Fire Ecology at Tarkiln Bayou - May 14

Back in May I went out to see some of the aftermath of a controlled burn at Tarkiln Bayou Preserve State Park. Here are some of the shots.

After a fire, anything that hasn't been burned to ashes (several inches above ground). Is so exposed to the heat that it turns brown and dead. Some of these plants will grow back but, after burning over a few decades (every few years), the weedier species will die off.

The fire can't burn if the ground is too wet. Here, wet ground has kept the fire from passing a certain line. Ecologists burn forests to increase biodiversity--it keeps weedy species from getting a monopoly on growing space and offers a chance for more sensitive species to take hold.

Mushrooms poke through the ashes almost as soon as the fire is passed, demonstrating that only a few centimeters below the surface, life goes on as normal. Roots and mycelia are unaffected by the blaze. Many species are specially adapted to periodic fires and do much better in their presence. People have been starting controlled fires in America before Europeans arrived on the continent, but for different reasons. Early Americans burned to make hunting and defence easier. In a more open forest, both prey and enemies could be seen from a safer distance. Inadvertently, these tribes and nations created an ecosystem of their own tastes, and animals and plants adapted to survive specifically in a fire-frequented environment.

A young six-lined racerunner makes the most of the fringes of the burn. Bugs are easy to spot out here.

My favourite species of carnivorous plant, Drosera tracyi. The long, delicate leaves curl around stuck insects that blundered into the sticky droplets of dew. The black specks here are gnats that will soon be digested by the plant.

Sketches at Tarkiln Bayou

Detail from my sketch pad. This is supposed to portray the setting sun.

Sketching in nature is a lot different from photography. The results aren't as stunning; they usually aren't something you'd want to show off. They tend to be messy, hard to see, and not particularly artistic. A photograph is exact, beautiful, and colourful: an art form.

However, sketching is a much slower process. A photographer can rush through the underbrush, snapping away at whatever catches his or her fancy. A sketcher, by comparison, must sit in one place and carefully attempt to reproduce some small aspect or picture of the environment onto paper. This slower pace forces the sketcher to notice things that the photographer often misses. The shapes of the leaves and stems of plants become more interesting than the flowers. The silence of immobility sharpens underused senses. The salty smell of the bayou. The wailing of a family of loons. A sudden splash from a jumping mullet. These things become the focus--and how to portray them in art. A quiet yet lively mood, all on paper.

Sketch of the eastern shoreline of Tarkiln Bayou

While listening, watching, and smelling these things, I scribbled the shapes I could see around me onto the paper. Tarkiln Bayou was calm, a glassy series of rolling ripples sliding along the salty surface between the stems of the needle-rush. The loudest sound was the mullet, jumping periodically to clean their gills. But one splash caught my attention. A different tune in the rhythms of fish, bird, and plant. I focussed my attention on the north shore, where a series of ripples was racing out from the cover of a breeze swept strip in the bayou. The silver patch of water, reflecting the sky, appeared to be supporting the base of a growing V of white wave, it's tip picking up speed toward the shore. It ended in a spasm of splashes. This fast swimmer soon moved back out into the bayou, edging closer to me with methodical surfacing, puffing out a breath of air, a blow, at each rise. It was soon clear what had approached.

Sketches of a stump in the water.

The dolphin was one of several, the others working different parts of the shoreline. It would chase the mullet toward the reads and catch it near the shallows. Amazingly, the dolphin didn't eat it's catch immediately but, rather, playfully threw the wounded fish up into the air. Sometimes the fish would try to escape, and the dolphin would chase it again, seeming to enjoy the game it had created. I was feeling extremely blessed to observe such unique behaviour. The dolphin nearly swam right under the boardwalk, flippers sticking up in the air, glossy belly and under-tail gleaming whet as it threw its head back to fling the fish over it's chin. Once the fish was no longer able to perform any "live entertainment," the dolphin presumably swallowed its catch and repeated a race into the shoreline for another mullet. Of course I feel a little bad for the mullet, but I was completely overwhelmed with joy. Fun and games is a characteristic of intelligence and character. Both qualities are possessed by dolphins and it was a real privilege to observe it first hand.

