Reconnecting with Nature

As I have probably lamented before, birding in college is almost nonexistent. Senior year has taken off with full force and day after day I find myself swamped with homework, research, my jobs, and extracurricular activities (like gardening and running clubs). If I didn't love all this, I wouldn't do it -- but I guess I've sort of hit that mid-semester lull where I'm just tired of it all.. It seems like ever since I got back from my internship over the summer, school hasn't been the same. I get so restless being cooped up inside and I'm itching for adventure. 

Fortunately, fall break was last weekend, and, while it didn't quite satisfy my brain's need for some rest, I was able to get outside and reacquaint myself with the outdoors once more. 

Cattle drive

For break, I co-led a camping trip for my school's outdoor club. On our way up to our camping spot (about 2 hours north of school), we stopped at a little roadside farmer's market, where the shopkeepers informed us of a Florida cracker festival going on down the road. Lo and behold, a few minutes away we found the cracker fest, stopped for some lunch, and within the hour we found ourselves in the midst of a small cattle drive.

Local police stopped traffic for the drive

Period covered wagon

It was a rather random event to stumble upon, but quite enjoyable and a very "Florida" experience.

After that we all decided to scrap our backpacking plans and just go road-tripping, rolling with whatever happened. It was a good thing we did too, because things proceeded to go completely opposite of what we planned on, but turned out to be more fun than I ever could have hoped.

When we arrived at the primitive campsite, it turned out to be already occupied. As we were hiking the trail to find an unoccupied spot we came out to a beautiful river overlook, but were distracted by a putrid smell.

"Look at that big bird!" a freshmen pointed out to me. Ever the birding snob, I started to correct him that it was in fact, a black vulture, when we all realized at the same time what the vulture was sitting on: a 10 foot long dead alligator!

It didn't appear to have been shot (unfortunately such is the fate of most large gators around here), but it was otherwise impossible to tell the cause of death since it was floating with a patch of lilies in the middle of the river. Nonetheless, it was one of the biggest alligators in the wild I have ever seen, and quite a shame it was dead.

Our campsite

After gawking at the gator for a while and finishing the hike (finding no open campsites), we drove to the next closest camp ground, which wasn't as primitive, but was fortunately completely deserted; we had the whole place all to ourselves.

My tent :)

It was a fantastic night. We cooked a big pot of soup over a camp stove, hiked around, hung out, and eventually settled down for a chilly night on the soft ground listening to the call of insects and nighthawks and the distant rumble of air boats on the river.

The next morning I was wide awake hours before anyone else got up. I wandered the campsite watching the  birds, counting cardinals, phoebes, blue-gray gnatcatchers, Carolina wrens, common yellowthroats. I accidentally surprised a juvenile raccoon at one point, and followed it into the woods where it disappeared behind a tree.

Once everyone else got up, we ate a quick breakfast and headed back south to go visit a nearby cave. I hadn't been to these caves in almost a decade, since I was a kid, and they were quite different than I remembered.

Physically the cave was the same -- I vividly recalled the magical entry through the roots of a dead tree into the limestone caverns of the giant sink hole -- but unlike 10 years ago, today the caves are literally crawling with people.

Crowded cave

Tour groups, families, and campers were flowing in and out of the cave tunnels like ants in an ant hill. Although the plethora of spelunkers took away a little bit from the experience I remembered as a kid, it was still fun to squeeze through the tiny passages and come out in big caverns lit only by our flashlights.

Yours truly, coming out into the main cavern

We spent a couple hours exploring around in the caves before heading back to campus and watching the sunset over dinner. Although this marked the end of the camping trip, my fall break outdoor adventures were not quite over.

Kayaking

On the last day of break, my roommate and I decided to spend the morning sea kayaking. It was a chilly morning at first, and we were the first ones at the waterfront. We launched out kayaks and were quickly off through the creek and out into the smooth waters of the bay. We made it out to the nearby island and wildlife refuge, and spent a couple hours meandering around the mangroves, watching mullet hurl themselves out of the water, yellow-crowned night herons squawk and take off clumsily from their roosts, and brown pelicans glide serenely over the gentle waves.

By the time we decided to head back to school, the sun had warmed the air but the wind had picked up as well. At some points it seemed I was paddling in place, the wind was so strong. Nevertheless, we made it back to campus safe and sound, if not slightly exhausted.

And so ended my fall break. I cannot express how great it felt to be outside again, not worrying about school or life for a few blissful days. But now that it's all over I'm freaking out again, wondering how I'll ever catch up with everything. Alas.

Well, until the next time I get a break from the stresses of school, happy birding!

Final Days in Puerto Rico

Finally finished with school for the semester and wanted to post a few more pictures from my final days in Puerto Rico last month (wow, was it already that long ago?). Didn't see any new birds really in the final 2 days, but I did become very accustomed to the regulars -- scaly-naped pigeons, stripe-headed tanagers, tons of hummingbirds, wrens, and yellow-shouldered blackbirds.

