My Weekend on the Boardwalk

Spring seems to be in the air here at Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary. As the swamp is drying down for its annual cycle, things are alive as ever! Flowers are back in bloom, and the wildlife is abundant along the boardwalk. Every day presents something new, whether I discover a new plant I hadn’t noticed before, or an island of Cypress knees I hadn’t seen before, it is always exciting to walk the boardwalk. Since most of my work is done either in a lab setting, or in the backcountry, I spend my time on the boardwalk either after work or on the weekends.

This past weekend seemed eventful! While walking the boardwalk, I watched a Great Blue Heron stalk its’ prey for a while and finally catch and eat a huge fish! Through all my fish sampling days, I have not come across a fish that big in the swamp, and I thought there was no way the fish could fit down the herons’ throat. After a few attempts, moving the fish around to get the right angle, the fish was swallowed whole! That large fish was not enough for the Great Blue Heron. Immediately after the fish disappeared down its’ throat, the heron was at it again looking for its’ next meal.

As I stood watching the Great Blue Heron, a juvenile Black Crowned Night Heron flew into the scene. It stood next to an Anhinga who had its’ wings spread out enjoying the warm sun. A few steps further, there was an adult Yellow Crowned Night Heron perched in a tree. Their colors are so pure I am always delighted to see them. After rounding a bend, there was an Alligator sunning itself in a spot I had never seen one before, and a Limpkin preening itself on the other side of the boardwalk. I noticed something a bit unique about the Limpkin, it had only one wing! I was curious as to what happened to the other wing, then got to thinking about what this Limpkin has seen and gone through in its’ life. The Everglades ecosystem is a tough ecosystem to survive in, with many venomous snakes in the water and on land, and alligators that look so much like dinosaurs; however the swamp thrives with a diverse range of plants and animals that have evolved to adapt to this ecosystem.

In the North Lettuce Lake, I expected to see the three Anhinga chicks that hatched just over a month ago. Watching their growth and progress from the three of them being confined to this nest that was probably a bit too small for everyone, to stretching their legs, wobbling along the branches of the same tree. If nothing else in the swamp, I could always depend on the Anhingas being there. Since the last time I was there, they have learned to spread their wings, and were not near their nest anymore. There were Anhingas around, but I was not sure if they were the chicks, or the other resident birds in the area. Although I was sad not to see these chicks I watched grow up, I was excited to see a Little Blue Heron climbing along some fallen branches, feeding. In the distance, there was a Red-Bellied Slider resting in a funny position, almost looking like he was trying to fly.

Away from the lakes, Brown Anoles were running everywhere, one in front of the other! I am guessing it is close to mating season for them, with many males actively displaying their colorful dewlap and performing their territorial “push-ups”. Contrasting beautifully with the bright red or orange of the anole’s dewlap, is the flower of the blue flag. This native plant in the Iris family has started to bloom along the trail, providing some beautiful colors to your walk.

There are so many great things to be found along the 2.5 mile boardwalk, many of which can easily be overlooked. I encourage you to try to find these things, and more, through your walk at Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary; but don’t forget, nature doesn’t stop when the boardwalk does!

 Kelsie (Research Intern)

