Panther Island Field Day

Panther Island Field Day

This past week on Panther Island (PI), I went out with Lee Martin, our Research Technician, to conduct the monthly wading bird survey. We didn't see many birds, but what we did find was a ton more invasive apple snail egg clusters than we had seen the month before. At first, it was only a few that we saw attached to some Pickerel Weed and alligator flag, but after going down one of the trails, we saw dozens attached to other aquatic plant bunches all the way down. We had seen one Snail Kite along the way, so we will have to wait and see how this season's snail populations affect the Snail Kite population.

We had also found tons of Florida Panther tracks along the way, some even included kittens as well! Lee made plasters of the tracks as a souvenir. Other tracks included Bobcats, Coyotes, and White-tailed Deer. We also we driving our ATVs down one trail to find that the trail had been dug up and ruined by wild hogs. Maybe the presence of these hogs on PI will assist the growth of the panther population as well. 

Overall, I thought it was crazy to see how much PI's water level had changed from the last time I was there in June. I predict that we will definitely be seeing more Snail Kites out there due to the population growth of the apple snails, whether invasive or native.