Sketches of water and plants at Tarkiln Bayou.

As the blows of the dolphins grew faint, and the light was fading from the horizon, I sang to my fluttering heart and danced back to my vehicle. A truly magical moment, to meet someone so different that could consider my existence, just as I consider his. I wonder if he even saw me.

Herping after Dark in the Florida Panhandle

Here's a post from someone you haven't heard recently. I've been busy--very busy. It is not unusual for me to work 14 hours in a day and 9 hours is a short one. I worked hard this week and managed to keep up with all the homework and quiz grading common in the life of a college biology teacher. At the end of the day I rolled out of work at 4:00pm. Nine hours. After a quick dinner and an episode of John Acorn's Nature Nut show I grabbed my Nikon and a minnow trap and danced out the door.
Sometimes I have to schedule my moments of enjoyment just as religiously as my work and education. I'd been planning a trip out to set my minnow trap for a couple weeks and a Friday night seemed like a good time to me. However, my graduate class was hanging over my head as I pulled from the campus and I'm hoping I don't regret my choice of activity for the night. Good grades are encouraging but it's no excuse to procrastinate.
I had hoped to set a minnow trap at Tarkiln Bayou but that is a state park and I imagine it would be less than legal to remove any fish or wildlife from the park. However, I couldn't think of anywhere else to go. Whenever I have questions about the local wildlife I always find my way to Mr. Micah Bowman's office. A tall, lanky man with relaxed enthusiasm for zoology, Mr. Bowman spent his childhood in the panhandle and is far more adept at finding cool critters than I could ever hope to be. I asked my fellow faculty member if there were any places he could recommend for a minnow trap. His answer, always nonchalant, was so obvious I was embarrassed. West Campus was college property and fishing was encouraged.

I nailed these photos of a grass pickerel (Esox americanus) at Tarkiln Bayou last year (2014) near the end of November. I have been hoping to get a couple for my 120 gallon aquarium back home.

Yes, they are cannibals. My aquarium has three turtles at the present so trying to put some fish in there might be a bad idea. Sunfish would be nice but I find the predatory pickerel completely fascinating. I pulled the trap from the back of my minivan and made the short jaunt to the slough.
As I approached the rickety bridge over the algae-choked waters I spotted a black disk lying in the grass. It was just passed 7pm and the battery was low on my headlamp. I had to get close to see that it was a small cottonmouth snake (Agkistrodon piscivorus). Cottonmouths have a highly hemolytic venom that causes blood cells to rupture and tissues to break down, practically rotting off. However, I was delighted. In my excitement I ran back to my van to grab my ever-handy snake tongs and returned to where I'd dropped my trap before long. The snake was still there and I caught the snake without too much of a fuss. One strike and some degree of warning. It amazes me how placid these potentially lethal snakes are. This one seemed to have an especially calm disposition. The characteristic wide-open mouth display is an obvious message to threats. I carried the snake to the beach and took a few photos on the sand. Delightful.

Pumped with herpetological enthusiasm, I released the snake and started searching for more reptiles and amphibians with my headlamp. A southern toad (Bufo terrestris) hopped out of my way and soon I was running around the grass giggling like a four year old catching frogs.

Rana sphenocephala, the leopard frog. Loads of fun chasing these guys through the grass and catching them.

In the end I threw my trap over the bridge and watched it sink to the bottom. I tied the knot and headed back to my van. It was a good time and I don't regret it yet.

A Biblical View of the Animal World

This was a ribbon snake I caught on February 15th, in Tarkiln Bayou Preserve State Park, Florida. Unfortunately, snakes receive a lot of unnecessary flack in western culture. One of the primary reasons for this is religious superstition. We've all seen the pictures of the snake tempting Eve, but none of us have ever read it in our Bible. How so? Read on.

