No Lull in Activities after Annual Meeting

Following our website, you might think there has been a lull in Friends activities after the  Annual Meeting. Not really. Actually there was enough going on that nobody found time to post about it. So, what has been happening?

• The Ibis ----- Our print newsletter, edited by Jay and Donna Bushnell, came out in April. Click here to read it. If you are a member and  want a print copy mailed to you, email friends@friendsofrefuges.org to let us know.

• Festivals ----- Friends and the Refuges had shared information booths at both the Town of Suwannee Stone Crab Festival and Cedar Key's Old Florida Celebration of the Arts. More than a hundred people visited our booths to learn about the refuges, to sign up for Friends activities, and many to support the Friends by buying shirts, earrings, and planning sets of the Paddling Panels.

• The Inventory and Membership Committees are just getting caught up from all the activities generated at the festivals and Annual Meeting.  

• Planning for a Group Paddle in June ----- Assuming good weather on Saturday, June 30, we will gather at the beach in Cedar Key for a Group Paddle to Atsena Otie. We will meet at 10:00 to catch the best tides. Watch for more information here or in the email News Brief.

• Planning for the Hidden Coast Paddling Festival -----In October, the Lower Suwannee Refuge will be the site of this major regional paddling event. The theme will be "Wildlife Encounters on the Lower Suwannee National Wildlife Refuge." Mark Gluckman, chair of the Friends Paddling Project Committee and many other Friends members are involved in the initial planning. Opportunities for more of us to be in on the ground floor are coming soon.

Annual Meeting Report

The Annual Meeting drew a big crowd to the refuge headquarters on Saturday March 24. The Deputy Regional Director of the Fish and Wildlife Service, Mark Musaus, was among the visitors. Thanks to all the Annual Meeting volunteers and to Michelle Pearson and Sean Dowie for photos.

The new tee shirts, hats, visors and earrings created a buzz at the Friends Booth and flew off the tables. We sold more in that one day than in all of 2011. We will be re-ordering before the Cedar Key Arts Festival and Suwannee Stone Crab Festival.

 

 The Welcome Team had revamped the sign-in process and it went smoothly, with few bottlenecks this year. Forty-five members joined or renewed their memberships that day bringing the membership total for 2012 to 220, compared to 210 at the end of last year.

 

The HUGE Silent Auction was a great success and brought in almost $1200, as well as generating lots of fun and competition. Special thanks to Donna Bushnell for taking the lead on the auction. Thanks to all the Silent Auction donors.

We all missed Chef Kenny's cooking, but the catered part of the meal provided by Ada Blue Cafe was praised by all. Many, many members contributed to the Pot Luck side dishes and desserts, making the meal a definite highlight.

 The featured speaker, Dr. Nick Whitney was taught us much about Motion in the Ocean: The Secret Lives of Marine Animals with many laughs and stories.

Members were delighted to see the results of the Paddling Project that began at last year's annual meeting. The new paddling guide panels were greatly admired as they were passed around for inspection among the members.

After lunch the hayrides, the group paddle, boat rides, visits to the Special Operations Resource Team trailer and fire equipment demo, Tree Identification Walk, and mini-workshops on vole research, a new naturalist project, archaeology and shell mound, and biting fly research captured everyone's attention...at least until the rains arrived. thanks to Richard Herman for these photos of wildlife spotted on the boat ride.

 

 

If you missed it...you missed a good time. Mark your calendar for next March!

April Nature Walk

Because of the warmer weather, this month’s nature walk featured butterflies,and the thirteen people who showed up for the walk got plenty of warm weather – and more deer flies than any of us cared to experience! We started the walk with a little tick identification, as the first flower we saw had a Lone Star tick on it. Soon thereafter, someone spotted a little snake, which we later identified as a Blue Striped Ribbon snake, and all of this before we spied many butterflies! But the butterflies showed up, and we counted about 15 different kinds of butterflies, including swallowtails, crescents, skippers, satyrs and hairstreaks. In addition to the fleabane wildflowers and white sweet clover in bloom, there was still some blue flags and lyre leaf sage wildflowers and wild petunias in bloom. On the way out, a few of us stopped by the new observation deck and were surprised to see Swallowtail Kites, Little Blue and Tricolor Herons, Great Egrets and Snowy Egrets, Lesser Yellowlegs, and 4 baby alligators and a one big alligator! Taking a walk in the refuge is always fun. We may go for a nature walk intending to see butterflies, but there never fails to be something new and different to see and learn about in our precious Lower Suwannee NWR!

