My Alaska fishing buddy loved visiting Seahorse Key and learning about the history of the island, the 1800's era light station, and, the supportive relationship between the bird rookeries and the Cottonmouth Water Moccasins who live there. 
Captain Steve says "We have no snakes in Alaska!"
We saw these beautiful water birds while fishing in the Lower Suwannee NWR.
This eagle was eating a fish on the beach, then carrying nesting material as it flew off. 
Lovely day for a walk in the Refuge Following the Friends Board meeting I walked the River Trail again. It is a beautiful walk - .96 mile from the parking all the way around. Even though I didn't see much in the way of wildlife, it is a gift to feel a part of it all while in the beauty and quiet of the Refuge. John Thalacker and his crew have done a wonderful job designing and maintaining this trail and it is very accessible for most people. 
View of the Suwannee River from the overlook
Barbara Woodmansee will lead her 4th annual butterfly count in the Lower Suwannee NWR on Saturday, April 4 (weather permitting). Barbara has spent many hours in the refuge observing butterflies and is developing a butterfly map to show where specific butterflies have been seen in the Refuge. She has also compiled an ongoing list of butterflies (last count 85 species!) that have been spotted along the Nature Drive over the past 5 or 6 years. I am not exaggerating when I say she is an expert on butterflies in the Refuge! If you are interested in attending the day long count, meet her at the Southern entrance of the Nature Drive at 9:30 am for a full day of exciting spring butterfly fun in the refuge.
Directions from Gainesville: Take SR 24, or Archer Road, to CR 347 (just before you reach Cedar Key) - it's exactly 50 miles west from the Target store in G'ville. Turn right on CR 347, and go 10 miles until you see the large brown sign at the south entrance to the LSNWR Nature Drive. Directions from Chiefland: Stay on Hwy 19/98 south until you reach the tiny town of Otter Creek. Turn right on SR 24, and follow it for 18 miles until you reach CR 347. Turn right on CR 347, and go 10 miles until you see the large brown sign at the south entrance to the LSNWR Nature Drive. Directions from Cedar Key: After leaving the island, turn left onto CR 347 toward the refuge. Travel about 10 miles until you see the sign for the Nature Drive on the right. Entrance to the drive is on the left, just after a sharp corner. Meet Barbara at the south entrance at 9:30. From there, they will work their way driving and brief walking through the Nature Drive, spending a lot of time on two of the side roads (Cabin Road & Barnett Creek Road) to look for butterflies along the roadside. This is not a difficult walking trip unless you choose to go hiking on your own Sandfleas (no-see-ems) can be bad JUST at the entrance, but they mostly go away as we progress further into the refuge. Ticks and chiggers are also likely, so DEET or other bug spray of your choice is a good idea, with long pants tucked into socks if you walk off-road. There are no bathrooms or drinking water in the refuge, so bring plenty to drink with a lunch/snacks, sunscreen, a hat and binoculars and/or cameras if you choose. If you have a butterfly ID book, bring it too. Barbara will bring her refuge butterfly checklists for anyone who wants to keep track of what butterflies are seen. This is an all day walk/ride but feel free to leave whenever you wish.  Jason, our stalwart air-boat captain and guide, provided a memorable sendoff for Charlie and Carolyn yesterday. Charlie and Carolyn are extraordinary litter gatherers, having accumulated 185 bags from the woods and waters on the Dixie side of the refuge in the few months they have been here so it seemed fitting to do one last cleanup. Five of us headed off in perfect weather, there was just enough breeze to keep the sand gnats away- most of the time. The target islands were Big Pine and Little Pine near Shired Island. These two sandy islands get lots of stopovers and camping so I expected more trash than we found. In about 3 hours we gathered 90 lbs. The picture of the trash pile in the parking lot is only from Little Pine where we found 2 mattresses in addition to many rolls of plastic air cells. Maybe next time the campers will pack it out?
