Above the clouds

Last week I had the opportunity of a life time, to go on a Wood Stork flight! So what exactly does that mean? It means I got to go on a small 4 person plane (pictured below) with the research tech and our Amazing pilot. The goal of the flight is to look for Wood Stork nest in Naples and surrounding area.

So once we checked in with our pilot and made sure the weather conditions were good we boarded our plane. Once, on the plane we put our head sets on and made sure they were working and away we went. Once we took off we stayed at about 1,000 feet until we reached one of our surveying sites, we then dropped to 500 feet. At this point, the research tech opened his window and with his very fancy camera began taking pictures below, the pilot going back and forth through the area till we got what we needed (seen in the video below).

I got to see a lot of beautiful scenery, such as manatees in the Caloosahatchee River, the coast of Ft.Myers beach down to Bonita Beach. The end result, we saw Wood Storks and their nest! Unfortunately not at Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary, but nonetheless it is good news. Year after year, there are less nest down in South Florida, so any nest are a good sign. 

Why do people fear snakes?

What lives in the pond? With second grade, we usually catch aquatic arthropods, insect larvae, and small fish. Everyone’s excited when we find larger vertebrates. The kids love being able to look at the animals, and the guides have more fun teaching when students are excited.

Banded Water Snake chin and underside

A few weeks ago, this Banded Water Snake swam into one of the fish traps. The species can be distinguished from the venomous Cottonmouth by the bands under the chin and round pupils. In contrast, Cottonmouths have vertical pupils, as well as triangle-shaped heads.

To learn more about identifying these species, see the following links from the University of Florida:

Banded Water Snake and Cottonmouth

Please note, no snakes were harmed in this process. He was released as soon as the kids got to see, and was not handled by children or adults.

Banded water snake with tongue out

Normally, you wouldn’t want to approach a snake this closely to identify it, though. When an animal is potentially venomous, it’s important to keep a safe distance. Keeping your distance can also let you observe the animal longer instead of scaring it away.

Why are people so afraid of snakes? Research suggests a combination of evolutionary biology and social learning. Although we aren’t born with an innate fear of snakes, some research indicates babies are able to identify snakes more quickly than some other potential threats. Therefore, parts of our brains respond differently to snakes.



Although the vast majority of snakes are harmless, the species that pose a threat to humans are often life-threatening. Perhaps this is why we developed a neural response when we see them. This is exacerbated by social conditioning, or the strong reactions of others when we are young.

For more information on why people fear snakes, see these articles from ABC News, National Geographic, and the New York Times.

When people live near venomous snakes, they sometimes kill any species on sight. There are 46 species of snakes in Florida. Only six of these are venomous. The vast majority are harmless and even help humans by controlling pest/rodent populations.

Students hold Candy Corn, a female corn snake and one of our animal ambassadors at Corkscrew

That’s one of the reasons I love being able to show students and families snakes up-close. We never hold wild snakes, of course, but we do have three animal ambassador snakes that help us teach programs. Although plenty of people are afraid at first, they often warm up when they see our education animals. When they touch or hold them, they’re often surprised by how the body and skin feels.

In a state that’s losing habitat to development every day, it’s inevitable that human-wildlife interactions will become more common. It’s imperative to change the rhetoric around these slithering creatures, for their good and for our own.

Banded Water Snake side profile, with tongue out

~AnnaFaith, Education Intern

The Beginning is now The End

It's my last day here on Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary and I will miss it. I have learned how to drive swamp buggy's and the tractor. Attended the Florida Audubon Assembly and many Symposiums providing a great deal of information.

Working with the land management team was an experience, and I have learn so much about invasive species treatments, getting to part take in five prescribed burns as well as a ample amount of getting unstuck and fixing equipment learning situations.

In the 40% of research wading bird surveying was my favorite, seeing them catch their prey. Walking through the swamp is tricky but working in it made all the times I almost fell worth it. Farewell Corkscrew I'll be back to visit.

-Ayanna

Banded Sphinx?

