April 22, 2025

  Books by P. C. Zick, environment, Environmental Concerns, Life in the United States, Trails in the Sand, wildlife

  Allegheny River, bald eagles, DDT, Deepwater Horizon oil spill, Department of Environmental Protection, Earth Day, Earth Day 2025, Florida Environmental Novel, Florida fiction, oil spill, pesticides, Pittsburgh, Rachel Carson, Santa Barbara oil spill, Silent Spring, Trails in the Sand, wildlife

• TRAILS IN THE SAND CELEBRATES #FREE

  

  To start off Earth Day 2025 week, I’m offering my Florida Fiction novel, Trails in the Sand, for free downloads April 21-25. What does this novel have to do with Earth Day? Everything. Book Blurb: When environmental writer Caroline Carlisle sets off to report on endangered sea turtles during the Deepwater BP oil spill in…

  P. C. Zick

  April 20, 2025

  Books by P. C. Zick, environment, Environmental Concerns, interview, Life in the United States, Ramblings of a Writer, Trails in the Sand, wildlife

  BP oil spill, Cape Canaveral, Deepwater Horizon, Deepwater Horizon oil spill, Earth Day, Florida beaches, Florida environment, Florida Environmental Novel, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, Gulf of Mexico, oiled wildlife, sea turtle eggs, sea turtle nests, Trails in the Sand

• FOR THE LOVE OF SEA TURTLES

  

  I’ve long had a love affair with sea turtles. It might have started when I learned the amazing life history of this species. It only grew after my experience first as a volunteer member of a sea turtle patrol on Matanzas Beach, Florida, twenty years ago. Then fifteen years ago, I was a part of…

  P. C. Zick

  April 1, 2025

  environment, Environmental Concerns, Life in the United States, mindfulness, Ramblings of a Writer, Trails in the Sand, wildlife

  Deepwater Horizon oil spill, endangered species, Florida beaches, Florida environment, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, hatchlings, life history sea turtles, loggerhead, saving sea turtles, sea turtle nests, sea turtles, Trails in the Sand