Jay Bushnell's Presentation Last evening, Dr. Jay Bushnell gave a standing-room only audience a very interesting overview of the plantation/sugar mill life in early NE Florida. First, he dared the audience to guess how many original British colonies there were at the time. One or more of the people did know that the number was actually 15, not the 13 that many of us thought. He went on to talk about the grant that was obtained by the local community college, faculty and students to preserve the remaining structures and artifacts after many had been lost to less than careful development. One photo demonstrated this clearly as Dr. Bushnell again challenged the audience. He showed a picture of a wall of a very old sugar mill that had a big hole in it. What caused it? Well, turns out it was created by a transect line being shot through the wall!!
  Anne Miller, Sally Beveridge, Joyce DeHaan, Maggi Funchion and Nita Cox joined me, Donna Thalacker, for a spring nature walk in the refuge. It is so beautiful in the refuge now that it was difficult to decide on which trail to walk, but we decided on the 3 mile long Turkey Foot Trail, just off Pond 4 Road. It was a good decision! Within minutes of getting out of the car, we were faced with the tough decision of looking up at the birds or down at the butterflies! We saw hundreds of butterflies, including the large and colorful Palamedes Swallowtails, Eastern Tiger Swallowtails and Spicebush Swallowtails, plenty of crescents and satyrs and the odd Common Buckeye. All of us saw lots but Sally would win the prize for spotting (and thankfully not stepping on) a 4 foot long cottonmouth snake and three Swallowtail Kites. In addition to the Kites, we saw or heard White-eyed and Red-eyed Vireos, Blue-gray Gnatcatchers, a Ruby-crowned kinglet, a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, a Northern Parula, a Coot, a Blue-winged Teal and a Red-bellied Woodpecker going in and out of it’s nest hole in a snag. What a lovely day for a walk in the woods! The next walk in the Refuge will be next week and I will be blogging on when and where in the next day or two. Hope you can join us!
The poster below has the wrong date, but is otherwise right on target. This will be an excellent presentation by the long-time, and just retired, president and past president of the Friends of the Refuges, Jay Bushnell. Come and Enjoy.  Saturday, March 21
1:00 p.m. Cedar Key Community Center Dr. Ken Sassaman will talk about astounding findings at Shell Mound and elsewhere in the region.  Yes . . . Rainy. |
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The Silent Auction was set up on the log cabin headquarters building and on its porch. All 60 items brought multiple bids. Thanks to all the donors who provided the items, to all the Friends who purchased the donated items, and to the organizers especially Barbara Hudson and Donna Bushnell, Friends brought in more than $2,000 from the event.
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The Friends Store has always been set up under our "festival tent" in the past. Not a chance in yesterday's rain. So Board members Carmelo Echevarria and Sherry Beauchamp moved it into an office in the fire building. That worked wonderfully. The merchandise was easier to see and make selections. It was a great place to browse while you warmed up and dried off. More than $300 in items to spread the word about the Refuge were sold.
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The annual overview of the refuge's work by Refuge Manager Andrew Gude, the review of the year's accomplishments by Friends president Bob Hudson, and the election and installation of officers, all were well received by the standing-room-only crowd.
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Dr. Coleman Sheehy's presentation about island ecology and its affect on biodiversity captured the crowd. The question and answer session was proof of how engaging the presentation was. It seemed everyone had multiple questions and comments! Coleman is the Associate Director of the Seahorse Key Marine Lab, which is a University of Florida facility located, by special agreement with the Refuge, on one of the islands that is part of the Cedar Keys National Wildlife Refuge.
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Then came a part we all look forward to . . . lunch cooked by Ken and Rose McCain. Ribs, chicken, baked beans, swamp cabbage, cole slaw and rolls were abundant, as were desserts brought by members.
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Just in time, the rain let up for the lunch line. The refuge staff offered a nature walk after lunch. We visited the bat house to hear from Pam Darty about the bats and the bees, walked part of the River Trail with Larry Woodward, got a preview of the new Tram Trail with Daniel Barrand who talked about the forestry history of the refuge and Vic Doig who talked about the use of prescribed fire.
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It was an excellent 2015 Friends Annual Meeting and Refuge Open House.
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Photos by Bill Kilborn, Milli Chapell. Marci Wilcox, Peg Hall. If you have some to share, please email [email protected]
Friends of the Lower Suwannee & Cedar Keys National Wildlife Refuges
P. O. Box 532 Cedar Key, FL 32625 [email protected] We are a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. |
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