March 20th, 2025
This past New Year's camping trip for me was a four-day solo backpacking hike in Florida's Withlacoochee State Forest. During this hike I saw or heard many birds including six of the eight members of the woodpecker family that can be found in Florida. The two I did not come across during my hike was a Hairy Woodpecker or a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker. I passed many of the candled nest trees of Red-cockaded Woodpeckers and heard them calling and possibly saw one fly by, but that sighting was too brief for a visual ID.
Red-cockaded Woodpeckers are very similar to Downy Woodpeckers (same genus), but lacking the white patch down the middle of the back on Downys and the Red-cockaded have a white cheek patch. I've always thought that White-cheeked Woodpecker would be a more appropriate name than Red-cockaded, as the namesake red tuft is rarely noticable in the field. Red-cockaded woodpeckers are a federally listed threatened species and an imperiled species of special concern in Florida.
Below is a sample of my previous photographs of the woodpeckers that I saw during this hike.
Seeing a Red-headed Woodpecker is always a treat for me as they are not often seen along Florida's east coast, being more likely to be found inland in forests that include dead standing trees for nest cavities. This adult Red-head was perched on a dead snag in Letchworth Mound State Park east of Tallahassee.
Florida's largest woodpecker is the Pileated, now that the Ivory-billed Woodpeckers (Campephilus principalis) are extirpated from the state and presumed extinct. The only Ivory-billed I have seen was a specimen in the ornithology collection of the Museum of Natural Science at Louisiana State University.
Pileated Woodpeckers are fairly common and are frequently found in hardwood hammocks, but also in other types of wooded areas. In addition to being visually striking, with their large size and red-topped head, pileateds have a distinctive laugh-like call and their loud whacking on trees with their big bill can be heard for quite a distance.
The state's other woodpecker with a lot of red on the head is the Red-bellied Woodpecker. This pair was working on a nest cavity near my campsite in John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park on Key Largo.
Males have red across the top of the head and down the back of the neck, where females have red only on the back of the head and neck, plus a little splotch of red above the base of the bill. The namesake red belly is most easily seen while perched on a small branch or wire.
Another member of the woodpecker family is the Northern Flicker. Like woodpeckers these birds can cling to the sides of trees but they are often seen on the ground and on lawns where they feed on ants and beetles, their favorite food.
Flickers are found throughout much of North and Central America except for the most northern parts of Canada and the most southern Central American countries. There are two main forms of flickers, yellow-shafted and red-shafted. These form names refer to the color of the underside of wings and tail. The male Northern Flickers have a 'mustache' drooping from the base of the bill down the side of the face. This is black on yellow-shafted forms and red on the red-shafted. Yellow-shafted are primarily found in the eastern portion of their range and the red-shafted flickers occur in the west.
North America's smallest woodpecker is the Downy, commonly found in open, usually deciduous woodlands, as well as orchards, city parks, yards and vacant lots.
Downy Woodpeckers are very similar in appearance to the slightly larger hairy woodpecker, except that Downys have a much smaller bill, typically appearing to be about half as long as the head. The head is black with two white horizontal stripes, one from the top rear of the eye to the back of the head where males have a red patch and another from the bottom of the bill and connecting to the wide white band down the nape and the back. Wings have a black and white checkered pattern.
Clicking on any of the links in the text above will take you to the Wild Florida Photo page (or other website in the case of the Ivory-billed) for that species where you can find more photos of and information about that subject. Clicking on any of the photos will take you to my print-on-demand store where you can purchase that image printed on a variety of products.
Paul Rebmann
March 20, 2025
October 14th, 2024
Several Octobers ago I had the opportunity to do some bird photography along Florida's Gulf Coast on Lido Key in Sarasota County.
Not what comes to mind when I think of beach birds, rock pigeons are often under-appreciated when it comes to pretty birds unless they are seen in bright sunlight at the right angle as can be seen in this photograph.
Known variously as common pigeons or rock doves, Columba livia is a common bird of rocky cliffs, farms, towns and cities practically world-wide and can have highly variable plumage that is frequently a light gray body with darker coloring on the head, neck and tail and two black bands on the wings and across the tip of the tail.
A more traditional beach bird even if not our most numerous is the black-bellied plover. Absent from Florida during the summer breeding season, they can sometimes be seen in their namesake plumage just before heading north.
Black-bellied are our largest plovers and all ages and sexes have black armpits visible in flight. Breeding males have a black face, neck and belly and are white on the crown, nape and undertail. The back, wings and down the tail is white and black speckled. Females are similar in breeding season, but muted with less contrast. Non-breeding birds as seen here have brownish mottling on the back and are pale underneath, sometimes smudgy. Juveniles are more crisply black and white above with a streaked breast. ALl have thick stubby black bills and dark legs.
I have often seen snowy egrets feeding in the surf.
