When my soon to be former home was built 17 years ago the builder chose to leave much of the native vegetation including a couple of different species of Florida’s coastal scrub oaks. Over the ensuing years the remaining lots around here were purchased and homes built. And each new house that went up did so without the native trees except for a token one or two. The newest don’t even have that.

For this Earth Day my trees were decorated with beautiful ornaments: Black & White Warblers, Cape May Warblers, American Redstarts, Prairie Warblers (including a positively stunning male), plus Catbirds and Brown Thrashers.

My neighbor’s trees didn’t have any ornaments - not many juicy bugs to glean from a Queen Palm, I guess.

I hope your Earth Day had a little beauty, too.