While at college, I was asked, as a part of my zoology class, to choose five Bible verses that I believed were crucial to a Biblical understanding of animals and write about my the reasons I chose those verses. Here is what I came up with:

Genesis 1:28

And God blessed them and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

Genesis 3:14

And the Lord God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon they belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of they life:

Leviticus 11:46

This is the law of the beasts, and of the fowl, and of every living creature that moveth in the waters, and of every creature that creepeth upon the earth:

Psalm 147:9

He giveth to the beast his food, and to the young ravens which cry.

Matthew 6:26

Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?

The twenty-eighth verse of the first chapter of Genesis records God’s first command to mankind: Fill the Earth and rule over the animals. Often Christians are tempted to conclude that this dominion is a license to exploit and use for our own personal enjoyment and pleasure. The reason so many acquire this perspective is found in verse six of chapter three. We seldom give thought to what we would consider a good ruler, someone who looks out for the interests of his subjects. Verse fourteen of chapter three records what is often incorrectly stated as a curse on a snake, thus giving excuse for men to abuse this amazingly designed creature on the premise that it was “cursed of God.” Simply reading the verse reveals that this cannot be the case; it would eat dust, and no snakes do that. Also, nowhere is it mentioned that the cursed creature would loose its legs. Indeed the phrase “upon thy belly thou shalt go” caries the idea of crawling, not slithering, which requires legs. It is to bad that it does not occur to most people that the word translated “serpent” is also translated as “dragon” in other parts of the Old Testament. It is not surprising then that Satan is referred to as a dragon in Revelation. Additionally, the context of the verse reveals that this is, in fact, a curse on Satan prophesying of Christ’s coming. So there is no Biblical excuse for women or anyone else to treat snakes with contempt. In Leviticus, chapter 11 a list of animals is given and the clean ones are stated as being “living.” This word in Hebrew is nephesh and caries the idea of a soul-life. Such nephesh living things are treated with more respect than other living things such as plants, which are merely described as “withering” rather than truly dying in the Bible. Interestingly, the list in Leviticus includes insects (verse twenty-two). Thus, in a Biblical perspective of life, to kill a grasshopper is equivalent to killing a horse. Finally, verses in Matthew chapter six and Psalm 147, in verse nine, record that God himself takes interest in and cares for the needs of animals. It is indeed a comfort to Christians that God loves us so much (as is the thrust of the Matthew verses) but many people miss the fact that God takes interest in the death of even a common bird sold at the market. Christians, likewise, should take their God-given responsibility to watch over God’s creatures seriously.

Tarkiln Bayou Preserve State Park

This is a species of pennant dragonfly I think. Any help on the identification of the insects on this post (or others) would be greatly appreciated. 

My brother in the pine flatwoods of
the park.

I have no idea what kind of spider
this is. They are big; over an inch
 in diameter (including the legs).

I thought nothing of it at the time. I knew there where wild pigs in the park, and I also knew they could be aggressive. But I always wandered away from the guys, veering off the trail and encountering creatures that none of the others would ever know about. I didn't expect to encounter anything so shocking. Then I heard it. A shuffling noise in the undergrowth. I stepped into that strip of land between the beach and the trail, but it was to thick to make out what was rustling. Then it squealed. Like a boar in a tussle with another, it squealed. At first I was apprehensive and stepped back. But my enthusiasm for wildlife consumed me and I pulled out my camera. Then they started really rustling, moving about in the thicket. Sounded like a whole herd, and I couldn't tell which way they were going. Fearing a charge, I called to the others, "Wild pigs! Wild pigs!" I continued to bellow emphatically as I moved toward the noises until it spoke. "Umm...actually, it's just a man in here." Some poor bloke had been trying to take a dump off the beach and there I was standing in front of him with a camera. I don't know who was more embarrassed. "I could have sworn you were a wild pig!" I exclaimed. He sure sounded like one! The poor man just mumbled and made his way back out to the beach. How embarrassing!