Egretta thula is a medium-sized egret that is always all-white with distinctive feet that are greenish-yellow much of the year and becoming more orange-yellow during breeding season when they also display long whispy feathers on their heads, necks and backs. Legs are black, with various amounts of yellow in younger birds. Adults have a long slender black bill with a yellow patch from the base of the bill to the eye.
Great blue herons are the largest heron in North America, and while they are most frequently seen along freshwater lakes, rivers and streams or in estuaries, like this juvenile they can also be seen on Florida beaches.
Standing about four feet tall with a wingspan of six feet, the body is mostly blue-gray. The head is white with a black stripe and short black plumes. The bill is long, thick and mostly yellow, juveniles having a dark upper bill. Legs are long, dull yellow to slaty-black, with rusty thighs. The front of the neck is striped black and white and the shoulder is black, with a bit of rusty coloring.
Of the herons and egrets I see reddish egrets less often than all the others, so it was a treat to see several during this outing. First was an immature bird standing on a line of rocks leading down the beach.
These 1st year (above) reddish egrets have a dark bill and are overall a pale chalky or ashy copper color. Second year (below) birds are starting to display a reddish neck and head and the bill begins geting lighter near the base. Adult beeding birds have bills that are two-toned, pink towards the base with a black tip. And the red plumage gets a bit wispy.
These egrets are well-known for their animated feeding style where they spread their wings, creating shade on the water to make the fish more visible and often jumping up in the air while doing this.
A selection of these and other bird photographs can be purchased online at paul-rebmann.pixels.com/collections/birds.
I hope that you enjoyed this brief look at these birds at a Florida beach.
Clicking on any of the links above will take you to the Wild Florida Photo page for that species where you can find more photos of and information about that subject. Clicking on the images will take you to pixels.com where you can purchase that image in many sizes & formats and on various products.
Paul Rebmann
October 14, 2024
August 29th, 2024
As promised, this month will feature a some insects - particularly dragonflies - seen during a July hike years ago in Clark Bay Conservation Area.
Clark Bay Conservation Area (CBCA) is a St. Johns Water Management District property in Volusia County of over 5000 acres including wetlands that are the headwaters of Little Haw Creek. CBCA is located north of Highway 92 between Daytona Beach and DeLand just west of Tiger Bay State Forest.
For more about this property, its habitats and some of the plants, see last month's blog post.
There were at least six species of dragonflies seen on this summer day in Clark Bay, all members of the skimmer (Libellulidae) family. Most of these I had seen before in various areas of the state, but one was new to me, the ornate pennant, which is sometimes called the faded pennant.
Ornate pennants (Celithemis ornata) have a distinctive usually amber area at the base of the otherwise clear hindwings. This spot will typically have several black stripes crossing it and in some males the spot may be more brown. The photo at the top of this post is also an ornate pennant.
ornate pennant perched on leaf
Eastern pondhawks (Erythemis simplicicollis) are one of Florida's more common and widespread dragonflies and one of the first that I ever photographed. In this species the mature males and females look very different. I only captured an image of a female at Clark Bay. Juveniles and females are grass-green and have black spots or bands on the abdomen. As males mature their abdomens turn pale blue. Other common names for this dragonfly include common pondhawk and green jacket.
Eastern pondhawk - female or juvenile
Another dragonfly in which the mature males have a blue abdomen is the appropriately named blue dasher (Pachydiplax longipennis). Males also have a white face and metallic green eyes that become bluish with age. The females and juveniles look quite different, having a black abdomen with broken yellow stripes and reddish-brown eyes. I also did not photograph any of these males at Clark Bay.
blue dasher female or juvenile on needlepod rush
The next dragonfly is a little blue dragonlet (Erythrodiplax minuscula) and they are only about an inch long. You may be wondering why this dragonfly is perched with its abdomen sticking up. This is called the obelisk posture and it helps with regulating the body heat on a hot summer day by orienting the abdomen so that less sun shines on it.
little blue dragonlet in obelisk posture
I saw two more dragonflies this day at Clark Bay and they were both skimmers, not just the family, but the genus Libellula. First is a great blue skimmer, Florida's largest, and found most frequently in coastal states from Texas to Maine.
great blue skimmer
The second skimmer is a Needham's skimmer. This species is named for James G. Needham (1868-1957), head of the Department of Entomology at Cornell University & author of "A Handbook of the Dragonflies of North America" (1929).
Needham's skimmer on needlepod rush
A selection of my other dragonfly photographs including several of male blue dashers can be purchased online at paul-rebmann.pixels.com/art/dragonfly. If you want to see even more dragonflies visit my earlier blog post "Pretty Little Dragonflies".
I hope that you enjoyed this brief look at these dragonflies.
Clicking on any of the links or images above will take you to the Wild Florida Photo page for that species where you can find more photos of and information about that subject.
