On January 13, I offered these brief thoughts to the attendees of the Mickee Faust Inaugural Bawl. in Tallahassee I hope you will find them of use. Imagine yourself on a gorgeous, wild island, maybe the most beautiful in all the world: St. Vincent National Wildlife Refuge. Imagine that from dawn until sunset, you have tramped the beaches and the forest and the marshes, searching out every kind of bird you could identify and count, from the largest eagle to the … Continue
Tag Archives: St. Vincent Island
Last weekend, a series of impressive king tides, swelled by the full moon, rose our Gulf waters a foot or more higher above normal. In south Florida, sea water ran deep in the streets. But along our lightly populated coast, I noticed only submerged docks, from Lanark to Eastpoint. On St. Vincent Island, the king tides carved two long swales and filled them with salt Gulf water. The pool closer to the dunes was deeper, and had apparently entrapped an … Continue
I wish I could juggle a camera with a good close-up lens along with my binoculars, spotting scope, bird book and lists, so I could share with you the beautiful beings I was amongst, these last two days. But I’m not that good. Instead I’ll paint you a picture with my words. Imagine standing on the lip of Tahiti Beach, with the West Pass, a warm gale and the rising sun at your back, and miles of … Continue
“I keep vigil…. For those who suffer, and for those who keep vigil.”* This was my unexpected assignment on Saturday, as Jeff and I walked a remote outer stretch of St. Vincent Island. I came upon a red knot hunkered down at the water’s edge, a bundle of feathers pressed against the sand. We’d been admiring the knots as they moved through north Florida on their migration, 5 to 10 at a time, mostly. They feed voraciously, plunging their bills over … 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