Florida Wildlife Calendar

June

• Black skimmers hatch young on beaches.

• It is the height of the gopher tortoise nesting season.

• Laughing gulls hatch young on beaches and mangrove islands in Florida Bay.

• It's nesting season for least terns, oystercatchers, and black skimmers. They nest on islands, undisturbed beaches, and rooftops.

• Most animals -- including alligators, southern flying squirrels, black-necked stilts, and red-cockaded woodpeckers -- are nesting.
   
• Peak month for wildfires, which rejuvenate many Florida plant communities.
   
• Red and Seminole bats give birth.
   
• Blooming tarflowers in flatwoods signal the beginning of summer.
   
• Cicadas emerge and begin the song of summer.
   
• Leatherback, loggerhead and green sea turtles continue to crawl ashore to lay eggs.

• Lights Out! Sea turtles emerge from their nests and head for the ocean. Females may become confused by lights on the beach.

• Juvenile green sea turtles forage on hard bottom close to the southeast coast.

• Female alligators are building nests.

• Eighteen-month old black bears separate from their mothers.

• Whelks spawn, laying long “necklaces” of eggs.

• Black sea urchins spawn throughout the summer at each full moon along the Keys.

• Sea squirts spawn on the grass flats.

• Migrating tarpon can be found almost anywhere in the Keys.

• Snook begin moving out to inlets and passes.

• Indigo snakes lay their eggs, sometimes in gopher tortoise burrows.

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