Blue Goose ~ Day 243

January 25, 2015 ~ Daytona Beach, FL to Starke, FL

Upon awakening and wiping the sliders I saw thousands of gulls on the beach. Within five minutes I was down there and spent the next two hours absolutely delighted by the whole scene. I hadn't missed it after all.

Daytona Beach - FL

There were terns and shorebirds in with the gulls. I know there were gannets and jaegers flying about also, but didn't look for them. (I had been checking eBird reports which noted them.) Pelicans were dive-bombing into the ocean for food. The terns were Royal and Forster's; the shorebirds that I saw were a lone Willet, Black-bellied Plovers, Sanderlings, Dunlins and Ruddy Turnstones. The gulls were Laughing, Ring-billed, Herring, and a single Black-backed. I am on the cusp of "poking through" the gull flocks for the less common birds, but this morning just settled for the easy ones. They were tame and didn't flush easily. Few people were walking the beach; the occasional car stayed away from the water's edges so it was mostly me and the birds. I walked a mile until the gulls and terns slowly starting flying out in small groups. It was a lovely way to start the day, bundled against the wind, under blue skies, waves splashing on the sand and watching this showy avian spectacle in the bright sunshine.

Royal Terns  - Daytona Beach, FL

I left in early afternoon and finally moved inland toward Lake Woodruff NWR, arriving well into the afternoon and first walking along one of the impoundments before taking a loop trail through the adjacent cypress swamp. I came into a little birdy place on this trail with kinglets and warblers, vireos and titmice flitting about and moving through. The trail was just barely above the swamp with a few significant mushy sections. Lake Woodruff has swamps, marshes and uplands as it runs along the St. Johns, Florida's longest river.

The Florida scene soon changes away from the coasts. It becomes more ordinary with small towns and cultivated fields where possible in between undrained land. The homes are mostly modest with rocking chairs on the porches, an abundance of flora, watery ditches and ponds....

 

 Nature Trail at Lake Woodruff NWR

I stayed in Starke, arriving well after dark, and slept fitfully in a Walmart parking lot. The cold woke me up. Yes, it IS getting less of an adventure and more of a slog, but I'm nearly finished with eight months! I can do this...

Somehow I left a camera charger at the motel, probably when changing rooms. Since I realized it quickly, I went back and the manager and I checked both rooms but it was gone. And then, one of the van's sliding doors stopped opening, a minor annoyance. If I happen to drive by a Dodge-Chrysler dealership, I will see if they can at least tell me what the deal is. Otherwise, It can wait until I get back to Michigan.

Laughing Gull - Daytona Beach, FL

Blue Goose ~ Day 242

January 24, 2015 ~ Titusville, FL to Daytona Beach, FL

I am not sure why I keep eating the complimentary breakfast when I am in a motel as the food is dismal and the coffee worse most of the time. But I did again this morning before deciding to go back to Merritt Island and drive Black Point again.

The wind was stronger than last night but the rain had stopped. The wildlife drive was wonderful; some waterfowl and shorebirds were sheltering in small groups behind little island vegetation clumps, but for most of the birds, it was just another day of poking, probing, finding food in the harsh wind.

Reddish Egret - Merritt Island NWR - FL

The water had whitecaps and changed colors as clouds and sun moved in the sky. Is there more lovely sight than a Roseate Spoonbill flying against a dark cloud and lit by sunshine... One group of birding festival people were in a couple of vans, and I passed them clustered in the wind, jackets pulled tight, exposed hair blowing in the wind. But it was a glorious day to be right there, right then.

Birders at Merritt Island NWR - FL

One of the Space Coast Birding venues mentioned was the gull fly-in each evening on Daytona area beaches so I headed north and got a motel on the beach. While not the neatest, cleanest, quietest motel (I switched room as the adjoining room had rambunctious small kids), the town had none of the  springtime-summer insanity, even with the people in town for races at the Daytona International Speedway. It was sunny but still windy so I ducked into a new Starbucks. It was the nicest store I've yet seen....expansive, elevated (accessed by stairs) and on the beach with porches and new food selections which are soon to be sold in other Starbucks. Many of the clientele were middle-aged or older, reading books or newspapers, sitting in the sunshine coming in the windows, working on laptops or tablets.

The beaches here are completely smooth with hard-packed sand on which cars are allowed to drive in daylight hours. Is this weird?? While I didn't see many actually doing this, I wondered what is must be like in high season? Cars on this pristine beach! Daytona is like Indianapolis when it comes to cars....it's part of their tradition.

I worked for several hours and then walked half a mile to a restaurant for some seafood pasta and a piece of key lime pie.

By the time I figured the gulls would be flying in, and researched exactly where it happens, it was too late. The sun sets early so the window is short if one isn't paying attention.

While my new room was better, there was a problem with condensation on the sliders, like total wetness which built up and then slid down, pooling on the floor and slider frame so that I couldn't see the ocean without wiping the glass every hour. I, however, was on island time.....

Avocets and ducks sheltering from the wind - Merritt Island NWR - FL

Blue Goose ~ Day 241

January 23, 2015 ~ Viera, FL to Titusville, FL

The Blue Heron Wetlands is a gift from the city of Titusville's waste treatment facility to the birds and birding community, "designed so that any effluent that is not utilized in the reclaimed water distribution system can be diverted to the wetland area." Sweetwater Wetlands in Tucson was the same type of birding venue. 

When I got there, a group of 20 birders was leaving and the leader (the man with a scope) was instructing: "What are you seeing?" "Is it flying in a dihedral?" "Do you see white anywhere?" 

Cattle Egret at Blue Heron Wetlands - Titusville, FL

There was the first hint of spring here with tiny new green leaves. One could drive around the impoundments, which I did, seeing a few Cattle Egrets in with the other usual wetland birds that I've been seeing for weeks. Great-tailed Grackles have now been replaced by Boat-tailed and Common Grackles. Mockingbirds, Robins, warblers, kinglets, sparrows, Cardinals and Blue Jays...familiar birds of springtime in Michigan were flitting through the woods and grasses.

Merritt Island NWR is one of the stars in the refuge system which is certainly part of the reason the Space Coast Bird and Wildlife Festival is held there.

