Seacrest Scrub Natural Area

There was an hour before sunset and this park was only a few miles away. I'm still learning the area where I live but I saw a little brown sign on my way home today and my destination was set. I pulled into the Seacrest Scrub Natural Area with time on my hands.


The first 0.17 miles of the trail is wheelchair accessible. They call this the Gopher Tortoise Nature Trail. The Gray Catbirds were everywhere in the scrub. Seacrest Scrub Natural Area is a 54-acre preserve. Purchased in the early 1990's, this area was partially used as a pineapple farm but there are some intact natural scrub areas within the park.

Most scrub ridges are high elevation lands with mostly smallish scrub plants. This tract of land has a multitude of Florida Slash Pine due to the previous agricultural use. But it is also covered with Sand Pines, Myrtle Oak and Sand Live Oak.

If you're looking for solitude in Palm Beach County these Natural Areas seem to be the place to go. None of the parks I've explored so far are very big but they are mostly deserted, giving you a real sense of adventure in an overcrowded county. When I saw this tree above I was in love. I don't know why but I find it beautiful, especially in the evening light.

As you follow the path it becomes more and more narrow. The yellow blazes signify that you're on the Sand Pine Hiking Trail which is about 3/4 a mile long. It's a nice short afternoon stroll. Next time I may bring my bike since most of the trail was fairly compact. If you've done much hiking in South Florida you know that this is rare. Most trails are loose white sand and quite a few cover old sand dunes, creating for a good workout on a bike.

The trail is a short loop. I found all kinds of interesting plant life and animal tracks. In a little grove of young slash pines I found the feathers above. It looks like a fairly recent kill, probably from yesterday. We had some torrential downpours and it caused all the feathers to stick together. I didn't see many birds on this trip but I heard plenty of Palm Warblers chipping and a few Fish Crows overhead.

It only took about 30 minutes to hike this park but I will go back. I loved the flowering scrub plants and the small little wonders of the trail. Whether it's Spiny Crab-like Spiders or Gopher Tortoises, this natural area is home to many types of wildlife and I'm glad to live in a county where preservation of these lands is important.

My Top 10 Nature Moments of 2007

2007 was a year full of many changes for me. I finally settled down and lived in only one state (compared to 3 states in 2008). I also took another full-time job and actually made the majority of my trips this year in my new home state of Florida. Here is a breakdown of my top 10 nature moments of 2007 (meme from Earth, Wind & Water):


10. Wekiwa State Park Camping (December 7-9) - I love camping and all of my camping adventures of this year make it on my top 10. This is a sign that I need to go camping more and it will certainly be one of my resolutions for the New Year. This was my first time holding a scorpian.


9. West Coast Florida Trip (February) - This was only my 3rd time seeing the Gulf Coast and with the help of my friend Kim, I hit all the hotspots in the Fort Myers area. I really enjoyed seeing hundreds of bats leave their bridge roost at sunset near Pine Island. And of course visiting Sanibel Island was great, along with the Red Egret feeding at Ding Darling N.W.R. I picked up a few lifer birds including a Scissor-tailed Flycatcher.



8. Seminole State Park Camping (May 4-7) - My Tallahassee friends took me to a great little park in Georgia where we enjoyed swimming in the lake and birding the trails. I even saw my first Blue Grosbeak. On the way, we stopped at Bird Song, the best viewing station for feeder birds I have ever seen. It was a great trip and I even slept outside on a wooden platform with just my sleeping bag, which was a first for me, platform in below picture.


7. Paynes Prairie State Park Camping (May 25-27) - Another camping adventure but this time it afforded me a chance to see bison grazing. Other than the ticks and deer flies, the hike in to our campsite was fun and we saw a few nice birds along the way.


6. Florida Trail: Ocean to Lake Trail (August 4th) - This was my first time hiking the Florida Trail. As promised the trail was flooded at times and the rest of the time my feet were covered in sand. I loved this all day hike that took me through Jonathon Dickinson State Park. I did the East Loop Trail that winds through the park. One day I would love to hike the whole Ocean to Lake Trail.



5. Okefenokee Wildlife Refuge Backcountry Camping (November 12-13) - There's no better way to experience the outdoors than by canoeing through a wildlife refuge. As always, the Okefenokee didn't let me down. We saw alligators, Sandhill Cranes, and lots of migrating American Robins. We also had a lot of fun singing songs and enjoying the peaceful swamp.


4. Keys Trip (July) - This was my first time to the Keys and I was more than happy. My mother and aunt accompanied me for a little snorkeling and a lot of driving. We took lots of silly pictures with large mermaids and road signs. From Key Largo to Key West it was quite an adventure.



