Dr. Jay Bushnell, a former president of Friends, has written reviews of two conservation books. You can access them here.
0 Comments
On several summer Saturdays, Friends members volunteered to staff a Refuge Welcome Desk on the porch of the Cedar Key Chamber's Visitor Center. Summer visitors to the area often are unfamiliar with the refuge and looking for additional side trips to enjoy in the area. The Welcome Desk is a great opportunity to help people learn about the value of the refuge to them as visitors and to the overall quality of life in our region.
Bob and Barbara Hudson reported that the first Saturday in August had started off slow. Then the sun came out and so did the people. They ended up having 65-70 visitors between 10 am and 2 pm. The sunny weather definitely made the difference. About 40% were couples with children of all ages. They loved the brochure that overviews the refuge and the ones on bats and butterflies. Friends membership dollars are at work making those available! Like the Hudsons, the others of us who have already volunteered are eager to do it again. If you would like to give it a try, email [email protected]. Let's work out a Saturday for you to work with one of us who has done it before or on your own. As in previous years, this summer has brought flooding rains to roads throughout the Lower Suwannee Refuge on both sides of the river. For safety reasons, as well as to prevent significant erosion and other damage to the roadways, several have had to be closed. When possible, they are reopened. When flooded again, they are re-closed. The situation changes quite often. Before heading out for a refuge visit, you can call Refuge Manager Andrew Gude on his cell phone to learn the latest on road openings and closures. His number is 703.622.3896.
Our researcher friend, Dr. Gina Kent, at Avian Research and Conservation Institute reports that we have heard from Suwannee. His transmitter is still working. Hooray!
In response to a question after we last posted about Suwannee in July, Gina tells us that these birds fly about 18-25 mph in a straight-line, migratory-type flight. They are, however, greatly influenced by both head winds or tail winds. Right place. Right time. Right photographer!Deputy Manager Larry Woodward captured our favorite Swallow-tailed kite Suwannee, and his tracker, as Suwannee foraged with a large group of other kites over agricultural fields adjacent to the Lower Suwannee Refuge. Gina Kent from the Avian Research and Conservation Institute (ARCI) checked the signals from his tracker and confirmed both that it is still working and that he has been in these fields. She sent the map below to show where he has been. Although his battery is still transmitting, it has outlived its time and is expected to fail any day. We hope to be able to fund a new tracker for another bird in the future. Donations are welcome and can be made on Friends website.
As you probably guessed, they are both the same news. Our outstanding, much admired Deputy Manager Larry Woodward has accepted a new position. He will become the Deputy Project Leader at the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge. As Refuge Manager Andrew Gude said, "It is a good career move for Larry and we are pleased for him. We have had a cohesive and successful team here for ten years. That is more than most workplaces ever get to say. We will miss him. It has been a very good run and we are all grateful for those ten years." (Then of course, being Andrew, he added "Don't tell Larry I said all those nice things, okay?") Too bad. I had to share them with all of us who know how lucky we are to have had him, and the stellar team for all this time! Here is what Refuge Manager Michael Lusk at Okefenokee NWR had to say:
We wish you all the best, Larry.
The Florida Public Archaeology Network and Friends of Refuges information booths drew good participation.
Next time, we will try for better weather. There will be a next time for all who wished to come but couldn't make it. The kayak tour had to be cancelled and we hope to reschedule since there was abundant interest. The Lower Suwannee and Cedar Keys NWRs welcome our Summer 2021 Youth Conservation Corps (YCC) Team: from left to right, Katie Vandegrift, Jeffery Schleede, and returning Youth Leader Shelby Holland. We feel very fortunate to have these high school student colleagues!
Our summer interns, Jasmin Muslimani and Nicolle Montero, are completing a forestry photo plot project. Photo plots provide qualitative data to help with monitoring change over time. Engineering Equipment Operator George Pelt is on a Wildfire Severity Detail in Big Cypress.
Watching the ibises fly over Cedar Key this week and knowing that they were foraging for food for their nestlings, Friends members Mac and Nita Cox wondered where they would find enough freshwater fish for all the baby birds during this dry season. Juvenile ibises can't take the saltiness of fish from the Gulf. The adults need to fly in to fresh water areas, find food, and carry it back to the nesting areas on Snake Key in the Cedar Keys National Wildlife Refuge. We asked Deputy Manager Larry Woodward about it and learned that finding enough food for nestlings is a full-time job for adult ibises. They fly far, multiple times a day, to forage and bring back fish for their young. People have gathered at Shell Mound for more than 1500 years to celebrate the summer solstice. Come and join Friends of Lower Suwannee and Cedar Keys NWRs and the Florida Public Archaeology Network for this year's gathering. Learn about the place where Shell Mound was built centuries ago . . . a huge, wind-formed dune aligned with the solstices. When: Sunday, June 20th, 9:00 to noon Where: On CR 326, three miles off CR 347, on the Lower Suwannee National Wildlife Refuge, near Cedar Key The Schedule:
What to Bring: sunscreen, water, shoes for a trail walk, hat and clothes for protection from insects, bug spray To learn more about the natural and cultural history of the Shell Mound site before coming, you may want to look over the interpretive panels or read the short guide book, Shell Mound: A Portal into Another World, on our Shell Mound website page.