WWW.NBBD.COM (The Merritt Island Adventure published on 11/17/2014)

This video is a documentary of the lives of the homesteaders living on Merritt Island in Florida in the area that is now owned by NASA operating the Kennedy Space Center and also managed as Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge. NASA used eminent domain to acquire the property in the late 1950's - 60's. Here are the stories of how people lived very primitively on the land and what happened when they were forced to move. For this film, they were brought back to the homestead, back to the very foundations where they still existed. Some early settlers are able to visit their home sites where the land is open to the public; however, some have never had access to their home site because it lies within the security area of Kennedy Space Center. Many residents are proud that their land went to support a successful space program that sent man to the moon! Although residents were forced to move, they are glad the land is protected as a National Wildlife Refuge and not developed like so much of the Florida coastline. The refuge remains pristine and very similar to how they remembered growing up there.

The words "eminent domain" always have a back story, and Merritt Island is a fairly recent acquisition. It is a broad barrier island that bumps out into the Atlantic halfway up the coast of Florida, with the John F. Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral on the south and Canaveral National Seashore on the north. The causeway from Titusville goes directly into the refuge. I first headed for Black Point Wildlife Drive, at the entrance of which was a minor bird jam, as there were at least 100 egrets, herons and ibises. And most of the rest of the seven-mile route was nearly as productive with ample pull-offs or room for cars to pass. Thousands of ducks and grebes, a few mergansers, cormorants, occasional shorebirds, raptors overhead, Roseate Spoonbills, Wood Storks...

Reddish Egret - Merritt NWR - FL

My mission at Merritt was to see a Florida Scrub Jay so after leaving the auto route, I went to the Scrub Ridge Trail and walked the mile loop. A couple just ahead of me saw a SJ, "for just a second," but I didn't. Shucks. I even back-tracked to where he saw it, willing for it to show, but with no success. This was one of two trails where the Scrub Jay is "common" as the habitat is just right. The other frustrating birding lately (the whole trip actually) is my inability to see the "grassland" sparrows, along with Nelson's, Seaside and and Saltmarsh Sparrows. The guy who had just seen the SJ, said, "Oh, that bird that just flushed...I think it was a Nelson's. I used to be good at them but haven't done much recently, but I think that's what it was." Admittedly, I haven't spent enough time and patience in their habitat, often am out in the middle of the day instead of early morning, and it isn't breeding season, but still..... These are my next serious challenge.

The VC was busy. A visitor said loudly, "We want to see big birds..." There was a female Painted Bunting and many Red-winged Blackbirds at the nearby feeder. I asked about Scrub Jays and was told I might have luck at a main intersection "the one with a stop light, just down the road. "Look at all four corners; you might see the sentinel. They're known to nest in that area." So I parked along the road and checked it out, but only saw perched Kestrels and Mockingbirds.

I then drove to the Bio Lab Road (with huge potholes), went on down about two miles but turned around. It would have taken an hour to go to the end and back and it wasn't good Scrub Jay habitat. The wind was blowing hard, and the sky was overcast but it wasn't cold. I carried on the inner dialogue about going to the Pine Flatwoods Trail, another mile loop several miles north. I went. No one else was there; it seemed a lonesome out-of-way place, but it was only a mile, a roughly square trail, mostly through open sand scrub. With the wind and it being mid afternoon, not many birds were out, and no Scrub Jays. I walked under a tree with three Black Vultures, saw a distant woodpecker, heard a few twitterings and decided to quit looking so hard, go back to the car, feeling I had tried, which is precisely when two Scrub Jays appeared on the trail just ahead of me and hung around for 20-30 photos, not overly concerned by my presence, hopping into the brush and then up on exposed branches. A bird-cache found!

Florida Scrub Jay - Merritt Island NWR - FL

Returning over the bridge, I pulled over to watch windboarders who would run parallel  and very close to the shores, often jumping and flying through the sky before coming back to the water. Jeez....what fun!

My motel room (Best Western via Priceline) turned out to be a smoking room with no possibility of changing it. The guy at the desk blamed Priceline and said booking.com was the way to go. He maintained Hotwire, Priceline and Expedia were "all the same; I hate 'em all." But there was an adjacent restaurant where I had good broiled salmon. I worked some but had intermittent computer issues so shut it down after a couple of hours.

It was a rainy windy night...

Windboarders -Titusville, FL

Blue Goose ~ Day 240

January 22, 2015 ~ Jonathan Dickinson State Park, Fl to Viera, FL

EN.WIKIPEDIA.ORG

Jonathan Dickinson (1663–1722) was a Quaker merchant from Port Royal, Jamaica who was shipwrecked on the southeast coast of Florida in 1696, along with his family and the other passengers and crew members of the ship. The party was held captive by Jaega Indians for several days, and then was allowed to travel by small boat and on foot the 230 miles up the coast to Saint Augustine. The party was subjected to harassment and physical abuse at almost every step of the journey to Saint Augustine. Five members of the party died from exposure and starvation on the way.

Hobe Sound NWR wasn't far from the campground and I got there early. The two units of this small refuge protect habitat for nesting sea turtles and a sand scrub remnant, 90% of which has been lost to development. There was a little loop trail that wound through the scrub, down to the sound and then back up to the VC. It was peaceful, quiet and sunny. I saw no one else, nor did I see the bird I was hoping to see: the Florida Scrub Jay, an endemic in the sand scrub habitat.

Hobe Sound NWR - FL

I continued to the first National Wildlife Refuge, Pelican Island, created in 1903 by Theodore Roosevelt. Here is the interesting story of one man's passion to protect the birds:

WWW.FWS.GOV

An Immigrant and a President: How Pelican Island became America's first wildlife refuge 

Paul Kroegel, a German immigrant, arrived in Sebastian, Florida in 1881, and homesteaded with his father on an ancient shell midden on the west bank of the Indian River Lagoon. From his home Kroegel would look out to Pelican Island, a five-acre mangrove island where thousands of brown pelicans and other water birds would roost and nest. He took an interest in protecting the island’s birds. Without state or federal laws to protect the birds, Kroegel would sail out to Pelican Island with his gun and stand guard. Kroegel was visited by many influential naturalists who stayed at the nearby Oak Lodge from the 1880s to the early 1900s. One of those naturalists was a well-known ornithologist, Frank Chapman, who was curator at the American Museum of Natural History in New York and a member of the American Ornithologist’s Union. Chapman discovered that Pelican Island was the last rookery from brown pelicans on the East Coast of Florida, and pledged his support to protect the birds. 