Figure 1: Hanging out in the grasses on a Ludwigia

Working out in the field as usual I notice this Sphinx caterpillar in the grasses. I snap a few photos to find out what kind of caterpillar I saw that day. Come to find out it was a Banded Sphinx Moth (Eumorpha fasciatus), sad that I never get to see a butterfly caterpillar but still happy because the are pollinators too. Then a few weeks went by I spot another one on a swamp buggy, but this time the color was very different. Thinking to myself I wondered if there were the same species.



The Banded Sphinx can are mostly green (Figure 1), but can come in a base color variation of green yellow or pinkish-red (Figure 2). Caterpillars usually go through five instars of various colors and patterns. There fifth instar is a characteristic of the 1st form which is usually green or 2nd form, a color other than green. Mature larvae leave there host plant (plants in the Onagraceae family) to tuck away in an underground cavity in fall. Caterpillars pupate during winter, then crawl out of their burrows in the spring.

Figure 2: Feeding on a Ludwigia

The sphinx's wingspan can range between 8.7-9.6 cm after emerging. Their size and rapid wing beats allow them to hover and feed like hummingbirds, giving them the nickname 'hummingbird moths'. Caterpillars this shower are just as cool to spot as are butterflies, plus they can't fly away yet making pictures easier to take. I will never underestimate a moths beauty again.

-Ayanna💛

Prescribed burns safety measures

I've been an intern with Corkscrew for about a month now, and I have already had the luxury to partake in two prescribed burns. With that in mind I wanted to take a moment to talk about the safety precautions that are implemented to make sure a prescribed fire runs as smoothly as possible. At the end of the day we are working with fire, and there is always the concern with possibilities of fire spreading to nearby properties and smoke intrusions in populated areas. In order to prevent these scenarios, we take many preventive measures, with considerable preparation and planning. First, a prescription is written that includes a description of the area, the objectives for the burn, acceptable weather parameters including smoke modeling, description of anticipated fire behavior, a list of personnel and equipment to implement and hold the burn, etc.

Next is prepping, many precautions are taken at the burn unit to make it as fire safe as possible. Prepping consist of establishing the perimeter fire breaks. Such as Hard lines, which consist of bare sand/ soil containing no organic matter (which can be seen in the photo) or natural boundaries such as bodies of water.

  Many factors must be considered when choosing a day to burn.  fires are generally not permitted by the Florida Forest Service, when hot, dry weather conditions or high fuel loads increase the likelihood that the fire could spread to other property. Likewise, fires should be ignited only when wind directions are predicted to carry smoke away from nearby smoke sensitive areas. If the fire is approved, a crew is lead by a highly trained burn boss. It is part of everyone’s duty to attentively watch where the ashes are landing to make sure the fire does not jump to another unit or extinguish them as quickly as possible.

Once the fire is finished, the mop up begins.  The Mop up consists of ensuring any flaming or smoking material which may threaten the containment of the fire is fully extinguished.

-Julie, Conservation intern

What We Give Our Children

Richard Louv said "We have such a brief opportunity to pass on to our children our love for this Earth, and to tell our stories. These are the moments when the world is made whole".

The beauty of ecology is that there’s always a story to tell. And all children love stories.We can talk about the history in a drop of water— maybe you’re drinking what once passed through the mouth of a dinosaur. Or we can think of all the ways a small beetle could be connected to a huge alligator. My favorite stories to share are the ones that show how everything in nature is connected, including humans.

Each year, thousands of students visit us on field trips. Each grade has a theme, carefully curated to support their classroom curriculum. The trips feature a set of stations and allow time for students to experience sections of the boardwalk here at Corkscrew. Although we lead the same trips many times per season, the days are richly diverse. Every group of students can change the course of the day. 

Some groups are inevitably more challenging than others. From my experience, however, those students sometimes need these programs the most. A child with behavioral issues may have an easier time controlling their actions in the beauty of nature. A child with their head in the clouds may love to wonder and think out loud to brainstorm ideas about the habitat the group is exploring.

 Finding a way to break through to a difficult group is one of the most rewarding things of all. It happens in surprising ways. While I was talking to the other guides after a program this week, one of them shared how her rambunctious group was so enamored by wildlife photos that they immediately quieted down and sat still for the first time. We never know which parts the kids will enjoy most. I’ve led groups of students who talked over me the entire time, only to fall nearly silent when it comes time to enter the boardwalk. 