After finishing work on our second-to-last day, we spent the afternoon hiking in the waterfalls. These falls were about a 15 minute trek from the Hacienda into the jungle, and were comprised of a narrow, rocky stream that ran down from the mountain top. I also found out on our last day that this was the source of water we had been drinking for the last week! No filtration or processing, just pure mountain water piped straight to the house. It tasted delicious, and no one got sick from it so I guess it was clean enough!

Climbing down (I'm in the purple hat)

We literally followed the stream for hours, climbing up waterfall after waterfall after waterfall. It was seemingly endless. Some were small and needed only a short step up, and others were taller than I am and required some intense finessing to get up. Coming down again was a whole other ordeal!

On our last day, we packed up again and headed off in the sketchy red van, with more people than there were seats bouncing around as we hurtled down the mountain. It was another gorgeous day, and I couldn't help but feel reflective and somewhat melancholy as we left the pristine jungles for the coastal city.

As if a testament to the urban growth slowly taking over the island, we passed this gigantic overpass that cuts straight through the rainforest from Ponce on the coast to Utuado inland. For a rainforest that  had made me feel so small, insignificant, and very much at the mercy of nature all week long, this bridge turned the tables completely, dwarfing the mountains and throwing nature at the mercy of humankind.

Cool sand sculpture

Once we got into Ponce, we had the whole afternoon and half the night to enjoy the city before heading to the airport at midnight (hooray for budget flights!). We wandered the central street market, browsed the shops, and had dinner at a fancy restaurant for our last meal together.

The city contrasted sharply to the jungles that surround it. Although it's fairly old and retains the classic Latin American style of architecture and layout, it's a very different world from the lives led by those who live in the mountains. 

All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed the trip. Like all travel, it was immensely eye-opening to the ways other people live, and a fantastic opportunity to visit one of the few biodiversity hotspots left in the world today. I hope to return to the Caribbean islands and Latin America someday soon and see what else there to see!

Camping trip, last day

Our final morning in the woods dawns cool and damp -- no rain during the night, thank goodness, but everything is covered in dew and the air hangs heavy with clamminess.

As we warm up by the fire during breakfast, the forest is alive with birds. A huge pileated woodpecker sets up shop right above our tent, hammering away at an oak tree. Downy woodpeckers "peep" to one another all around, and my mother, while taking a walk down by the river, photographs a yellow-bellied sapsucker! I'm not going to lie -- I'm jealous!

In addition to the woodpeckers, there are also the usual Eastern phoebes and towhees that have claimed our campsite as their territory. The phoebe tries to fight its reflection in our car window for a little while, before losing interesting and flying away. The towhee on the other hand is more interested in eating the old corn grounds in the bushes.

In late morning, once our fire has died out we take a long hike on one of the upland trails that follows the path of the river. Compared to the trekking we were doing over the uneven terrain the last two days down by the river, this flat trail is a piece of cake to walk.

I'm amazed by the habitat diversity in the area. We go from pine flatwoods, to centuries-old oak groves, to cypress swamps, to fields of grass.

In the more open areas, I find mixed feeding flocks of pine and palm warblers flitting across the path. Also along the river I find a pair of common ground doves, a species I rarely see.

Although my photo didn't capture it well, a brilliantly colored blue-gray gnatcatcher spent some time in an oak tree along our way as well.

Not far past the gnatcatcher, two black-and-white warblers scale the oaks with skillful agility. I love these guys -- they're so much fun to watch, and so well disguised!

Reindeer moss

We make it back to camp in early afternoon, and, perhaps with some reluctance, pack everything up and cram it into the trunk of the car. It was quite honestly the best camping trip I have ever been on, even despite the first cold night. below is my bird count for the three days:

1. eastern towhee
2. northern cardinal
3. black-and-white warbler
4. carolina wren
5. chipping sparrow
6. common ground dove
7. american crow
8. black vulture
9. turkey vulture
10. bald eagle
11. eastern phoebe
12. pileated woodpecker
13. downy woodpecker
14. palm warbler
15. pine warbler
16. mourning dove
17. red-shouldered hawk
18. carolina chickadee
19. tufted titmouse
20. great blue heron
21. anhinga
22. blue-gray gnatcatcher
23. ovenbird

Until next time,

Happy birding!

Camping trip, day 2

I spend most of the first night half-awake, curled up at the bottom of my sleeping bag, shivering. Temperatures have dropped into the 30s, and with only 3 people in our big family tent, our body heat does little to improve the conditions. It's so cold, not a cricket chirps, nor an owl hoots. The only sound is far off traffic from I-75 some miles away, the occasional snarl of a raccoon, and hunting dogs baying in the distance.

By 4am, we are all significantly chilled to the bone and sleepless. We agree to push our sleeping bags together  to try and warm up, and then get up in an hour for a pre-dawn hike. Somehow though, as soon as we huddle up together, I finally drop off to sleep and don't wake up for 3 hours until I hear my mother exclaiming that it's 7am. So much for that early hike, but at least I finally got some sleep!