In 1901, the American Ornithologist’s Union and the Florida Audubon Society led a successful campaign to pass legislation in Florida calling for the protection of non-game birds. Kroegel was one of four wardens hired by the Florida Audubon Society to protect water birds from market hunters. Two of those wardens were murdered in the line of duty. Chapman and his fellow bird protection advocate, William Dutcher, knew that protecting the birds of Pelican Island required additional protection. Chapman and Dutcher were acquainted with President Theodore Roosevelt, who had assumed the Presidency in 1901. They visited Roosevelt at his home in Sagamore Hill, New York, and appealed to his strong conservation ethic. On March 14, 1903, without fanfare, President Roosevelt signed an executive order establishing Pelican Island as the first federal bird reservation. He would establish a network of 55 bird reservation and national game preserved for wildlife - the forerunner to the national wildlife refuge system. But Pelican Island was the first time that the federal government set aside land for the sake of wildlife.
Paul Kroegel was hired as the first national wildlife refuge manager. He was paid $1 a month by the Florida Audubon Society, as Congress had not set aside funds for this executively created refuge. 

While the threat from plume hunters diminished during the first decade of the 20th century, another threat to Pelican Island's inhabitants emerged. Market fishermen, convinced that their livelihood was being harmed, mistakenly argued that pelicans were eating too much fish and competing with them for a dwindling fishery. This controversy reached a climax in the spring of 1918, when over 400 defenseless pelican chicks were clubbed to death on Pelican Island. The Florida Audubon Society was subsequently able to prove that the bulk of the pelican's diet consisted of commercially unimportant baitfish, thereby defeating an attempt to weaken newly enacted bird protection laws. With his gun, boat and badge, Paul Kroegel stood watch over America’s first national wildlife refuge. But in 1923, the birds abandoned the island after a hurricane. Because of the birds absence, Kroegel was retired from federal service in 1926. Soon after, the pelicans and other water birds returned, but the island remained without a resident warden until the mid 1960s...In 1970, Pelican Island became the smallest wilderness area (six acres) in the National Wilderness Preservation System. 

So, while the refuge is relatively unprepossessing, it has pride of place.  I accessed it via The Jungle Trail, a firmly packed dirt road through dense barrier island flora, sometimes bordering the back yards of homes only barely visible through the thick foliage.

Palm Warbler - Pelican Island NWR - FL

Archie Carr was the third refuge of the day, on a barrier island, and actually a series of properties over 20 miles with the mandate of sea turtle conservation. Approximately 25% of US loggerhead and green sea turtles nest here (15,000 to 20,000) and a smaller number of the larger and more rare leatherbacks. The VC was a beautiful building, on the ocean, with exhibits, educational information and a short boardwalk through the adjacent habitat of red mangroves.

The weather was that perfect combination of blue skies, warm sunshine and ocean that attracts the millions of northerners this time of year, although much of the island route (A1A) here in central Florida goes past discrete high-end gated communities. US1 to the west is the nearly non-stop commercial strip with I95 farther west.

Archie Carr NWR - FL

I could have been in western Michigan in July.

I stayed in Viera, near Merritt Island. The annual Space Coast Birding and Wildlife Festival was this weekend, based in Titusville, and I researched what trips they offered and where. Had I know I would be here, I might have signed up for a couple of the events. But I didn't and registration was closed, so I did the next best thing.

Blue Goose ~ Day 239

January 21, 2015 ~ Miami, FL to Jonathan Dickinson State Park, FL

I left Miami early and thought perhaps I could wait out the morning commuter traffic at a Starbucks, but it was still busy when I left, all the way to the 145,000-acre Arthur R. Marshall Loxahatchee NWR. Erroneously, I got in an express lane for several miles and will probably get a ticket. I was also on a toll road on Saturday for a few miles, which is monitored by one's license plate. I'll get a bill for that also....eventually.

Ger had warned me of the congestion going north on US1. After what seemed forever, I finally merged onto Interstate 95, and really, these roads are efficient. I don't particularly like to drive them for long distances, but when the alternative is stop-and-go driving that takes twice or three times as long, this option becomes more attractive. The best alternative routes in non-urban areas are the old major roads that run parallel (within 30 miles or so) of an Interstate and which are now seldom used by travelers.

Arthur R. Marshall, who died in 1985, was an ardent conservationist and became a strong advocate specifically for preservation of the Everglades. The refuge named in his honor is an Everglades refuge but is right on the eastern edge, and its boundaries are suburbia, gated communities and agricultural enterprises. There is an powerful and important entity called the South Florida Water Management District with whom this refuge cooperates concerning the canals, levees and pumps built by the Army Corps of Engineers. It's all about the water.....(and in Florida, as in most parts of the country, this historically meant water for farmers and people, not for flora and fauna.)

ARM Loxahatchee NWR - FL

(It is interesting and pertinent to listen to and read about the current issues regarding President Obama's wish to expand a Wilderness designation in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The status of Wilderness means no mining, drilling, logging or permanent roads, altering of landscape, etc. The land is not to be disturbed by man.)

A 0.4-mile loop boardwalk, adjacent to the large Visitor Center, meanders through a cypress swamp. I learned a new word: thigmotropism, meaning when a cypress tree comes in contact with another object like a deck edge or piling, the tree grows around that object. Cypresses were tall and the ferns huge; the habitat was warm, green and sun-dappled, swampy, mossy and very quiet....a tangled beauty. The trees here are the "largest remaining remnant of a cypress strand that once separated the pine flatwoods in the east from the Everglades marshes." (Wikipedia). There is also a 5.5-mile canoe trail into the Everglades. 

White Ibis - ARM Loxahatchee NWR - FL

The refuge manages wetlands and works to remove invasive species, a serious problem here, the "three most problematic exotic plant species on the refuge [being] melaleuca, Brazilian pepper, and Old World climbing fern (lygodium). "

I drove to the nearby open wetlands where warblers and vireos were flitting in the trees in the parking lot (many Palm Warblers now along with Yellow-rumps) and then slowly walked a mile around one of the impoundments. I was rewarded by seeing the second Limpkin of my life and another Purple Gallinule. 