Oak toad on the white sands of Florida's trails.

This is the salt marsh that runs between the flatwoods and the bay. Tarkiln Bayou is so near geographically to West Campus that it reminded me of places since destroyed.

This is meadow where I first spotted
 the cottonmouth. I see them on
 every hike in Florida it seems.

The spanish moss grows thick.

Besides wild pigs I caught a common garter snake and nearly had a cottonmouth, but it moved into thick bush. At first I crawled in after it with snake tongs in hand, but visibility was so limited in that dark thicket and it struck me that, if I did find the snake, I would be to close. Army-crawling through the bush like I was, it would have bit me right on the face if it saw fit. Needless to say, I decided not to pursue. The hike came out to about 8 miles and covered sections of pine flatwoods, salt marsh, and white-sand beachfront.

Six-lined racerunner.

Toothpick grasshopper.

The two most common creatures in the flatwoods that I encountered (besides cricket frogs) where oak toads and six lined racerunners. I also encountered leopard frogs and plenty of dragonflies and damselflies. The six lined racerunners are a joy to try and catch. It's humanly impossible to do so, I'm convinced. The three of us had one cornered on many an occasion. At one point we thought for sure we had it. Luke threw the net down and, as far as anyone could see, the lizard was under there. I thought I saw something flash over the horizon, but I didn't think it was the lizard at the time. It must have been because that net was empty. So fast our eyes couldn't even pick it up.

Wasp attacking caterpillar.

I might as well have out with it. I am a camouflage fanatic. One of the best examples of this in florida is the toothpick grasshopper. It looks just like some little twig (or a toothpick, he, he). They are very common in many of the areas I was at in Florida including West Campus. And no wonder! If they didn't move, a predator might never spot them. However, it seems that have sacrificed some of the energy and agility that the other grasshoppers possess to diversify into such a perfect camouflage. It's worth it though, since there are so many of them around. And I can't help but wonder how many I never even noticed. A whole lot, I'll warrant. Many other grasshoppers were seen as well, but I didn't photograph any of them. It's kind of sad, but all the most common usual species are usually neglected by my lens.

Brown pelican. Proud parent.

INCOMING!!

Another insect encountered was a sort of paper wasp. One of the ones my friend Luke spotted was devouring a small caterpillar, mashing up it's head into a pulp and slurping up the guts and fluid. A lot of people are not aware of the predatory nature of wasps. We tend to picture them ruining picnics or pollinating wildflowers (which they seldom do). The truth is, wasps are one of the top predators to many creatures, including caterpillars. In fact, some species feed almost exclusively on caterpillars. It reminds me of a time when I was out door-knocking. Under the porch light was a little hole. I watched with much amusement as a wasp arrived with a paralyzed caterpillar and stuffed it into the hole. I imagine that the hole was full of such caterpillars, all paralyzed, waiting for the egg, laid on the back of one of them, to hatch. Then the little grub would begin to devour it's pre-stored food. I'd seen such things on David Attenborough's shows but it was a delight to see the real thing for myself. It is a good example of a caring parent in the insect world. To bad insects are often viewed in such a negative light.

Along the shoreline, I saw a number of birds training or protecting their young. A killdeer was seen first and, classically, it led me away from its mate and nest. It didn't call much but its mate back at the nest, called repeatedly. Unless it was the young in a nest. But judging from where those sounds were coming from, the nest would have had to have been in a tree. Not likely for killdeer.
Further along, I encountered a pelican wheeling and soaring around a patch of coast with its youngster close behind following her every move. It was amazing to see a dedicated parent showing her adolescent how to curve and move in the air. It must be quite an achievement to fly when you're a pelican, especially considering that great big head. Good thing it's as light as bird bone!
Well, that's about the longest post I've ever made! Glad it's over. Next time I'll do it in two parts!

Look at those dudes.