A Gulf fritillary (Agraulis vanillae) visits a Salt bush (Baccharis halimifolia) near Garcon Point, in the Florida panhandle.

A carpenter bee visits an endangered milkweed at the Naval Air Station in Pensacola, Florida.

Sunrise in Blackwater River State Forest near Milton, Florida.

A pair of White-topped pitcher plants (Sarracenia leucophylla) at home in a drainage ditch in Milton, Florida. They are threatened in the state of Florida, and have a very limited distribution compared to other pitcher plants in the genus Sarracenia.

A Gulf fritillary (Agraulis vanillae) takes flight at Fort Pickens State Park near Pensacola Beach, Florida, creating a blissful blur of color.

A natural pond in Blackwater River State forest serves as an interesting backdrop for this Yellow pitcher plant (Sarracenia flava). The Gulf Coast, especially coastal Alabama, Mississippi, and Florida, is known as the pitcher plant capital of the world.

A gull peers down over Garcon Point in northwest Florida.

Midday at world-renowned Pensacola Beach, Florida.

A native Green anole (Anolis carolinensis) catches some shut-eye near midnight in Blackwater River State Park, northwest Florida.

You're looking at North America's most biodiverse forest: the longleaf pine forest, relegated primarily to the Deep South. Some of the largest tracts are found in northwest Florida, including this patch in Blackwater River State Forest. Other large tracts include Apalachicola National Forest, Eglin Air Force Base, and Conecuh National Forest in southern Alabama.

I photographed this Seaside dragonlet (Erythrodiplaz berenice) in a salt marsh in coastal Mississippi.

A sunburst finds its way through the thin canopy of a longleaf pine forest in the Florida panhandle.

Longleaf pine forests, like this one in the Florida panhandle, boast some of the highest concentrations of flowering plants found in the temperate world. A staggering 60 species were counted in a one square meter plot in southern Mississippi.

A dragonfly lies dormant as it waits for the rising sun to dry its wings, when it will take flight in search of insects, a highly abundant commodity in longleaf pine forests.

This Willet (Tringa semipalmata) is a large shorebird in the sandpiper family, and was found hunting for crabs in a tide pool near Watercolor, Florida.