In place of my usual biodiversity, evolution, and ecology diary tonight I'm just going to post some photos of my expedition this AM onto the waters of the Gulf of Mexico and some other things I saw while standing on the shore in St. Marks NWR. The new world refers to DKOS4 but also to new experience of seeing a familiar place early in the morning and at an extremely low tide and later in the morning from a somewhat different perspective. I'll keep the commentary to a minimum.
Let's go!
In my last diary I wrote about proposed closing of approximately 1/3 of Florida State Parks. Today we're visiting federal land, specifically St. Marks NWR. Budget cuts are looming on the horizon there as well but for the moment stimulus money appears to be coming to the aid of the refuge's infrastructure. New signs are appearing and a new educational center is under construction. Of course all of this is just window dressing on the beauty and diversity of the refuge's habitats.
At 8 AM in February the sun is still low in the sky in north Florida and the light gives this freshwater pond and its fauna and flora the look of a painting.
I can't believe that alligator was out and swimming. The arm temperature was about 40 at this point.
Down at the coast the boat ramp was closed and that, combined with the cold night meant that the shore was deserted. Except for little dynamos chowing down on the hordes of midges.
And others scavenging for what they could find on the ground
And on the oyster bar
As you can see the tide was very low.
This caused a slight change in plans. I had planned to go out in my kayak as soon as I arrived. However the boat ramp was under construction and the low tide meant that getting the kayak to the water would mean getting it over mudflats. So I hung out for a while until the tide came up.
Even then the water wasn't very deep.
The seagrass has died back for the winter.
Looking up and around.
All too soon it was time to head back to shore and pack up. There were a couple more photo opportunities and then home.
Organisms in order of appearance: American Alligator, Ring-necked Duck, American Coot, Yellow-rumped Warbler, Savannah Sparrow, Boat-tailed Grackle, Common Loon, Belted Kingfisher, Ring-billed Gulls.