This article appeared in the Tallahassee Democrat yesterday. It’s a much shortened version of the column I sent you last week. Since it’s not available on line (and why not?? Ask for it!), I scanned it for you. Please send far and wide. Be their voice….. Share On: … Continue
Category Archives: Florida Wildlife
On the last day of August, we paddled a clear forest creek, for pleasure. The current slipped my kayak around cypress knees and beneath the arms of tupelo gum, but my mind was wrapped around black bears: just days earlier, the state wildlife agency had voted to open a hunting season on them. As we left the woods, a black bear cub galloped across the dirt road in front of our car. The young animal’s hind legs seemed longer than … Continue
Last Sunday, I almost got a speeding ticket. In a state park, no less. At the hand of an FWC law-enforcement officer, no less. There are more ironies than you might imagine wrapped up in that incident. When I share this news with my friend Crystal, you will be able to hear her laughing way down in Wakulla County. She followed me in her car a few weeks ago, and later reported that I drove her mad. “Nobody goes the … Continue
When I approach the island, even before my kayak nudges into the sand, the first thing I look for are possible predators: crows, osprey, eagle, laughing gull—or the tracks of a trespassing human. I’m surprised to see the broad wings of a turkey vulture skimming over the sand, tilting on the updrafts, on the look out for food. Right on its tail, three American oystercatchers escort the vulture off the island. They pipe loudly and push the vulture out of … Continue
Every winter sunrise, a mated pair of highly endangered whooping cranes rises from an unremarkable cow pond on the edge of Tallahassee. Prompted by the light, they stretch their vast pearl wings and take flight. In the privacy of the undeveloped wetlands and fields of the eastern county, they forage, dance and preen. Most evenings, the two birds return to the safety of the same shallow pond. Most nights. But whether they do or they don’t, Karen Willes will … Continue
Occupy Sandbar: That’s what shorebirds do, because only on the edges of our coastline can they live. Last week, birders and biologists all over Florida put their binoculars together to see how the original snowbirds are doing on their wintering grounds (which we mostly think of as “our” beaches and sandbars). It’s called the statewide Winter Shorebird Survey. My assigned territory required a kayak trip about a mile off shore to a set of linear, mostly submerged sandbars in Franklin … Continue
A really good contradance is the closest I’ve come to flying in a flock of shorebirds. In this kind of dance, you and your partner move with another couple through a series of figures with evocative names like Mad Robin, Box the Gnat, California Twirl, Ocean Wave, and Hey for Four. What transforms a contra from a series of rote steps to a transcendent experience is the ability of the group to synchronize. You need a room full of people … Continue
Last week I went searching for evidence of Florida black bears down along our coast. They are shy creatures, generally night-dwelling. I always watch for them, though, and as the poet Mary Oliver says “…everywhere I look on the scratchy hillsides, shadows seem to grow shoulders.” I walked in places I know they forage and walk. I found acorns they hadn’t yet eaten on the side of the road. I saw scat they had left in the … Continue
Here is how the Christmas Bird Count found me on the third-to-last day of 2014: suspended between the divinity of the wild birds, and their utter vulnerability to human whims. The territory that is ours to count in the annual Christmas census extends from the junction of 30A and Cape San Blas Road, and Stump Hole, on the St. Joe Peninsula. Our favorite stretch, and the most productive bird-wise, is the beach. It used to be—just a year or two … Continue
There are piles of gear all over our living room that have nothing to do with seasonal gifts. Today, we are prepping for two bird counts down at the coast. Jeff and I will be part of the national Christmas Bird Count, finding and tallying as many kinds of birds as possible in a single day on an assigned territory. It’s a census, but of birds, not people. On my packing list are three categories. First, layers of clothes for … Continue