Hayden's Last Post

   My internship here at Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary is coming to a close within the next two weeks, and accordingly, this will be my last blog post. Almost 6 months has elapsed since my internship started here, and it's simultaneously felt like a lifetime and a split second in time. It seemed there was no one singular post to leave on, so I wanted to talk about some highlights of my experience here at Corkscrew and Southwest Florida. Let's get sentimental.
    I arrived at Corkscrew on September 5, 2017, just 5 days before the most powerful hurricane ever recorded in the Atlantic Basin made landfall south of Naples. The destruction it wreaked on Corkscrew and Naples has been fleshed out enough, but from my end of things it was a once in a lifetime experience that I honestly wish to never experience again. I stayed here at Corkscrew through Irma, and sheltered in the Blair visitor center. As the eye wall passed over the Blair center on September 10, I will never forget seeing the hurricane rip through the pine flatwoods surrounding the visitor center. An entire forest of Slash Pine and Cabbage Palm in fluid motion bent and swayed westward with each band of wind and pouring rain, yet the chaos outside was muted by the thick concrete walls and high-impact resistant windows that enclose the Blair Center. There was nothing quite like pulling a chair up to the door and watching one of the most powerful forces of nature that exists tear through Corkscrew.
    I'll also never forget the following month, where every day was spent out in the late Summer heat clearing Cypress needles and branches stripped by Irma off of the boardwalk and clearing Corkscrew's facilities of enormous Slash Pines that had finally succumbed to the +100 mph winds. For a brief moment at Corkscrew, all of the staff, each with their own respective backgrounds and department priorities, came together to accomplish one mission: recovery.
    Another memory of type 2 fun came from my first non-boardwalk related work activity when I joined the Research department to complete our first week of aquatic fauna surveys at Panther Island and at Corkscrew. It was my first introduction to wildlife surveying, and my first week spent entirely knee deep in the swamp. The humidity, the scorching sun, and the monotony of the sampling process itself couldn't sour seeing the most beautiful sunrises through the fog and mist shrouding stands of Slash Pine and a purple sea of blooming Muhly Grass. I ventured into a cypress dome for the first time as a part of our survey area, and stood in a small pond in absolute awe looking up at ancient cypress trees with sheaths of resurrection ferns draping the upper branches, listening to woodpeckers make a ruckus.
    I can't also forget when in the process of driving a swamp buggy with Resource Manager Allyson Webb at Panther Island, one of the front tires of the buggy popped off of its axle and floated away in a puddle in the road as we sat in a state of shock that quickly developed into a moment of serious laughter.
    Naturally, I will also never forget the sheer beauty of Corkscrew, primarily from a plant community perspective. Standing out on the exit boardwalk during the sunset and looking north over the wet prairie where 3 main ecotones of swamp ecosystems coincide, and waiting for the same group of Black Bellied Whistling Ducks to settle into the marsh to forage during the evening was a favorite sight of mine. Watching the sunset filter its last golden beams over the Pond Cypress and wet prairie and into the pines around Plume Hunter's camp was pure magic every time. Lest I forget about the  enormous stretches of blooming wildflowers at Panther Island that shifted at the interchange of the wet and dry season seasons, or standing in the pine flatwoods to the south of the visitor center and hearing the wind whip through the upper canopy of the Slash Pines and feeling it gently filter down into the understory of saw palmetto, wax myrtle, and salt bush.
   In my 6 months here, I feel like I saw something new and spectacular every day. It wasn't necessarily earth-shattering stuff, like seeing a panther (which finally happened just this week) or seeing the most spectacular sunset in my lifetime. Each day, I learned something new about wildlife behavior, the ecosystems of South Florida, plant phenology and reproduction, or shared a new experience with a coworker. Corkscrew in its abstract sense is a spectacular place, but the people who work here at the Swamp add a special human component to it. I learned so much about resource management techniques, equipment maintenance and repairs, and large-scale research projects operating on grand temporal scales. I met some amazing volunteers who took time out of their day to teach me something new or even show me a new experience entirely like when Ralph Arwood took me down to Big Cypress to help him with his acoustic bat monitoring project.
    All these mushy platitudes aside, what made this experience particularly enjoyable for me was that it was so warm here the entire duration of my internship. I strongly detest winter and being cold in general, and spending the winter months here at Corkscrew gave me a sweet sense of satisfaction and gratitude for rarely if ever having to bundle up into multiple layers of clothes.
   I will definitely be sad to leave here the first weekend of March, but I am excited for what is to come. In April, I will be starting a new job at Hot Springs National Park in Arkansas as a seasonal resource management technician performing a host of different duties. I am absolutely certain that if it were not for my experience and time here at Corkscrew, I would not be gaining this sort of employment with an agency I have been trying to work with since graduating college.
    To all my coworkers I've had the privilege of working with- thank you for your guidance, willingness to teach, and most importantly your sense of humor. To all the alligators out in the swamp- I love you all. Each and every one of you are amazing creatures. And to my friends living in the Gatorhole intern dorm- it was too real. Peace.
-Hayden (conservation intern)

New Conservation Intern

Hello my name is Melissa Gonzalez and I am Corkscrew's newest Conservation Intern. I was born and raised in Queens, NY where I explored the concrete jungle in my formative years. At age 11 I moved to Naples, FL and this city girl was suddenly stuck in a small town. As I grew into my teenage years I began to explore this small town that I was thrown into. Instead of taking the subway or walking through the city, I was climbing trees, running through pine flatwoods, and spending hours at the beach. Growing up in Naples I grew to love the outdoors because there wasn't much else to do but spend time outside. I had visited Corkscrew a few times through school field trips, and had always been enchanted during my visits to this mystical swamp. Walking through the board walk and seeing the cypress dome in front of me was fascinating when I visited the first time, and I still feel the same 10 years later. 