After an interesting (and as I'm sure you can guess, extremely graceful) contortionist act, I manage the challenging task of changing my clothes without ever leaving my sleeping bag. It isn't until I pull on my shoes that I realize I can't feel my feet. At all. Fun!

As I'm gathering firewood so we can make breakfast, I find the river is blanketed with mist hovering just over the surface. It's beautiful in the early morning sun -- the camera doesn't even capture the full effect.

After breakfast, as I'm sitting by the fire defrosting my feet, I idly look up at the sky. By chance, there are 3 bald eagles soaring overhead! They're waaaaaay up high, but my camera is handy and I manage a couple pictures before they fly away, calling out as they disappear over the tree tops.

Around midmorning we take a hike down the river, the opposite direction we had hiked the day before. The trail is a little more difficult here -- in fact, it's not really a trail at all, but simply a series of animal trails, river bank, and cypress knees to climb over. At one point, we come across an anhinga sunning itself in the sand. It takes off as we approach.

Cypress along the banks

After lunch, we drive a few miles down the road to Silver Lake, a recreation area we found on the park map. We hike the trails there for a little while, finding two red-shouldered hawks, and more of the usual birds I've been seeing around camp.

Silver Lake

Once again, the scenery is just gorgeous. The fall colors are at their brightest, the sky is clear, and all sorts of birds and wildlife are out and about.

We return to camp in late afternoon to start the fire again and boil water for a spaghetti dinner. I slip away for a while to climb up into a tree leaning out over the riverbank, and watch the sun set over the Withlacoochee.

The temperature is dropping again, but not nearly as unbearable as the last night. Crickets are singing again, and I can hear raccoons, squirrels and rabbits rustling around in the bushes. Thick clouds roll in and it looks like it's going to rain, so before bed we hide our firewood under the car just in case.

Although it's still chilly, it stays dry all night and I manage to sleep this time! Tomorrow is our last day and we're in for a long hike and some good birding before heading home just in time for Christmas.

Check back later for day 3!

Camping trip, day 1

3:00am. I was woken suddenly by the annoying beeping sound of my cellphone alarm, but after fumbling with it in the dark for a moment to shut it off, I jumped down off the bunk bed, threw on some boots, and ran outside. Before I even got out of porch, I could already tell the glow from the full moon had turned everything a rusty red.

The full lunar eclipse early Tuesday morning truly was spectacular, and apparently the first one on a winter solstice since 1638, and the last one until 2092. I watched it for a while, snapped some pictures (this was the only one that came out well), and then eventually went back to bed to get a few more hours of sleep until we headed off to go camping that morning.

By the time we got to our campsite, it was about midday. The weather and the scenery were spectacular, and the first thing we did after setting up camp across from the crystal clear river was to take a long hike along the bank.

The trail was narrow, and eventually petered out to little more than an animal trail winding in and out of the hugest cypress knees I have ever seen. It became pretty challenging at some parts, where the only way to proceed was to climb vertically or horizontally through the trees so as not to fall in the river!

The fall colors -- well, winter by this point I guess! -- were spectacular.

At one point my sister found this tiny little bird skull along the bank. No other bones around it, but it appears to be some sort of passerine maybe (anyone good at IDing birds by their bones?). I didn't keep the skull since it's illegal to possess dead songbirds, but I took a few record pictures to look it up later.

We made it back to our campsite mid-afternoon, so I spent the rest of the time looking for more birds. I found several ovenbirds, tons of cardinals, chickadees, and chipping sparrows.

There was also a rather large rabbit hanging around the area, nibbling at the bushes not far from our site.

We managed to start a fire where we made roast potatoes, and venison steaks my sister had gotten from her last deer hunt a couple months ago. 'Twas delicious! As night fell, the moon rose (white this time -- no more eclipse!), the temperatures dipped down into the 40s as soon as the sun was gone. Although our trip was off to a great start, we were in for a very long, cold night...

Check back later for Day 2!

Outside again

Fence Lizard

Well, I'm finally home on winter break from school for a couple weeks -- the longest I've been home in about 6 months! And of course we know what a break from school means: I get to play outside! :-)

On Friday my family and I took a little hike through Withlacoochee Forest, which was aglow with fall colors (well, as much fall colors as we get down here). The weather was a perfect 70 degrees, the air crystal clear. Red-shouldered Hawks called through the woods, while Pine and Palm Warblers flitted around in the treetops. 

The river was exceptionally low, which meant little islands around the cypress stands were exposed. My siblings and I hiked and climbed and clambered around the cypress knees to our hearts' content. I felt like a little kid again!

Hog wallows 

Unfortunately as we were hiking, we found much of the area was torn of up by wild hogs. It seems that in the last few years, the "wild" boar population (of course, as most know, they're actually feral and quite destructive) has skyrocketed in Florida, and the evidence is quite clear.

It has been great to get outside again these last couple days. The weather has been lovely -- a brisk 40-something degrees today and the feeders around the house are filled with Chipping Sparrows, Tufted Titmice, and Carolina Wrens.

Tomorrow my mother, sister, and I are going on a 2-day camping trip. I can't wait!