![]() We couldn’t ask for a nicer day for a walk in the woods; lots of sunshine and a cool breeze kept the birds out and the biting insects away! There were eight of us to walk the 2 plus miles on the Turkey Foot Trail. There are not an abundance of flowers blooming yet, but the butterflies are starting to show up. We saw Palamedes, Eastern Tiger and Spicebush Swallowtails, Phaon Crescents, a Queen, Viceroy and Cloudless Sulfur. Not too bad considering our favorite nectar flowers, the “Horrible” thistles, are not in bloom yet! The woods seemed full of birds, often heard more than seen, but we did see Northern Parula, Pine, Black and White and Yellow-throated Warblers, Ruby-crowned Kinglets, Blue-headed Vireo, Tufted Titmouse, and a Golden-crowned Kinglet. There were even 3 young alligators floating in Pond 5. It was a great day, but any sunny day in the Lower Suwannee NWR is a great day (especially since there were no bugs or ticks!)
0 Comments
![]() Now that the weather is warmer, there are more butterflies flitting about and the migratory birds are beginning to arrive. The first Swallowtail Kite sighting of the season has occurred and while in the woods last week, I saw and heard several Northern Parulas. I think our next nature walk in the Lower Suwannee NWR will be a longer one than usual, so if you plan to attend, please expect the walk to take much of the morning. We will walk behind the gates on a grassy trail for 3 miles. I hope to see some spring flowers, butterflies, an alligator or two and, hopefully, a Swallowtail Kite flying overhead! Wear long pants, good walking shoes and please be prepared for ticks. They should also be more active now! If you have binoculars, please bring them along for bird and alligator watching! Since it will be warm, bring water to drink and if you like, a snack. We will meet at the Cedar Key Town Park parking lot at 8:30am to car pool to the Refuge and will enter the Refuge by way of the south entrance to the Nature Drive off CR 347. If you would like to meet there, we should arrive at the south entrance around 8:45 or 8:50. From the south entrance we will drive about half way through the Nature Drive to the end of Pond 4 Road. The walk will begin from there. Please join me for a walk in the woods on Thursday morning, 25 February. This walk will be along an old logging road that will go through some pine uplands bordered by sand live oaks and then through a pretty swamp area with bald cypress. It will be a two mile walk. We will walk a mile out to a small pond, and then return along the same road. A small area is still under water, so you may get your feet a little wet (or balance on some wood across the stream). We will meet at the Cedar Key Town Park parking lot closest to the beach at 8:30 to car pool. If you have any questions, please call 352-543-6738.
While walking in the Refuge this week, I saw at least 7 different kinds of butterflies out and flitting about. It is time (past time!) to clean up and weed the Refuge Pollinator Garden to prepare it for spring blooms!! If you are able and willing, please meet at the Lower Suwannee NWR headquarters at 9am on Monday, Feb 22 for a couple hours of weeding and digging. Please wear long pants and long sleeved shirt and bring gloves and any gardening tools you may have. I hope to see you there! If you need further directions or have questions, please call me, Donna Thalacker at 352-543-6738.
Those with the good fortune to have attended last Saturday's presentation by the Nature Coast Biological Station at the Cedar Key Library got an outstanding introduction to the Suwannee alligator snapping turtle (Macrochelys suwanniensis), a local species that is new to science. These turtles were long thought to be members of a wide-ranging species that occurs across much of the southeast. But investigators noted that they shun salt water, come out on land only briefly to lay eggs, and probably have been isolated from their closest relatives for tens of millions of years. Biologists Savanna Barry and Travis Thomas summarized several lines of scientific evidence that clearly demonstrate that those in the Suwannee basin are members of a distinct species. Few people and few professional biologists have ever seen these secretive turtles in the wild, but they are abundant in the Suwannee and its tributaries, and are huge, weighing up to 250 pounds. Thomas and several collaborators also discovered another new species, the Apalachicola alligator snapping turtle that occurs on the western edge of Florida's Big Bend region. Thanks to the NCBS for reminding us of the unique biological treasures that surround us.
The communications team, at the request of the Board, has designed a new logo for use in our publications and elsewhere. The new logo includes the herons to represent the wildlife that our Refuges conserve and the marsh grasses and uplands wilderness that the both we and the wildlife need.
Become a Citizen Scientist and learn what YOU can do to help them!
Registration is now open for the Citizen Science training for the Spring 2016 surveys. Please note that space is limited. This program is a partnership between the Friends of the Refuges, Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission, and the University of Florida Seahorse Key Marine Lab and Department of Biology. This promises to be another interesting talk about our natural environment at the Cedar Key Library on Thursday, Feb 11 at 5pm!