Outdoor education is an incredibly powerful experience. It goes beyond teaching about nature. Children are able to explore, to dive into their curiosity, and to discover the stories that speak to them. They also begin to develop their own relationship with the natural world. This exploration is absolutely vital to build conservationists. More importantly, we’re allowing them to discover that there is joy in nature. The natural world is weird and gross and shocking and beautiful all at the same time. No matter your interests or experience level, there’s always something to learn. With well-developed programs and skilled teachers, the learning is made fun.

~AnnaFaith, Education Intern

Wetlands role in run-off mitigation

Wetlands could be described simplistically as ‘nature’s kidney’ filtering out pollutants. However, they provide many important ecosystem services. Depending on location, soil type, surface and ground water movement, a wetland may serve different environmental functions to different degrees, such as flood water retention, ground water exchange, and nutrient and sediment filtering. All wetlands, whether natural, restored, or manmade, serve as viable habitat for native wildlife, important carbon storage, and as water containment.

Wetlands mitigate nutrient run off through several complex paths: physical, chemical, or biological, and depend on the form of the pollutant (particulate, dissolved, organic, etc.) and the compartment of the wetland processing it (water, biota, soil).

The main inorganic nutrients entering wetlands are nitrogen and phosphorus from agriculture. Uptake of both these nutrients’ inorganic forms by wetland plants for growth serves as temporary storage in the spring and summer, which is mostly released again in the fall and winter as dead vegetation.

Audubon Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary, an inland freshwater wetland with plants capable of taking up and sequestering excess nutrients

More long-term nitrogen removal primarily relies on microbes on solid submerged surfaces all over the wetland. The main transformations are ammonification (organic N to ammonia), nitrification (ammonia to nitrate/nitrite), and denitrification where nitrate is converted to nitrogen gas, which is then released into the air (volatilization) where it makes up 85% of the atmosphere. This process is the dominant, sustainable removal process in wetlands that undergo heavy nitrate loads. This is a temperature dependent process, meaning the rate of nutrient sequestration is seasonal.
Phosphorus typically enters wetlands as particulates that undergo sedimentation (deposited into sediment) via the slowing of water flow through the wetlands as they travel over submerged and emergent vegetation, allowing heavier particulates to fall to the bottom. Phosphorus also enters as
dissolved phosphate (PO₄) that accumulates in the soil as well; though there is a threshold for P levels in wetland soil.

Historically, Lake Okeechobee would fill and flow into the Everglades and eventually drain into the Gulf of Mexico to the southwest and Florida Bay to the south.

Florida had lost 46% of its original wetland acreage by the 1990s, and even today gutted legislature threatens these vital ecosystems. When inland wetlands are lost, runoff from storms flow straight into a watershed with all the excess sediment and nutrients that has been collected being deposited into streams, estuarine and coastal ecosystems, which can encourage algal blooms. This phenomenon can block light to aquatic plants and create hypoxic conditions as algae die and decompose, meaning there is not enough dissolved oxygen to support other organisms. Eutrophication (excessive nutrients) plays a role in red tides or harmful algal blooms (HAB), which can produce harmful toxins that kill off ocean life.

The continued existence of Florida’s beaches and coast as functional ecosystems and our own communities rely on the protection and maintenance of inland wetlands.

We all can play a part to help preserve our vitally important wetlands for all the species that rely on them, ourselves included. Maintaining a healthy septic system and reducing water use by using reclaimed water for landscaping are steps that can be taken on the individual level. You can also encourage your HOA to maintain native vegetation, allowing for nutrient filtration around water retention areas and support initiatives to reduce wetland loss associated with continued development in our region as a larger community invested in Florida’s future.

-Sam, Conservation Intern

Excited new conservation intern!

Hi I’m Julie, the new conservation intern, I will be spending 60% of my time with land management and 40% with research! I am originally from South Florida. I graduated from Florida State University in May of 2019 with a BS in Biology and Environmental Sciences. At FSU, I got to study fish behavior and the effects different abiotic factors may pose on the growth patterns of freshwater snails. My main interest is conducting applied research to continuously modify management plans to provide the best habitat for the conservation of native fauna. 