Limpkin at ARM Loxahatchee NWR - FL

A mother and two small boys, aged about 3 and 5, were also walking the square. The little boys had binoculars around their necks. "We saw a snake skin! In that plant over there!...These are our Dad's binoculars; we 'brunged' them...." Their mom had a camera and was pushing a stroller. 

I stayed that night at Jonathan Dickinson SP where the ranger assigned me what apparently was the last campsite, a spot out in the open in the midst of RVs, but very pleasant. I heated a rice-bean thing for dinner. It sufficed but didn't exactly satisfy. The skies were clear; it was a beautiful night. The guys in the adjacent site watched TV which they had set up outside. Most RV campers settle in with their stuff like clotheslines and stoves, chairs and rugs, lights and flags and other decorative objects, and dogs and bicycles. Good for them....

Blue Goose ~ Days 237 and 238

January 19 and 20, 2015 ~ Miami, FL to Key West, FL to Miami, FL

Expectations clashed with reality today. The road to Key West from Miami is NOT one long bridge over open water, occasionally anchored on small idyllic "keys." At least half the route is gas stations, sandal stores, restaurants, marinas, tire shops, bars, tattoo / massage places, grocery stores, tourist attractions, local "museums," resorts, police and fire stations, watercraft-related businesses and on and on...It quickly became tedious. True there are some protected areas, including state parks and four NWRs, only one of which is easily accessible. This is Key Deer; the others are the numerous islands/keys of the Key West and Great White Heron NWRs. The fourth one is Crocodile Lake on North Key Largo (not open to public because of its small size and the desire to avoid wildlife disruption by non-wild you and me.)

Esther is a geocacher, and Long Key State Park had both geocaches and a rare bird: the Key West Quail Dove. Of course we stopped here, paid our $6, easily found her cache at the public beach and drove to the parking lot for the Golden Orb (named after a spider) Nature Trail where the elusive dove has intermittently been seen. I took a boardwalk over shitty-smelling red mangroves and saw a Yellow-crowned Night Heron standing in the mud but soon realized I was not on the dove trail, so I backtracked.

Yellow-crowned Night Heron - Long Key State Park - FL

Esther stayed in the car while I walked a quarter-mile down the trail, mangroves on one side and drier forest on the other. I got to the Poisonwood Tree, moving slowly and peering into the trees and leaves. All was very quiet. Some of the birders who seriously seek out this bird return repeatedly and stay for hours, silently watching between tree roots and dried leaves for any slight movement. The dove is hanging round here though, and with persistence would be seen, often early in the morning. But not by me after my 15-minute chase.


We continued to Key Deer NWR on Big Pine and No Name Keys. After getting information at the VC from the most welcoming and cheerful woman at the desk, ("If you don't see the deer, come back and I will give you your money back..."), we first went to The Blue Hole, a former quarry, in which the saltwater that seeps in through the limestone is overlaid by less dense freshwater (all originating as rain fall) and making The Blue Hole the only fresh water "lake" in the Florida Keys. A couple of alligators live here and a variety of other wildlife visit and can be seen if one has patience. I saw my second Yellow-throated Warbler, and Esther found a clever geocache. We moved on and walked a trail into amazingly peaceful habitat and soon saw a pretty little Key Deer, browsing as it slowly moved through.

Key Deer - Key Deer NWR - FL

The entire population of this deer is estimated at only 800. They are a subspecies of the Virginia White-tailed deer, average 26 inches at the shoulder and weigh 75 pounds.

WWW.FWS.GOV

Why are the Key deer endangered? Low population numbers,development pressures, habitat loss,and threats from hurricanes have all been important in the listing of this species as endangered. Currently,illegal roadside feeding contributes to road kills which account for 70 percent of the annual mortality.

As always, the pristine habitat gives the visitor a chance to see the land as it was. While refuges are managed, it is usually with the goal of mimicking natural events. In places like Florida, the contrast between land altered by human intervention and land in its natural state is incredible.

Key West: Tourists and free-roaming cinnamon-colored roosters, the old and slightly disheveled cemetery, Hemingway's house (a drive-by), the buoy marker for the southernmost point of the US where the adjacent street was filled with posing tourists being photographed.....bicycles, narrow streets, parking issues, charming old cottages and homes surrounded by gardens and flowers and trees....a Florida spiny lobster tail dinner (rubbery, with no taste) in a restaurant near Duval Street. We had ordered and then the electricity went out for 15 minutes. Whether that affected the quality of the lobster...don't know, but it was totally unremarkable. We had tried to find another small seafood restaurant (Seven Fish) and moved carefully down streets with names like Olivia, Elizabeth and Virginia, but failed to find a parking space, so settled for this other venue.

The next day we geocached a couple of places. (Esther ended up with a dozen to add to her life-time list of over 1200). She talked me into re-visiting the Key West Quail Trail. We met several serious birders who had been there for four hours, keeping watch, moving slowly on the trail and in the general vicinity, wearing light-colored clothing and hats and mosquito dope. One lady had a portable chair kind of attached to her butt. They were pleasant and soft-spoken and had obviously not seen the dove (yet). I figured this group represented at least 20 hours of searching. Esther and I contributed another 30 minutes, taking cues about looking by watching the others. This second "chase" was also unsuccessful for me, but I was glad Ess saw the process. I would have loved for her to be the one to spot the dove...sort of like a mobile, difficulty 5 geocache.

Golden Orb (Key West Quail Dove) Trail - Long Key
State Park - FL

I had never been in Key West; Esther had but a long time ago. Later, we decided we should have gone to  Bill Baggs State Park instead, for both the birds and the caches, but then I wouldn't have seen the refuge(s).

Still, driving back the next day, the route somehow seemed more scenic. The expanse of sky, the hundreds of lesser keys and the light and ever-shifting colors of the ocean was lovely.

We were back in Miami mid-afternoon and had deck-time for a couple of hours before a delicious dinner of grilled hamburgers, sweet potato fries and corn on the cob. And then watched Bill O'Reilly and the pre State of the Union chatter, at which time I retired to read in bed.

