Manatee's parks: new photo galleries

We launched "Our Parks" this week on Bradenton.com and in the Herald -- a nature lover's dream, we hope.

I asked Metro Editor Marc Masferrer for three words to help craft an intro. His choices: pastoral, rustic, wild.

That's the essence of our photojournalists' project at Bradenton.com/ourparks/:

Manatee County offers dozens of wildlife habitats, rustic parks and pastoral gems of nature. Here, Bradenton Herald’s photojournalists will take you on a virtual tour through these havens.

Our first entry: Grant Jefferies' spectacular 40+ images from Emerson Point Preserve, a 365-acre preserve at the tip of Snead Island in western Palmetto. Here is one of my favorites: An osprey is perched high atop a tree at Emerson Point Preserve.