I was particularly excited to be an intern at Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary to gain new skills and hands on experience with research and natural resource management. I have only been here for two weeks and I have already learned so much and had some really neat experiences. Like this last week I got to ignite the first flames in a prescribed fire! I am excited to see what else I will learn and experience with my remaining time here! 

Panther Island Prescribe Burn Results

It's only be a month and look at the results! Fire removes underbrush/fuel loads of fall leaves, pine & cypress needles, and dry grasses, cleans the flatwoods floor of debris. This would opens it up to sunlight and re-nourishes the soil. Preforming a prescribe burn reduces the competition for nutrients allowing established and older growth trees to grow stronger and healthier. Today forests are over grown with trees, that are not all healthy. Over 100 years ago, forests had larger and healthier trees, which taught us the importance of fire. Established trees have to compete with undergrowth for nutrients and space. Fire clears the weaker trees and debris taking up space and absorbing nutrients, to keep the flatwoods health. This picture depicts a very well maintained Pine Flatwood.

  

Figure 2

Wildlands such as this Sanctuary provide habitat and shelter to birds and many other animals. Prescribe burns leaved room for regenerating/new shrubs & grasses (see Figures 2-3), that provide food and habitat for wildlife. With fewer plants absorbing water, waterways are fuller, benefiting other plants, birds, and a drinking source for many animals.

Figure 3

- Ayanna, Conservation Intern

Lessons from Arthropods

This week with the Corkscrew Education Team, we’ve had bugs on our minds.

We’re gearing up for our next stretch of field trips: the second grade Insect

Adventure begins next week. Students get to learn all about insects and other

creepy, crawly critters while they explore Corkscrew. 

It made me consider how many adults are uncomfortable around insects, or even afraid of them. Very few people recognize how important insects are to their local ecosystem. Luckily, this is changing. Many campaigns to increase pollinator awareness have spread appreciation for bees, butterflies, beetles, and other creatures.

But what are insects, anyway? And what are arthropods? Let’s dive into a little taxonomy. Taxonomy is the way scientists organize living creatures. The graphic below shows different levels at which scientists group organisms. Arthropoda is a phylum, and Insecta is a class within the Arthropod phylum. Arthropods have segmented bodies, exoskeletons, and at least 3 pairs of legs. It’s the largest phylum in the animal kingdom. In addition to insects, notable arthropods include crustaceans, spiders, and centipedes. 

Insects have 5 basic physical characteristics. 

1. Three pairs of legs
2. Two pairs of wings
3. A pair of antennae 
4. A hard exoskeletion
5. Three main body parts: Head, thorax, and abdomen.

When we teach kids about bugs, we also have the chance to dive into food webs and share how everything in nature is connected. Species depend on one another, sometimes in ways scientists don’t understand yet. Whether we realize it or not, humans depend on these species too. 

There are over 12,500 species of insects in

Florida. There are almost a million species

worldwide. Some are detrimental or

dangerous to humans, but all play an

important role in their local ecosystems.

Many species of insects help humans.

They’re decomposing dead animals and

plants; pollinating our food; providing

natural pest control; and inspiring scientists

and researchers who work in biomimicry.

Additionally, they’re helping to keep balance

in delicate ecosystems.

Ecotones

Ecotones are dynamic boundaries and transitional areas between two very distinct ecological habitats containing different communities and physicochemical features. They are less extensive than the communities they separate and are associated with a gradient either in the physical environment or stress exerted on them, like differences in herbivore grazing on either side. They often have defining characteristics unique from the environs separating them, creating an “edge effect”, a phenomenon where biodiversity is increased in the transition zone.

The abrupt transition between wet prairie and pond cypress tree line

The transition between wet prairie (left) to pine flatwoods (right)

You can see an extremely distinct ecotone between the pine flatwoods and pond cypress from the boardwalk at Corkscrew called a wet prairie. These types of wet grasslands result from a hydrological gradient, among other factors, between permanently dry forests and permanently inundated wetlands. Although pond cypress can dry down, the soils stay mostly saturated. Wet prairies are herbaceous communities dominated by graminoids (grass-like plants) and forbs (herbaceous flowering plants that are not grass like), while the two ecosystems on either side are both forested.

-Sam