Great White Heron NWR - FL
(lower keys in Gulf of Mexico) 

Blue Goose ~ Day 236

January 18, 2015 - Miami, FL

Spent the day cleaning the van, sitting on the deck and eating tasty meals made by my sister who says she isn't much of a cook. Not true....

Double-crested Cormorant - Anhinga Trail - Everglades NP - FL

Blue Goose ~ Day 235

January 17, 2015 ~ Everglades National Park (Flamingo), FL to Miami, FL

Woke up and laughed at the bold vultures edging near the picnic tables and tents.

Everglades NP - Flamingo Campground - FL

Waking in the van (as I have mentioned), I watch the eastern sky pale, turn rosy and then golden before the sun rises. And some nights (without clouds or ambient light) the stars and moon shine through the windows. Also, I never leave anything behind since I just drive away. I have no wet dewy tent  to pack.  What other advantages? Simplicity...no carrying and trucking and hauling stuff into motels or tents.

An eagle daily harasses the nesting ospreys near the contact station, and the gentleman in attendance told me that sometimes several ospreys will arrive to help drive the eagle off.

It was a sunny lovely morning and I stopped first at Eco Lake. Two other birders showed up and we eventually saw Parula, Prairie, Palm, Cape May, Black and White and Yellow-rumped Warblers, a pair of mating Red-shouldered Hawks, Mockingbirds, vireos.... As I drove out of the park, I stopped at ponds and hammocks and overlooks. It was warming and mosquitoes started. Fortunately, I found a wet-wipe insect repellant sample since I had run out of spray.

Everglades NP - Flamingo Campground
(vultures picking through last night's stuff)

Alligators, coots, ducks, wading birds, with raptors and vultures overhead in the wide sky... When I got to the park entrance I went to the VC and asked about a bird log; the guy pulled out a worn spiral notebook where I saw that Purple Gallinules and been seen at the Anhinga Trail, five miles back in the park.


So I went there, along with hundreds of others, and saw more birds than in all the rest of the park. Again, there was a boardwalk which is really by far the easiest way to see swamps and marshes except by kayaking. My bird-finding instincts kicked in as I went to the end of a short side trail overlook and saw two Purple Gallinules messing and moving in the water plants. What gorgeous birds! and a lifer for me.

Purple Gallinule - Anhinga Trail - Everglades NP - FL

I eventually made it to Ess and Ger's AFTER I first went to their address using 104th Street instead of 104 Avenue. My gas warning light was on; the traffic had really really increased; I was hot, tired, sweaty and smelled of mosquito repellant; my head was starting to spin....

Everglades NP with dwarf cypress

I finally found their house; they both welcomed me and told me to just park on their lawn. Are there other homes in Miami where people park on the front lawn and a BMW is in the single driveway?

Ess and I sat with a glasses of cold white wine on her own private little sanctuary, her backyard deck, before Ger took us to a delightful little French bistro not far from their neighborhood. I had Delices de la Mer; Ess had mussels and Ger had steak with mashed parsnips....all scrumptious.

For the next four nights I slept in a bed.

Alligators in the Everglades - FL

Blue Goose ~ Day 234

January 16, 2015 ~ Collier-Seminole State Park, FL to Everglades National Park (Flamingo), FL

Well, it really is much nicer to wake up in a campground than a parking lot. The sky begins to lighten at 0600, although the sunrise isn't until 0700 which is when people begin stirring. The clean and relatively warm bathrooms are not used much as most have RVs. I made coffee since I had real cream and sat and read for an hour before starting out east on the Tamiami Trail. The other cross-Everglades route is I75 to the north a.k.a. Alligator Alley and has a toll.

Fortunately, much of the Everglades is protected - and the Tamiami Trail runs through the Fakahatchee Strand, Big Cypress Preserve and the Everglades National Park. If the land were not restricted for native flora and fauna (and us), agriculture and retirement homes would keep eating away at this "river of grass." The changes are rather abrupt, especially on the east, from land disturbance to Everglades. Alligators bask on the sides of the canals. There are "Panther Traffic" signs and reduced speed areas. A ranger told me 20 of these cats had been killed by cars last year and only 100 are estimated to live in the Everglades. Anhingas perched high in trees and on wires; egrets, herons and ibises moved through the watery grasses. A small portion of the Ten Thousand Islands NWR borders the highway with several points of kayak access and a trail on which I walked a short distance. Another refuge (Florida Panther NWR) is just north of Interstate 75 but has no public access.

Green Heron - Kirby Storter Wayside - Everglades NP - FL

I did find the Kirby Storter Wayside where Maria, Richard and I stopped for a couple of hours three years ago. It's deceptive in that from the highway it looks like a small picnic area, but there is a 1/2-mile boardwalk that goes into a beautiful swamp. I saw warblers and all the waders, including a Wood Stork which feeds by swinging its half-open bill through the shallow water and mud. It finds food tactilely - when anything touches the bill, it immediately snaps shut.

Wood Stork - Kirby Storter Wayside - Everglades NP - FL

Small alligators and larger turtles and a Green Heron were in the pool at the end of the boardwalk, as were a White Ibis and Great Egret, lovely in the dark dense flora. Woodpeckers worked the trees if one was patient enough. It felt like Eden.

Decision time for me: I had planned to visit Esther and Ger in Miami, but also wanted to go Flamingo, the  town at the end of a 49-mile road into the lower portion of Everglades NP, so I finally decided to go there before Miami. Esther had agreed to go Key West with me but a Flamingo side trip would be way too long to do on the way.  

I took the first road south to Homestead / Florida City and, after a few more miles of farmland (and orchids and vultures), I entered the park. It started as miles of open land with scattered dwarf silvery bald cypress trees and the occasional slightly higher hammock. The elevation is generally 3-4 feet but it only takes a few more feet to totally change the vegetation to a complex mix of ferns, mahogany, evergreens, gumbo-limbo, strangler figs, palms, saw palmetto.....In the hammocks, the woods are "lovely, dark and deep" interruptions on the open land and the slowly moving shallow waters. The more coastal regions of the Everglades have mangrove swamps, bays ad beaches navigable by kayakers. This is the extensive backcountry, accessible only by water, with chickees (basically raised wooden platforms) at intervals for overnight camping...or camping is also allowed on the beaches. I saw dozens of cars with kayaks and the open grassy  campground at Flamingo had 50 or more kayakers' tents.