Thanks to the pandemic, the Friends Welcome Desk at Refuge Headquarters has been closed, and it is unlikely that it will be available anytime soon. Space is at a premium at the Refuge and the space that was designated for Friends, is now occupied by USFWS employees.
Coincidentally, the Cedar Key Chamber reached out requesting more information on Refuge activities. Peg Hall and Denise Feiber met with Sue Colson to discuss a trial run of setting up a Friends table at the Chamber Welcome Center. On two days (one Saturday and one Wednesday) in May, Peg and Denise set up displays and brochures at the Chamber from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. During the short time, approximately 40 people stopped by for an education in the many activities offered, particularly those in the Lower Suwannee NWR. Visitors to Cedar Key are often unaware of these areas. Based on the results of these trial runs, the Friends Board supports moving forward with an extended trial period for the following dates: June 12, 19, 26, and July 3. Time period between 10-2 seems to work well. We need more volunteers to help cover these dates. Can we count on you? If so, please reply to [email protected]. Friends has many trail guides available for folks who want to walk, bike, and paddle on the refuge. You can access all of them on the website Maps page. And yet, one of the features that all visitors remember about coming to the Lower Suwannee or Cedar Keys Refuge and trying to walk or bike in warmer months is our biting insects! Friends board member Dan Kline is a biting insect researcher. He is working on a trail guide for a virtual trail . . . one you can enjoy and learn from without having to actually go out and walk or bike it. Here is a preview of some of his video that will help describe and explain the habitat that yellow flies most enjoy . . . and thus humans might want to avoid in warm months. A note from board member Debbie Jordan: We’ve had another delightful spring weather-wise. Time to get out and enjoy the Refuge! Roy and I had a chance to show two birdwatcher friends from Colorado a little piece of our heaven last month. I think the wildness of the area really blew them away, so unlike the rest of Florida further south. We drove the mainline and walked the beach at Shired Island, where we ran into Kathy Dusterwinkle, one of our wonderful Refuge volunteers from Michigan as she was picking up trash on the beach. Those volunteers really work hard. Here’s a few photos from our expedition. We ran across a few intriguing plants. The Leather flower grows on a vine and the flower is curiously stiff.
A few horseshoe crabs were on the beach, these fascinating creatures are older than dinosaurs! Since this Barred Owl did not fly off, we assumed it had a nest nearby. Quickly admiring the beautiful markings, we snapped a couple of pictures and got out of there. I am sure our friends will be back! We are in the “biblical proportions of bloodsucking, biting, and insanity-causing insect season”. Forester Daniel Barrand is mulching with the Tiger Cat in Dixie County. The video shows the horrendous swarms of biting yellow flies in the Week's Landing area where he is working. This is the definition of insanity if you are outside. Daniel, along with our new staff members Jasmin Muslimani (Refuge BioTech) and Nicolle Montero (UF Summer Forestry Assistant), attended Leah Eggeman's timber sale prebid meeting at St. Marks. Daniel said that this is the most complex timber sale he has put together to date while with the NWRS. Jasmin and Nicolle Montero are also working to continue our Bobwhite Quail surveys. Last week, while Nicolle and Jasmin were doing photo plot work, they got into a terroristic horde of ticks that were literally crawling all over them. They had to return to the shop to de-tick and change clothes. Refuge Engineering Equipment Operators Jason Coates and George Pelt have been doing road improvement work around the refuge. Also, Jason recently repaired several large potholes at McCormick Creek Road boat launch. The 2021 - 2022 Lower Suwannee Hunt Brochure is off to the printers and already available here on Friends website. We offer 201 aggregate hunt days, 131 aggregate hunt days minus waterfowl, or 99 total hunt days. Our phones are already getting calls about this upcoming season's hunts. Least Terns and Wilson’s Plovers have established a shorebird nesting colony! Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) staff are surveying the areas. Refuge staff are working to protect these nesting birds by attempting to lure and trap raccoons. So far no raccoons have been trapped despite a variety of baits being used. They are apparently very smart and savvy.
|
Archives
June 2024
|
![]() Friends of the Lower Suwannee & Cedar Keys National Wildlife Refuges
P. O. Box 532 Cedar Key, FL 32625 [email protected] We are a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. |
|