John and I have enjoyed leading the first Monday of the month nature walks in the refuge. We will be leaving soon to head north to Iowa, but are already looking forward to leading walks in the refuge next fall. Have a wonderful summer and we hope to see you in the fall!

Upcoming Butterfly Walks

There will be two butterfly walks in the refuge coming up in early April. Since the flowers and butterflies are in abundance right now, both walks promise for lots of butterfly viewing. Please join us for one or both of the walks. The first will be on Monday, April 2 and will be led by Donna and John Thalacker. Meet 10am at the entrance to Barnett Creek Road, toward the south end of the refuge. It is quickest to enter the south entrance to the refuge. Barnett Creek Road is on the left, 2 – 3 miles into the refuge. The second walk will be led by Barbara Woodmansee, member of NABA (North American Butterfly Association). Barbara is a well known butterfly enthusiast and is probably the most knowledgeable "butterflier" around. Her butterfly walk will be on April 7. Meet her at the south entrance to the refuge at 9:15am. See you at one or both walks!

Annual Meeting is This Saturday!

Friends Annual Meeting and Refuge Open House
Saturday March 24

10:00 to 4:00

at Refuge Headquarters (directions here)

Preliminary Program

10:00 

Arrival, Sign-In, Pick up Event and Lunch Tickets

Silent Auction and Friends Booth Open

10:30

Friends Welcome, Peg Hall, Friends president

Refuge Welcome, Andrew Gude, Refuge manager

Election and Installation of Board members 

11:00

Paddling Project Update & Presentation of Paddling Panels,

Mark Gluckman & Russ Hall 

11:30

Motion in the Ocean: The Secret Life of Marine Animals 

A presentation by Nick Whitney of the Center for Shark Research at the MOTE Marine Lab in Sarasota

12:30

Pot Luck Lunch, barbecued pork, ribs, and chicken provided 

1:45

Silent Auction Winners announced 

2:00

Boat rides on the Suwannee, Paddling at Sandfly Creek, Fire equipment demo, Hayride, Mini-workshops on upcoming volunteer projects

Are You Willing to Volunteer?

We need volunteers to help with Sign-in, Silent Auction, Friends Booth, and the Food Line. If you could work an hour or so, please email friends@friendsofrefuges.org
Pot Luck Lunch

Free for 2012 Renewed Members. You can renew at the door.
$10 for Not-Yet-Members

Our wonderful Chef Kenny McCain is not able to cook this year. The main course barbecue will be catered by Ada Blue Cafe and we are sure it will be delicious. Members of the Board of Directors will bring side dishes. We also would welcome all members to bring a side dish, salad, or dessert. Contact Marci at friends@friendsofrefuges.org for information.

Silent Auction

The items will tempt you. Remember to bring your check books. Here is the list as of today.

Paddling in the Afternoon

 
A limited number of spaces are available for a group paddle from Fletcher's Landing to Sandfly Creek. You must have your own kayak or canoe. To reserve a place, email friends@friendsofrefuges.org.

March Nature Walk

About 20 people joined John and Donna Thalacker for a two hour nature hike at Shell Mound on Monday, 5 March. The weather was perfect, with sunny blue skies and enough of a breeze to ensure zero biting insects. We saw plenty of birds, including white and brown pelicans, avocets, plovers, sandpipers, terns, gulls and several types of warblers. In addition, with the help of Russ Hall, we were able to identify most of the plants along the trails. It was a beautiful day to be out and about on our fabulous wildlife refuge!