Everglades NP campground at Flamingo - FL

I stayed here overnight paying only $8. But found out there was no cell service for Verizon, and Esther was expecting a call about my plans. I eventually walked half a mile along a trail bordering the  beach to the VC just as it was about to close. I explained my dilemma to a ranger: "Well, I suppose I can let you use our phone..." and he brought out a land line and plugged it in.

The campgrounds were extensive, open and park-like with mowed grass...very different from what I expected deep in the Everglades. Of course, it was on the Gulf and also has to be relatively safe for visitors. The most obvious wildlife were Black Vultures, tame and abundant. In the morning, they poked around the campsites and picnic tables before people were up and about. At one  multi-tent kayaker campsite, at least three of these birds were hopping about the leftovers from the night before in the bright morning sun. And they apparently eat exposed rubber on cars....

Everglades NP at Flamingo Visitor Center

Blue Goose ~ Day 233

January 15, 2014 ~ Naples, FL to Collier-Seminole State Park, FL

After a good motel breakfast, I went to the Audubon Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary which was 20 miles north and east.

Corkscrew was a plume hunter's paradise - plumes being feathers taken from birds and sold to decorate ladies' hats. Plume gathering was eventually stopped, but then the swamp began to be logged until enough concerned locals and "a long list of organizations" including the Audubon Society protested and prevailed, thereby saving Corkscrew. (Interestingly, the Lee-Tidewater Cypress Company donated 640 acres.)

Anhinga - Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary - FL

Corkscrew Swamp is always recommended as a must-see stop for birding in Florida. A main attraction for the visitor is a 2.2-mile boardwalk mostly through this old growth virgin bald cypress swamp. In addition to bird- and swamp-watching, Corkscrew has two trees on which a rare and beautiful "ghost" orchid" blooms. These are epiphytic (grow on another plant for support but not for nutrients) and in Corkscrew are 40-50 feet off the ground on bald cypress tree trunks.  For lovely photos and information about these specific ghost orchids, to to: archive.audubonmagazine.org or fortmyers.floridaweekly.com. (Google "ghost orchid" and look for this link.)

Swamp Lily - Corkscrew Swamp Sanctury - FL

At first, all was completely silent, bird-wise. I have never been in such apparent birdy habitat and heard or seen nothing. The other early walkers also noted this. But halfway through, it picked up, and I saw a life bird after searching diligently for 15 minutes along with a small group of other birders. Several of us were giving verbal directions as we saw movement high in the treetops before finally getting satisfactory, long-enough looks at a Yellow-throated Warbler, lovely and striking as most warblers are. While not uncommon in the southeast, it is rare in Michigan. It's fun to be with other knowledgeable birders and share the excitement when the thing flitting in the canopy is finally seen and positively identified.

A small boy with close-cropped curly blond hair and wire-rimmed eyeglasses was pushing his stroller along the boardwalk. A couple came from the opposite direction and they told the boy's parents that he was "well trained to not talk to strangers," to which they laughed and said, "He doesn't speak English."

Another darling little girl in bright pink crocs was with her grandparents, taking it all in.

A docent near the end of the boardwalk pointed out a four-foot long water moccasin right below the trail. She said it had been there several days. A large alligator with sea lettuce on its back snoozed nearby on a little hammock.

Audubon Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary - FL

Eventually, I saw Blue-headed Vireos, Black and White Warblers, Great-crested Flycatchers, a Tufted Titmouse, Yellow-rumped Warblers, a Pileated Woodpecker, very noisy Anhingas sounding like firecrackers in the bush, egrets, ibises, Wood Storks, several Red-shouldered Hawks...with, surprisingly, very few mosquitos.

Not far south of Naples going down the west coast of Florida is Mr. Watson territory (Peter Matthiessen) and the Ten Thousand Islands with few roads. I turned east on the Tamiami Trail and soon found Collier-Seminole State Park where I stayed for the night after making a food run to Marco Island. The campsites were adequate although close together which doesn't bother me. A couple camped in a tent on one side and a single gentleman slept in his truck on the other but most people were in RVs.

I read through what was left of the afternoon, ate a tuna fish sandwich, had a glass of wine, cheese and crackers, put a Skeeter Beater on one window and slept well, 20 feet from the real Everglades. There were surprisingly few night noises. All campers must go to bed early. When it gets dark, what little commotion (grills, campfires, food prep, conversations, muted radio or TV) ceases. Kind of amazing...but nice.

Water Moccasin - Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary - FL

Blue Goose ~ Day 232

January 14, 2015 ~ Spring Hill, FL to Naples, FL

It was a long drive to Sanibel Island and Ding Darling NWR. The west coast of Florida becomes increasingly congested and developed as one drives south. I had many bittersweet memories of Maria as I followed the same route of nearly three years ago when I visited her and Richard in Ft. Myers Beach. On that trip we birded Ding Darling and also spent a wonderfully memorable morning finding Burrowing Owls in a Cape Coral neighborhood where they nest in burrows in suburban lawns.

Willets - Ding Darling NWR - FL

Although it was late afternoon when I got to Ding, I spent at the last hours of daylight on the auto route, seeing herons, ibises, Willets, Roseate Spoonbills, Black-bellied Plovers, egrets.... Most of the birds are tame allowing great detailed views.

Little Blue Heron - Ding Darling NWR - FL

The Florida venues that are protected are so very different from the manicured lawns and paved-over areas of the hotels, condos, shops and homes. Canals and other "managed" water  projects drain and replace wetlands; exotic flora replace native plants; palm trees often are supported by four sturdy pieces of lumber, angling from ground to tree in each of the four primary directions. There is endless commerce and traffic. Insecticides, fertilizers and pesticides keep things neat, clean and green. The human population (in places like Sanibel Island) is either retirees or tourists. Bicycles and golf carts, lawn service trucks (often slightly decrepit and filled with yard debris), high-end cars, discreet signage, boutiques, restaurants... One Priceline lodging option was in the four-figure range; the rest were $300 - $500 per night.