Katie Glodzik and Elliott White, both PhD students in the Watershed Ecology lab within Environmental Engineering at UF, will talk about the effect of saltwater intrusion on the coastal ecosystems and the options for mitigation. Saltwater intrusion from sea level rise and reduced freshwater flow is a growing threat around the world. The Big Bend's flat coastline and Florida's growing population and dependence on groundwater extraction make the Big Bend particularly vulnerable. Major ecosystem transitions including die-off of coastal forest, cypress swamps, and oyster reefs are already occurring. This talk will cover these impacts and discuss options for mitigation. Friends of the Lower Suwannee & Cedar Keys NWRs had a field trip last weekend to the other end of our river. We visited the Okefenokee NWR. The 20 participants are ready to go again and bring along even more members . . . preferably on a somewhat warmer and less wet weekend, but before the start of mosquito season. The Cedar Key State Park is hosting a STAR PARTY at the Cedar Key State Museum at 6:30pm on 5 February. There will be a presentation and slide show on astronomy followed by a chance to gaze at the stars with the assistance and equipment of astronomers. The event is FREE. It is a great presentation and, if the stars are out, a fabulous chance to see the stars and learn more about them!!
Maria Sgambati, president-elect of Friends, will be sharing with the Board what she learned when she attended the Friends Forward gathering in Washington in January and when meeting with Congressional representatives. Here are some of her photos. ![]() Though the weather wasn’t the best, nine nature walkers had the opportunity to meet three of the new Cedar Key State Parks staff, Tommy Pavao, Chris Camargo and Tommy Barry. We all benefited from their combined knowledge of the scrub habitat, the plants and animals that live there, and the efforts taken to keep the scrub habitat a healthy one. Chris Camargo pointed out the various scrub plants along our walk and Tommy Pavao led us to an area that had been burned in 2009. We were able to see the incredible difference between that area and the area that has not been burned in many years. Tommy and Chris helped all of us to see and understand the need for controlled fires in the scrub. Florida Scrub Jays require a fire-maintained scrub habitat to keep open areas for them to cache acorns and the scrub oaks to be no taller than 10 feet, and probably less than that. Part of the area we walked has not been burned in many years and it was easy for us to see the difference between that area and the more recently burned area. In the unburned area, there were no open areas, other than the trail, and the scrub oaks were closer to twelve feet than ten. Florida Scrub Jays have not been seen regularly in this scrub in several years. Tommy and his staff are currently in the process of trying to return the Cedar Key Scrub to a healthier scrub habitat through controlled burns in the Cedar Key Scrub along SR 24. They are hopeful the efforts to return the scrub will bring the Florida Scrub Jays back to Cedar Key. Our return walk to the parking lot was in a light rain, but we were rewarded with a great sighting of a male Eastern Towhee, who kindly stayed in the open long enough for all of us to get a good look! Towhees are a common scrub bird, often heard and not so often seen. The picture of the Florida Scrub Jay was taken by Frank Morgan last year alongside CR 347. This is a rare sighting and picture of the Jay. Thank you Frank! The other pictures were taken by Vicki Crumpley. Vicki is a frequent nature walker and does a great job taking pictures during our walks. Please join us for our next nature walk on February 9. Normally the walks are on the second and fourth Thursdays of the month, so this is a change. This walk is during the small game hunting season and because of that we will not go behind the gates on this walk. Instead we will walk Cabin Road, which is a great walk anyway!! We have seen otters there, owls and many other birds on this road. Those who want to carpool, please meet me, Donna Thalacker, at the Cedar Key town park parking lot, near the beach at 8:30am. If you want to meet at Cabin Road, meet us about 9am at the entrance to Cabin Road. Cabin Road can be reached from the south entrance of the Lower Suwannee NWR nature drive off CR347. Cabin Road is on the left about 2 – 3 miles from the south entrance to the refuge. I can be reached at 352-543-6738 if you require further information. Maria Sgambati has been representing us at the Moving Friends Forward workshop at the National Conservation Training Center in WV. Oops . . . Snow Storm! A report on the workshop will come soon, when Maria gets back from the storm.
Friends board member Jaime Jerrels is a fifth generation Florida Cracker and farmer. She is also the Assistant Director of Agricultural Policy for the Florida Farm Bureau. In that role, she sends all of us the uncomfortable news that on January 16, 2016, the first case in nearly seven months of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) was confirmed in a commercial turkey flock in Dubois County, Indiana. The January 2016 case of HPAI is a different strain than the 2015 strain that affected over 49 million wild and domestic birds costing federal tax payers over $950 million. No new cases have been confirmed since January 16th.
Due to the 2015 outbreak, the United State Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (FDACS) have made revisions to their protocols on how they respond to and prevent the spread of the avian influenza (AI). In Florida, FDACS has revised their Animal Import Rule for poultry to include required pre-import AI testing for non-commercial shipments. The test must be done within 21 days of entry into Florida for those poultry originating from a non-HPAI affected state and within 7 days for poultry originating from outside a control zone in a HPAI affected state. The official enforcement date of the new import requirement is March 1, 2016. For more information, please follow the link below. FAQ |
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. |
|