Who We Met Today

Walking nearly 12 miles in San Felasco Hammock today, we had some fun experiences with wildlife, only a portion of which we were able to capture in photographs. Enjoy with us the ones we photographed and are able to share.

Good Guy #1. We found him on his back and unable to right himself, perhaps flipped by wild pigs planning to make a meal of him. Once rescued and again upright, he beat a beeline for his burrow.

Bad Guy #1. This is poison oak. What more needs to be said?

Good Guy #2. This little alligator is all right with us, at least until he grows up and decides we don't belong in his territory.

Good Guy # 3 Honest, this really is another gopher tortoise, our second of the day.

Good Guy #4 Just when you were getting convinced that all gopher tortoises look alike, we present you with this juvenile, not only smaller, but more colorful than his elders.

Bad Guy #2 This little plant, often bearing pretty white flowers, is called "Tread Softly." If that doesn't tell you enough, consider its other name, "Stinging Nettles."

Thanks for joining us on our little tour of the very slow or stationary plants and wildlife encountered on our walk. Unfortunately the numerous lizards, butterflies, and birds we observed were too quick for us to capture their images.

Shired Creek Paddle

Last Sunday we climbed into our kayaks and followed the Shired Creek paddling trail laid out by Mark Gluckman, finally getting some data to begin putting together our long planned paddling guide for the Lower Suwannee and Cedar Keys National Wildlife Refuges. We were fortunate to be accompanied by a group of experts recruited by friend Melissa Desa. We learned a great deal while having a productive and enjoyable day.

Mozzarella at Kona Joe's

Peg, Edie, and Donna review the instructions

At the urging of chief cook Edie, today we made mozzarella at Kona Joe's, a favorite gathering spot in our own Cedar Key, Florida. Ever the trouper, Edie came up with good cheese milk, an un-pasteurized un-homogenized cow milk from a nearby farmer. Unfortunately, only a half-gallon was available, and we opted to do one small batch with the good milk and another with a full gallon of grocery store milk.

Not bad-looking curds and whey

To no one's surprise, the good milk produced good results, and the other produced almost nothing we were able to salvage.

OMG, it looks like mozzarella!

Not sure we were able to bring about a revolutionary improvement in the ancient art of cheesemaking, but we had a good time and could count one significant success.

Wood Storks

We saw these this morning. We suspect they may have a nest nearby.

Natural Landscapes?

A Roadside Ditch

Driving on the Lower Suwannee NWR loop road a week ago, I was impressed by the way the landscape, and especially the hydrology appears to have been altered by human activities. Roads were built to get to the timber and later to get logs out. Except in the uplands, every road is bordered by water-filled ditches, the result of dredge-and-fill operations needed to move people and vehicles through swampy terrain. Consequences of road-building may include a greater area and distribution of open water than would have occurred under natural conditions and a possible lowering of the water table, making for drier uplands.

Shell Mound

Then on Saturday we heard a talk by Univ. of Florida archaeologist Dr. Ken Sassaman and his graduate students. They believe that much higher ground along the Refuges' coastline was altered by the activities of prehistoric residents. 


Activities of both the Paleoindians and much more recent lumbermen have apparently served to increase habitat diversity, and thus are probably favorable for wildlife. Nevertheless, one is led to wonder how different the area might have looked 12,000 years ago.


Except for occasional prehistoric shell mounds along the immediate coastline, paddlers will likely see landscapes much less affected by anthropogenic change than hikers.

Fifty Years Later

 Next June 26 will mark the fiftieth anniversary of my high school graduation. Exact counts vary, but that night approximately 47 of us were launched into the wider world from Clifton-Fine Central School in Star Lake, NY, on the all-but-forgotten western edge of the great Adirondack wilderness. The event will be celebrated in a social gathering the weekend of August 12-13.

Excitement has been growing since classmate John Phillips has climbed a steep learning curve and acquired a high level of skill in social media. In its brief existence, the facebook page he manages has garnered over 450 followers and done wonders to help reunite the Clifton-Fine Diaspora. It has not only brought together semi-centenarians like us, but has strengthened linkages across the generations.

Pickerelweed

Pickerelweed (Pontederia cordata)

Here's another common wetland plant of freshwater habitats of the Lower Suwannee National Wildlife Refuge. Not quite a local specialty, we enjoy it also when we visit the Adirondacks in August. There it is common in the "Newton Falls pond" reach of the Oswegatchie River and likely also in the nearby Chaumont Swamp.

We might marvel that this plant thrives as well 1,200 miles north in New York State's Adirondacks as it does in Florida, but in fact its geographic range is even broader, extending from Nova Scotia to Argentina. Surely pickerelweed is another of Nature's winners.