 I graduated from the University of Central Florida in December 2017 with a B.S in Environmental Studies, and a minor in Biology. GO KNIGHTS! (Charge On). Since I was a little girl, I knew I wanted to work with animals, and with my experiences growing up in Naples, that passion for wildlife just grew. Since I started my college career I  planned on pursuing a career in conservation/wildlife biology. Throughout my 5 years at UCF I have had the privilege to work for some great organizations, which reassured me that a career in conservation is what I wanted to pursue. I worked with 3 species of sea turtles in the Archie Carr Wildlife Refuge for the summer months of 2015 as an intern for the UCF Marine Turtle Research Group. Working with Marine Sea Turtles was truly an amazing experience, I got to gain valuable knowledge/experience handling wildlife. That same summer I did Red-Cockaded Woodpecker surveys, and spraying invasive plant species at the Ocala National Forest. The following summer, I went on a cross-country road trip to Portland, Oregon so that I could work for the Mt. Hood National Forest as an Interpretive intern for summer of 2016. Through that internship I grew to love teaching the public about our wildlife and our forests, also hiking in the PNW is now my favorite thing to do.

I first got introduced to Audubon when I got accepted into Audubon Florida’s “Conservation Leadership Initiative" my sophomore year of college, and 4 years later I am still involved with the program. Through CLI I got involved with Orange Audubon Society, the local Audubon chapter in Orlando all with the help of my mentor Deborah Green. I have been on the OAS board for the past couple years, and have been able to bird with some of the best birders because of our field trips. The past 2 years I have started to appreciate birds more and have been intrigued with them. I have managed to become a decent birder, and I hope to get better with my time here at Corkscrew. With these internships under my belt, I look forward to all the new experiences I will have at Corkscrew Swamp. I had an eventful first week here in the swamp, I got ATV training, got to assist in my first prescribed burn and I got to follow around a national geographic photographer while he got footage of Kelsie and Mica doing the conservation work we do. This is my third week here and I am already loving what I do. Hayden, Kelsie, and I had fish sampling this week so I finally got a taste of what the research work is. The jobs I will be required to do here at Corkscrew are ones that I have never done in previous internships, so I am thrilled to gain all this new knowledge during my time here. I also look forward to exploring all the unique habitats that SWFL has to offer with my Corkscrew roommates Kelsie, Hayden, and Shelby. I will be here until mid July, so I look forward to telling you stories from my perspective at the swamp! 

-Intern Melissa 

2nd grade Insect Adventure!

In the education department, the past month has been all about our 2nd graders here at Corkscrew. In school they're learning about the parts of an insect, how they function, what they eat, and what their role is in the world. They get to apply what they have learned in school when they come out to the sanctuary, and they sure do love being here and walking through our woods. 

They are always excited when they find a new butterfly, or even a simple ant pile can be thrilling for them. We do our best to identify whatever they find for them. 

Our dipnetting station is a huge hit with the kids. We let them examine some of our pond critters up close and personal. We tend to find a ton of fish, crayfish, whirligig beetles, shrimp, frogs, and even snakes!  

Another interesting station that the kids get really into is our "Amazing Antlion" station. Antlions, also called "doodlebugs" are larvae that create little funnel-shaped pit traps. They wait at the bottom of the trap for ants to slide into the pit and then the feast begins!  

Coming across this wild boar carcass was a huge surprise to these kids. They actually handled it really well and I was so impressed! You never know how they are going to react to "gross" things like that. We think it's important to be open with the kids about what they may find out in the woods, and this boar was no exception. We talked about all the creepy crawlies that may have helped break this guy's body down. 

It's really great seeing these 2nd graders getting really into their young entomologist roles when they visit. I love being apart of this and teaching them about how beneficial insects can be for us! 

Until next time! 

-Intern Shelby