Little Piece of Paradise

05/26/2023

https://www.tallahassee.com/story/news/local/2023/05/25/pools-beaches-springs-near-tallahassee-places-to-swim-this-summer/70254379007/

To help you dive into the three-day weekend and the rest of summer, we have a list of pools, springs, and beaches for you to visit.

01/19/2023

Leon Sinks Geological Area, a 15 minute drive from St. Marks. $5 per vehicle. Bathrooms and picnic tables at trail head.

"Right off US 319 south of Tallahassee, the Leon Sinks Geological Area contains 5 miles of trails leading to a series of sinkholes big and small. The land in this area is underlain by a layer of limestone, eroded and dissolved by rainwater and groundwater to form caverns, holes, and tunnels. This type of terrain is called "karst" and results in many geological features such as wet sinkholes, depressions, natural bridges and a disappearing stream."

https://www.fs.usda.gov/recarea/florida/recarea/?recid=83619

01/13/2023

Two Spanish moss-draped Cypress trees frame the recent Wolf Moon as it sets over Otter Lake. This was the first photo in the dark of a chilly morning and it was worth every second that I was there. There are not too many things in this world that are more awe inspiring and beautiful than seeing a big full moon first thing in the morning!

10/15/2022

Monarchs, Gulf frittilaries. Skippers and assorted bees feasting on Saltbush. A 20 minute drive from this home.

08/03/2022

From Don Morrow"

It is August at St. Marks NWR. The refuge’s pools and ponds are full from the heavy rains of July and the East River is flowing under the Double Bridges. Horsemint has started blooming along Lighthouse Road, always a sure sign of late summer. The fruits of Grape, Peppervine and Virginia Creeper are ripe. Beautyberry and Silverbay are ripening fast.

August at St. Mark is an acquired taste. It is marginally cooler than July, but only by the most technical analysis. The unrelenting humid heat of Gulf summer continues and won’t really begin to let up until October. It would be easy to decide to stay inside. Yet, there is much to draw you to the refuge. August brings momentous changes as the pace of seasonal change increases.

August is the month that the first of our wintering Bald Eagles return. It is the month that Ospreys begin to migrate and when we can expect to see Blue-Winged Teal. These first teal are in their camouflaged nonbreeding plumage and are usually the only duck species seen this month along Lighthouse Road. These first teal are through-migrants from the Midwest. After a period of rest to fatten up, they’ll continue down to northern South America. Our wintering teal may come from as far away as Manitoba and will soon follow.

Finished with nesting, local Wood Ducks flock up in August. They will remain at the refuge through the winter and be joined later in the fall by migrant Wood Ducks from further North. By now, many of our resident birds have also completed their breeding cycles and have begun to form mixed-species feeding flocks. These small flocks, which usually include titmice, chickadees and Downy Woodpecker, are good places to find early migrants like American Redstart and Black-and-White Warbler. Watch for them at the Double Bridges and along Tower Pond Trail.

Migrant Yellow Warblers seem to like the Cabbage Palms along the levees and Lighthouse Road. They are abundant and breed from the mountains of North Georgia through the boreal forests of Canada. Yellow Warblers have one of the longest fall migration periods of any warbler at St. Marks. The first are often seen in July and the last South-bound migrants may not pass through until mid-November.

Annually at the refuge, beginning in late August and continuing into September, flocks of Eastern Kingbirds spend the night in the Stony Bayou marshes. They begin to rise up out of the sawgrass and cattails at first light and fly east to migrate down the peninsula. The number of kingbirds on any given night is variable, but these flocks can easily measure into the hundreds and one flock was estimated at 2,500 birds.

Shorebird migration is continuing to pick up and shorebird numbers at the refuge will increase modestly in August as transiting shorebirds come and go and as winter birds begin to arrive. The first Black-bellied Plovers from the High Arctic, still in their distinctive breeding plumage, will appear at the refuge this month and join the drably-plumaged yearlings that have over-summered here. Some of these adult plovers will move through and winter along the coast of South America, some as far South as Uruguay. Other arriving shorebirds have not travelled as far. Our summer Willets have headed south and are replaced in August by the refuge’s wintering Willets that bred on the edges of shallow wetlands in the plains of the western US and Canada.

It's August at the refuge and summer is stubbornly holding on. If you try to outwait it, you will miss some amazing things.

Come join me at the refuge. I’m willing to share.

Don Morrow