But at least the couple of dozen people on the auto route were enjoying the refuge even though many didn't know the birds and were appreciative when I could tell them what they were. I hear foreign languages as often as English. People constantly use iPhones to take photos of distant birds. Of course, there are also digiscopers with tripods and long lenses. The birds were settling for the night.

Snowy Egret - Ding Darling NWR - FL

It was balmy and not crowded. Occasionally a small child would exclaim with pleasure at the closeness of a bird.

I had tentatively thought of returning here the next day, but the motels were too expensive, and obviously the few Walmart's near the Interstate do not allow car-camping in these upscale areas. In fact, most Walmart stores in all of southern Florida don't.

I did finally find a good deal on Priceline thinking it was much closer than it was and had to drive 90 minutes south so will not be returning here.

Black-crowned Night-Heron (immature) - Ding Darling NWR- FL

Blue Goose ~ Day 231

January 13, 2015 ~ Chiefland, FL to Spring Hill, FL

I easily found the VC of Lower Suwannee River NWR, arriving shortly after it opened. The woman at the desk and soon thereafter a gentleman who came in were extraordinarily conversant and helpful. The guy was meeting volunteers who were to help with an invasive, Brazilian pepper, also known as Florida Holly.

EN.WIKIPEDIA.ORG

"Florida Holly" was introduced to Florida by at latest 1891, probably earlier (Gogue et al. 1974), where it has spread rapidly since about 1940 (Ewel 1986), replacing native plants, like mangroves, with thousands of acres occupied. It is especially adept at colonizing disturbed sites and can grow in both wet and dry conditions. Its growth habit allows it to climb over understory trees and invade mature canopies, forming thickets that choke out most other plants.

Pretty but destructive.

Lower Suwannee access is via 40 miles of old logging roads; another 50 miles of highways run through the refuge. There is a nicely maintained, hard-surfaced white limestone 9-mile auto-route, designated hiking, canoeing and kayaking trails making it a great place to experience the habitat of northwest Florida. It had the feeling of welcoming the public, not just tolerating them. Part of the auto route wound through deep cypress swamp and part through slightly higher and therefore drier land. I passed a cluster of Black and Turkey Vultures seriously scavenging carrion in a small clearing just off the road. The Florida skies are seldom without these soaring, kiting birds.

Lower Suwannee River NWR - FL

I went to Shell Mound, set up my scope and watched birds for an hour. Mound (or middens) are slightly raised areas where Natives discarded clam and oyster shells and this one was adjacent to the coastal marsh. A few guys were fishing from the short boardwalk and an occasional fishing boat motored by in this peaceful expanse of marsh grasses, water, sky and birds which included Black Skimmers, pelicans, egrets, herons, plovers, ducks, gulls, avocets....not in huge numbers but with enough variety to satisfy a birder.

Shell Mound - Lower Suwannee River NWR - FL

From Shell Mound, I drove west to Cedar Key, a tourist destination, but surrounded by the numerous outlying keys of Cedar Keys NWR, some of which are boat-accessible. The town of Cedar Key itself had the feel of a laid-back small town with slow and easy daily rhythms. It reminded me more of California than Florida. I met and talked with a middle-aged, tanned, bare-chested guy on a fishing dock. He was with his small black dog companion, a Skipperdoo or Skipper-something, which he said was a breed that was good on boats. His wife had had aggressive breast cancer and had died last year. He was now living a life that appeared to suit him...most recently working in the summers clearing trails in western Colorado. He had also worked on the Adirondack Trail in New Hampshire. This winter,  he rented a place in a trailer park here for $300 a month, walks the "scrub," fishes now and then, hangs out and chats with folks....He asked that I take his picture to "send to my girlfriend...." His fishing equipment was a gift from an elderly neighbor, but he wasn't all that serious about catching fish. I got the impression the gear legitimized his hanging out on the docks. He emphasized how the locals do not want more development, how many have this appealing whateVer way of living...it may get done today or maybe tomorrow...no worries.

Royal Terns (and gulls) - Cedar Key, FL

I continued south to the Crystal River NWR VC, an attractive building surrounded by massive Spanish moss-draped trees, but it had just closed so I settled for driving to boat landings closest to the Chassahowitska and Crystal River refuges in the deepening, sort of gloomy (to me) twilight, through neighborhoods and RV parks. The warm springs in the area contribute to habitat that attracts the endangered West Indian Manatee which migrates here in the winter and Crystal River NWR was specifically created to protect this specie. Both refuges are a dense mix of tangled vines and trees, bushes and grasses, scrub and brush in and on swamps, estuaries, bays, creeks, inlets and islands with salty, brackish and fresh waters - a home for reptiles, amphibians, fish and birds.

Chassahowitska / Crystal River NWRs - FL

Blue Goose ~ Day 230

January 12, 2015 ~ Tallahassee, FL to Chiefland, FL

This was a day of fog and rain and mist as I drove south into the  Florida peninsula. The next refuge was Lower Suwannee River which can be accessed by at least three different routes. I was on US19, a good 4-lane road closer to the coast than Interstate 75, which is the route most tourists take; thus, 19 is a great alternative option, at least until Homosassa when it becomes six lanes and much busier. There are several NWRs on the Florida Gulf Coast, but most can only be accessed by boat. I did actually drive west to boat landings for two of these (Crystal River and Chassahowitzka) where the waters are home to the endangered West Indian Manatee. Three other refuges (Pinellas, Egmont Key and Passage Key) are islands in the entrance to Tampa Bay. 

In order to get near the Lower Suwannee NWR, and as the sky began to clear, I decided to drive to the town of Suwannee, a 50-mile round trip from Old Town on US19. (All the coastal venues in this part of Florida require leaving the main north-south roads and driving secondary routes west to the Gulf.) I went along the northern part of the refuge but didn't take any of the many side roads available to get into it. Lower Suwannee is 82 square miles of the lower reaches of the Suwannee River, with 26 miles along the Gulf itself, a wonderful refuge for birds and bats, turtles and tortoises, fish (including the endangered Gulf Sturgeon), alligators, manatees, otters, snakes, bobcat, raccoon, deer....