3. Everglades National Park Trip (April 16-17) - My first time in the Everglades was a great experience. I loved the expansive river of grass and the breathtaking scenery of the bay at Flamingo. I saw quite a few life birds, Summer Tanager and Blue-headed Vireo, and even made a new friend at the Everglades Hostel.



2. Green Cay Nature Center (January 22) - After a whirlwind year of traveling and change I moved to Palm Beach County and started working at Green Cay. The bird life is amazing. I have had numerous experiences with our resident bobcats and of course, there is always something new to see in the marsh. We had a few unusual birds this year including: Eared Grebe, Shiny Cowbird, Bronzed Cowbird and Black-bellied Whistling Ducks. In the last month we have had visits from a Bufflehead, American Wigeon, and a Gadwall. Green Cay continues to amaze me.


1. Bolivia, South America (October 6-21) - The first time out of the country for me in almost 10 years proved to be the best experience of my life. Bolivia deserves its own Top 10 list. The highlights include hiking up mountains, swimming in waterfalls, soaking in natural springs, birding in the Chaco, and enjoying the city of Santa Cruz. I loved every minute of my time there and I had a great traveling companion to see me through the experience. I saw many life animals including a Spectacled Caiman and 53 new life birds.

Wekiwa Springs State Park

This past weekend my Florida friends met me at Wekiwa Springs State Park for a camping adventure. Wekiwa is found in Central Florida at the headwaters of the Wekiva River. It has a 72 degree year around spring and over 13 miles of hiking trails. Plus it boasts a bird count list of over 200 species. You can also find the longest continually running bird banding station in Florida, Wekiva Basin Banding Station.

Here we are staring out at the Wekiwa Springs. Wekiwa comes from a Creek Indian word meaning "bubbling water" or "spring of water" and is used to speak of the spring itself. Wekiva means "flowing water," and is used as the name of the river which is fed by Wekiwa Springs, seen in the picture below.

We took the main trail (white blaze) to our campsite, aptly named Camp Cozy. It was a short 3.5 mile hike in but the hot and humid weather of Florida was enough for us to be slightly uncomfortable. While most people in the country have snow and cold weather we are still counting the days that hit into the 90's.


Once at our site we immediately set up camp. We unrolled the tents, gathered the firewood, and explored the surrounding area.


We only took trees that were already felled. Here is Andy hard at work chopping our trees into smaller logs. Our campsite provided some warmth once the sun went down. Mostly, we just enjoyed fanning the flames and watching the wood blaze.

We had only a few visitors to the campfire. A loud armadillo rummaged about for most of the evening. There may have been some raccoons lurking after we went to bed and of course, we had a visit or two with a scorpion. This one was caught and de-tailed so we could handle it. Later in the night I wasn't so lucky and had one sting my thumb as I was raking wood chips to throw into the fire.

All in all, the trip was another sucess for the camping books. We saw 28 species of bird, a few mammals, and lots of arthopods. The best part was spending time with friends and enjoying a local natural area.

Jekyll, Jekyll

Last weekend was spent on one of my favorite places on this planet. Jekyll Island was beautiful as always. The birding was good, the friendly faces were plentiful, and the scenery was breathtaking. There will be more about this later.

On the railing

We have over 3 miles of railing at Green Cay. This is a place where you often find children hanging on to have a better look or maybe a few birds perched. Today, on my 3 walks around the wetlands I found a variety of things on the railing. First, there is the juvenile Boat-tailed Grackle. Now, I'm not very fond of grackles on the whole. They are loud, messy birds and they bully all the other birds at the feeders. But there's something about these juveniles and all their molting that really has me intrigued. I love how the brown feathers are being replaced with the iridescent black. And I also like how they follow their parents around looking for a free handout.

Next up we have a three-some of Black-bellied Whistling Ducks. These guys and gals are creating a lot of havoc around the wetlands. I can hear them whistling from the front porch and of course I can spot their white flight feather from a mile away.

Most of the railings are covered in bird feces of some type with an occasional raccoon scat mixed in. Today I found the feathers of what appears to be a Tri-colored Heron. I'm not sure if this was just preening or molting or what exactly, but the bird lost many a feather.

The best find of the day goes to my Nature Center Assistant. While the two of us were looking for some juvenile Wood Storks he spotted this owl pellet on the railing. I love owl pellets and dissecting them is always fun. Usually they have not only bones but a lot of fur mixed in. This pellet was almost completely made of bones.