All the photos in this diary were taken between 5 PM Tuesday and 4 PM Wednesday this past week. We had guests and we showed them a couple of the local natural wonders: St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge and Wakulla Springs and river - both just to the south of Tallahassee in the Florida panhandle. We had an unusually fantastic time and I thought I would share some of what we saw.
Going to St Marks on a weekday evening turned out to be an excellent plan - there was no one around. As we headed down to the coast someone spotted a snake on the side of the road. It turned out to be an Eastern Diamondback, the first one I've ever seen in the wild (alive). It put on a great show for us.
A bit further down the road we stopped at an overgrown pond. It didn't look very promising from the road and as soon as we got to the viewing platform it started to rain. Fortunately the platform had a roof. Looking down, virtually at our feet had we not been ten feet up in the air, was this.
Through the railing bars I got a slightly better view.
One of our guests then spotted this purple gallinule.
She kept making what sounded like alarm calls and we soon discovered why - there were two fledgling gallinules walking about on the vegetation and not paying any attention to mom!
Sorry for the poor quality of the gallinule photos. Distance and light were not in my favour - but they were just too cool to leave out.
Then we made out way down to the coast. The sun was getting low casting a nice soft light over everything.
We walked around for a bit. Among the things we saw was this cotton rat that Stephen Colbert would greatly admire for his magnificent cojones!
We then headed back to the car because of the ominous appearance of the sky
A dense screen of brush blocked our view of the gulf at one point. Suddenly we heard a loud splash. Then, a minute or so later a loud exhalation of breath from behind the brush. Then another splash. What the heck was going on? We hurried ahead to where we could see the water again.
This is what we saw.
A bottlenosed dolphin was swimming along casually in shallow water. Then it would start to swim rapidly in a tight circle
Driving a school of fish into a tight boiling mass
And then lunging into the center
After watching this about 4 times we turned to go. The pools behind us looked like this
It started to pour as soon as we started driving away.
The next morning we went kayaking on the Wakulla river. Large numbers of manatees appear to live in the river year round. We saw quite a few from the kayaks but the logistical difficulties of trying to photograph something underneath you while in a kayak in even a gentle current means that I have no manatee photo at this point (wait for it). I do however have this picture of a radio tracker floating on the surface next to a kayak. It is tethered to a very large manatee right below the surface.
Then it was on to Wakulla springs, the source of the river and one of the largest freshwater springs in the world. The state park runs a boat tour on the upper river where development and other boats are prohibited and the wildlife is abundant. This time the tour was full of kids on summer vacation. Their enthusiasm made going on it for the sixth time seem like the first. Here is some of what we saw.
Little Blue Heron
Ancient Baldcypress that has lost about half of its base.
White Ibis in the Swamp
Anhinga drying off
Suwanee Cooters.
Towards the end we headed into a region where many old Hollywood films were shot. It was a favoured location because of the clear water and jungle-like surroundings. This palm stump (then a tree) is where Johnny Weissmuller perched to give his Tarzan yell.
And finally at the very end, we came across this manatee. A great ending to our 24 hours!