Please join us next month for a nature walk featuring butterflies. We will meet at 10am on Monday, April 9 at the entrance to Barnett Creek Road. To get to Barnett Creek Road, enter the Lower Suwannee NWR at the south entrance and drive about 2 ½ miles. Barnett Creek Road will be on your left. We look forward to seeing you then!

Kudos for the Paddling Project

The homepage of the website of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Refuge System features our Paddling Project. Our refuges are quite a place wonderful for kayaking. Check it out!

 We have another website dedicated just to paddling. Visit Paddle Lower Suwannee & Cedar Keys Refuges here.

First Monday Nature Walk Coming Up!

Please join us for our next walk on Monday, March 5 at 10am. This time we will meet at the parking lot at Shell Mound. We will walk out to the boardwalk to look for shore birds, then walk the trail over the mound and into the woods. Please note this is a time change from our previous 8 am first Monday of the month walks. There is even a chance we may see a swallowtail kite on our walk. The last few years, they have been arriving at the refuge during the first week of March.

More Than 60 Participate in Butterfly Talk

 

Friends member Barbara Woodmansee wowed the audience on Saturday February 11 at the Cedar Key Public Library with her photos and her descriptions of the butterflies of the refuges. A standing-room only crowd learned about the families of butterflies and their host plants, and then had the chance to ask many questions and give many comments. We are grateful to Barbara for all the work she put into helping us appreciate the wonderful creatures. If you had to miss the talk, or just want a reminder, Babara has made the photos available here.

  

On Saturday, April 7th, you can join Barbara for a day of spring sunshine (we hope!) on the Lower Suwannee National Wildlife Refuge's Nature Drive. She has been surveying this part of the LSNWR monthly for the past 3 years, and has compiled a list of 64 species of butterflies recorded on the Nature Drive. A group from the Gainesville chapter of the North American Butterfly Association will meet at the south entrance for a 4-6 hour drive and walk of the areas where the most diverse butterfly species have been seen. Last year they saw 44 species of butterflies in one day in early April, including 21 Sweadner's Juniper Hairstreaks, Dion, Obscure and Aaron's skippers, Appalachian Brown and Gemmed satyrs. Check here for more information.

Paddling Project Update

The Paddling Panels are at the printer!

Get a preview by clicking on the Paddling Project tab at the top of the page.

Photo Walk

Our first monthly "4th Tuesday Photo Walk" was led by Friends Board member Michelle Pearson on Tuesday January 24 at the Dennis Creek Trail on the refuge. We learned about lighting, best use of various camera styles, tripod use, angles of the photos, macro and micro photo composition. Michelle shared many design tips and other photo skills with all of us by email after the walk. It was a super class. The next will be on the 4th Tuesday of February, the 28th. Call Michelle at 352-325-0134 for information.

Refuge Night

Andrew Gude, Refuge Manager of The Lower Suwannee and Cedar Keys National Wildlife Refuges and five of his staff of twelve, hosted a community discussion at the Cedar Key Public Library to approximately 40 attendees. Larry Woodward, Deputy Refuge Manager; Pam Darty, Visitor Services and Outreach Manager; Vic Doig, Fire Management Officer; Daniel Berrand, Refuge Forester; and Kenny McCain, Law Enforcement Officer took turns explaining their programs, plans and priorities to those in attendance. Andrew Gude summed things up by talking about his desire to build a stronger connection to the community, his hopes to integrate more educational programs and to expand conservation of our precious resources more through deed restriction and conservation easements than through outright purchases of land. Andrew is also interested in getting greater staff presence in Dixie County. Numerous questions were answered by all of staff members present. Refreshments were served by Friends of the Library and Friends of the Refuges.

Florida Whooping and Sandhill Cranes Talk Big Success

More than 50 people came to learn about the Florida whooping cranes and sandhill cranes from Marilyn Spalding, wildlife disease expert and Friends member. The participants had many questions about the fascinating information Marilyn gave about the resident and migratory cranes.