Return of the Whooping Cranes

 

Yesterday morning I arrived in St. Marks at 0715 to witness the arrival of  5 of this years hatchling cranes. They had followed an ultra-lite plane for 54 days and over 1100 miles, from Wisconsin to St. Marks NWR. Prior to the landing at the Refuge, they did a fly over at the city of St. Marks.

The birds have imprinted on the ulta-lite, treating it as another crane and if you look closely at the pilot he is dressed in an all white "costume". All the people that interact with the cranes dress in "costume" and do not speak, so that the young birds won't imprint on them.

Here is a handler in "costume" with the crane head used in training. They act as surrogate parents and teach the young birds what to eat and how to behave.

Off toward the refuge where they'll spend the next few months before returning, on their own. to Wisconsin, Hopefully, around this time next year, they will return to St Marks NWR with prior years classes.

The whooping crane has come a long way in my lifetime, As a child the total number of birds was around 40, today it is over 600. A big step, but was still a long way to go. If you would like to contribute or just gain more information, here is the group that brought the cranes to St. Marks.
Operation Migration

Teenagers in the neighborhood

It's that time of the year when the yearling bears are chased away their mothers. This is part of the bear's breeding cycle. One of the results is the young bears come into town and start  attacking dumpsters, trash cans, pet foods, etc. They remind me of teenage kids...gangly, awkward, and hungry all the time. This little guy was about to hit a neighbor's trash can, when I interrupted him.

If you look closely under his right eye (click on picture to enlarge) you'll see that he has a fresh wound, probably a territorial dispute.

He finally tired of posing for me and loped back into the woods.

Have a great 4th of July!

A few shots of Apalachicola's fireworks show last night.

Spring Across the Panhandle

After a non-existent winter, we're now blessed with a prolonged spring. Low humidity, cool nights and mildly warm days. You can't ask for much more! 

At the end of February my master naturalist class visited the St. Joe Buffer Preserve which is a classical mix of wet lands and upland habitat. The Buffer is home to a number of rare and/or endangered species of plants. The Chapman rhododendron is only found in 3 places in Florida. 

An unusual characteristic of the Chapman is they grow in pine flatwoods instead of the shaded hillsides and ravines that many of it's cousins prefer.

In March I was invited to visit Spring Canyon. A private oasis in the steephead and ravine country of North Florida, featuring a number of rare species of plants.

 

The head of an active steephead with spring eroding a ravine.

Mountain laurel

Coral honeysuckle

Florida anise

Flame azalea

If these sights and habitat interests you, Torreya State Park is nearby and offers similar habitat.

Coyotes on the beach

As I was leaving St. George Island I saw two mature eagles diving in an aggressive manner. I thought I might be able to get some decent pictures even though it was foggy and cloudy. When I got the window down and my camera out of the truck I saw what they were harassing.

Here's what I saw through a 400MM lens. 

 

At this range and low light level, I couldn't be certain if the was coyote or coydog. After some serious cropping and brightening, here's what the eagles were chasing.

It's a fine, obviously well fed, black coyote! I don't know if it walked across the bridge (6 miles) or swam over, but it appears to have adapted well.

Trout lilies and trilliums

I first heard about  Wolf Creek last year. It's an oasis that harbors a myriad of flowering lilies far from their "native habitat". It consists of 140 acres of rolling hardwoods that has an area of 15-20 acres that is blanketed by dimpled trout lilies, with spotted trillium interspersed among them.

Spotted trillium

Hillside covered in dimpled trout lilies.

This is a beautiful area that is unique for this part of the country. For additional information go to their brochure or their web site . The trout lilies have probably peaked, but it is still a worth while trip to see what conservation of our natural resources is all about.

Happy New Year!

Hope to see all of you next year!

Solstice

 

The first day of winter awoke to a balmy 66 degrees. While we've had a few nights in the 30's most days are "shorts" weather. While the fronts typically bring high winds and cool temperatures, they also bring in migrant birds, some of which are not common to our area.

I've had a couple of rufous hummingbirds hanging around for the past month. They are the first ones that I've seen. They are very aggressive and will get in your face! Good thing they're not any bigger.

The cold fronts push many water fowl into the bays. These hooded mergansers also been infiltrated by an alien horned grebe.

A pair of northern shovlers.

A  young red shouldered hawk has also been hanging around this week. That's only a small sample of the migrants that we're seeing.

November in the Panhandle

One the things that is that you can count on in November is bears. They come around because of the acorns that are prevalent in the fall. The sow  in the photo above has two cubs and has been hanging around for a couple of weeks. Her cubs were frolicking across the street last week.

They are very entertaining to watch and aren't a problem unless they get into you garbage are destroy your bird feeder.

Our weather is great this time of the year and so is the fishing! Trout and reds are fattening up on the shrimp migrating to the gulf.

 

I took an interesting picture (to me anyway) the other day.

 

Nothing exceptional you say...just a handsome young man man holding a nice red, until you look at the reflection in his sun glasses.

You can see what Mike is seeing, while I'm taking his picture.

While I was out on the dock, my neighbor came out to net some mullet for supper. The evening sun added a nice cast of color.

 Then there's Jessie. He lives in the creek that borders our property. He certainly enjoys the sunny afternoons after our chilly fall nights.

I'm very fortunate to live in such a rich, natural environment, and for all of you that we don't have a change of season............We do!!!!!!!!!!