Lower Suwannee River NWR - FL

I stayed the night in Chiefland. With the advent of the Interstate, these north-south routes like US19 and US41 no longer were used as much and, as one drives the northern section, the towns and their tourist businesses along the highway seem stuck in the 1960s, slowed-down versions of modern travel without the options of Starbucks for example, or even most of the common chain restaurants and motels. Some homes I passed on the way to the coast were aging, in need of paint with accumulated yard detritus, the humid damp climate evident in moldy mildewed buildings hidden from the sun in dense abundant flora. I often couldn't tell if these were deserted or just rundown, although the presence of cars and/or trucks usually was a clue. This, of course, is based on relatively few miles driven on lesser roads, but northwest Florida is not the clean and neat Florida of golf courses, condos and beaches. I would guess some folks choose this area for exactly those reasons, although many are priced out of towns and communities farther south and settle here. The RV parks have a mix of the trailers and campers, semi-permanent, with all their outdoor stuff, often in dark, heavily shaded parks, crowded together and sometimes on canals. Retirees like their dogs and golf carts. I know that seeing this on an overcast day affected my perceptions. To be fair, there are also pleasant communities and suburbs, with permanent residents. 

Lower Suwannee River NWR - FL

  

Blue Goose ~ Day 229

January 11, 2015 ~ Ocklockonee River State Park, FL to Tallahassee, FL

I was up early, made some coffee and scrounged in my food stash for something to eat. A Carolina Wren perched near the picnic table singing its loud clear song. There was a lot of bird activity so I was hopeful, but after searching for a couple of hours and not seeing a RCW, I left at noon, drove to Tallahassee, found a Starbucks near the university and joined all the college kids working on their computers. After a couple of hours there, I decided to stay the night - in a motel - and continue with personal bookwork; I keep procrastinating doing this and only keep up with the minimal necessary items.

I found an Indian restaurant and had the fifth good meal since I began this trip...a wonderful shrimp tandoori with several large shrimp perfectly cooked in a spicy sauce with basmati rice.

I also found a Best Buy and checked out Canon cameras...just looking...just looking...

Ocklockonee River State Park - FL

Blue Goose ~ Day 228

January 10, 2015 ~ Crawfordville, FL to Ocklockonee River State Park, FL

I had passed through this area two years ago and saw a Red-cockaded Woodpecker at Ocklockonee River SP near Sopchoppy, not far from Crawfordville, so I went back to find one again. The habitat is longleaf pine savanna - tall pines with branches at the tops of the trees and open space between the trees so the effect is park-like, although sometimes marshy. The sun came out, warming me just enough. The park (this time of year) is a peaceful place with 25-30 camping spaces under the pines, and I decided to spend the night here. I registered for a campsite after slowly driving a loop while looking carefully for RCWs. I met a couple who were walking and also seriously looking. Neither of us had see one so far. There were Downy, Pileated and Red-bellied WPs, along with many Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers but no Red-cockaded, although the woman at the registration office said she had seen one that morning. They're here; we just didn't see them.

Ocklockonee River State Park - FL

I spent the afternoon at St. Marks NWR, one of the most frequently mentioned refuges when I talk with people about what I am doing. The refuge is approximately 25 miles long along the Gulf and 5 miles wide, 20 miles south of Tallahassee, stretching over three counties. It was established in 1931 for migratory birds. A paved road out to the St. Marks Lighthouse passes through several habitats of freshwater and saltwater marshes, estuaries and swamps. Other roads and levees are open to hikers, and 50 miles of the Florida Scenic Trail runs through St. Marks.

Part of most refuge management is eradication and/or control of nonnative species. Here is a little primer from the St. Marks website:

WWW.FWS.GOV 

The Scary Facts and Numbers:
"One year's seeding, seven years weeding." - Old gardener's adage  

• In the mid 1990's the economic impact of weeds on the U.S. economy was estimated to be $20 billion annually, ($15 billion agricultural, $5 billion non-crop damage). 

• Nonnative species threaten approximately 66% of all threatened and endangered species 

• Nonnative species are considered the second most important threat to biodiversity, only surpassed by direct habitat destruction. 

• In Florida alone, nearly 30% of plant species growing in the state, excluding cultivated crops, are exotic species. That's 1200 different species of exotic plants with potential invasive properties (they've already met the first requirement of adaptability to local climate and soils)! 

So there's that...At St. Marks, the three biggest threats are Cogongrass (perennial grass), Chinese Tallow Tree (medium-sized tree) and Japanese Climbing Fern.

Also, seven northern Florida rivers flow through St. Marks before entering the Gulf.

Saw Palmetto at St. Marks NWR - FL

Excuse me if I've told this story before but I met a man at Canaan Valley NWR who went to St. Marks with his parents as a young boy. They arrived in the morning after a night of fog, and he said he would never forget the "hundreds" of dead birds of all sizes on the ground around the lighthouse. They apparently had become disoriented by the light and had flown into the structure, which killed them. I couldn't find any references to this phenomenon but will never forget listening to this guy (a college professor with credibility) as he told me the story. The author Rick Bass also tells of driving to deer camp in central Texas as a youth, arriving on a foggy night and hearing ducks and/or geese calling and circling the cabin all night, not able to get their bearings in the fog.

I walked a short trail, watching a good-sized alligator basking on the bank of the pond below the VC balcony before driving to the lighthouse. As far as the alligator goes, I really thought it might be fake; it was utterly motionless to my eyes, so I went inside and asked. They assured me it was real.

St. Marks NWR - FL

The atmosphere on the trail was church-like with palms and pines and palmettos...very quiet, the sun shining through any open spaces in the flora.

I associated St. Marks with one of Maria's last outings as she and Richard stopped here in 2012 and remembered how impressed she was. I often wear the blue T-shirt she bought here.

I then went back to Ocklockonee and relaxed and read until it got too cold and then walked to the river at twilight. The state parks advertises themselves as "The Real Florida," and it is easy to envision the land before condos in a place like this.

I fixed a noodle bowl for dinner after snacking on cheese and crackers. People walked by my campsite, either with dogs or with binoculars. A few others were sitting around campfires. I saw license plates from Ontario, Michigan, Ohio, Texas, Georgia...and Florida, of core. All was very quiet. Darkness still comes quickly, but it's cozy reading in the van under the covers.

Black-crowned Night Heron (immature) - St. Marks NWR - FL