Paul Rebmann
August 29, 2024
July 30th, 2024
As this summer's heat is making it unappealing to go out exploring on foot, I am looking back on when I checked out the nearby Clark Bay Conservation Area. This was a combination nature and photographic walk for myself that I also used as a reconnisance for a future native plant society field trip. Even though I started out early that Saturday in July, was 14 years younger and the climate was a bit more temperate that summer, by the time I got back to my vehicle a little after noon this sweat-soaked hiker readily welcomed the auto air conditioning.
Clark Bay Conservation Area (CBCA) is a St. Johns Water Management District property in Volusia County of over 5000 acres including wetlands that are the headwaters of Little Haw Creek. CBCA is located north of Highway 92 between Daytona Beach and DeLand just west of Tiger Bay State Forest.
Mainly composed of basin swamp plus both wet and mesic flatwoods, CBCA also contains some scrub habitat, as shown in the thumbnail at the top of this post.
Below are just seven of the nearly two dozen plants photographed during this outing along with a variety of animals, mostly insects. Most of these are species that prefer wet habitats and a number of them were in the drainage ditches along the trail like this rush.
I believe this is needlepod rush, although it could possibly be bighead rush. Bighead rush looks very similar but usually has a bit of red color in the inflorescence where the needlepod is more green and straw-colored.
patch of needlepod rush; close-up of needlepod rush flowers
Early in my Florida botanizing St. John's worts and their showy yellow flowers quickly became some of my favorite plants. There are 34 species of Hypericum - St. John's wort - in Florida, all of them native. One of these is roundpod St. John's-wort, one of the five-petaled Hypericum. These were blooming profusely along the wet areas along the trail. Like this one, many of the St. John's worts are at least partially woody especially in the lower portions of the stem, making them seem more like little shrubs than herbaceous wildflowers.
roundpod St. John's-wort in bloom with grasses; close-up of two flowers
These next two plants are both members of the pipewort family (Eriocaulaceae) and they like it wet. In Florida this family is made up of pipeworts, bogbuttons and hatpins.
Whitehead bogbuttons are the most widespread of the five Lachnocaulon species in Florida, ranging thoughout most of the state. They are often seen in the lowest and dampest sections of local trails. 
whitehead bogbuttons; close up side view of inflorescence
One of the half-dozen species of Eriocaulon in the state is tenangle pipewort, so named for the many-ribbed stems.
tenangle pipewort plants; flowering head close-up
The only species of hatpins in Florida is Syngonanthus flavidulus, yellow hatpins, which I did not photograph on this walk, but is known to occur at CBCA.
As the trail passed into a dryer area, I was treated to a Carolina desertchickory in bloom. This wildflower might be more easily remembered by another common name for it, false dandelion.
Carolina desertchickory plant in bloom; flower close-up
CBCA has a couple of small areas of scrub habitat one of which the white trail passes through and where I found some tarflower shrubs in bloom. The showy flowers are sticky, prompting both the more commmon name of tarflower and the less used names fly-catcher and flyweed.
tarflower stems, leaves and flowers; flower cloase-up side view
Lastly a look at one more plant that likes wet feet and has an aromatic feature. Of the three native and one non-native Bacopa species in Florida, this is the only one that has a lemon scent when crushed.
mat of lemon bacopa plants; close-up of flower
I hope that you enjoyed this brief look at these summer plants. Next month will feature some of the many insects that I photographed this same day.
Clicking on any of the links or images above will take you to the Wild Florida Photo page for that species where you can find more photos of and information about that subject.
Paul Rebmann
July 30, 2024
February 25th, 2024
Mushrooms
Among the interesting things in nature that I have found to photograph are mushrooms. They come in many shapes, sizes and colors and are ephemeral in that what we see popping up out of the ground or attached to wood is only the fruiting body of a much larger hidden fungus and typically only lasts long enough to release the reproductive spores.
Depending upon the mushroom species spores are produced by various structures. Probably the most common and best known are gills. These are thin membranes under the cap in a radial pattern extending more or less from the stem to the rim. The Jack O'Lantern mushrooms above are an example of gilled mushrooms.
Another type of mushroom has pores instead of gills with the underside of the cap having the appearance of a dense sponge. The bolete family are an example of fungi with pores and the goldstalk mushroom below shows this type of cap.
Another type of fungi are the ones with teeth instead of gills or pores. These include the coral fungi, so named due to the resemblance to some ocean corals. This beautiful specimen, called a crown-tipped coral, was photographed in Taylor Hollow, a Nature Conservancy Preserve in Tennessee.
Like the boletes, polypores lack gills but instead have tubes that release the spores through the pores, or ends of the tubes. Some of the polypores take the form shown in the next photo of a hairy hexagonia and are known as shelf or bracket fungi.
The Amanita family (Amanitaceae) of mushrooms includes some of the most toxic fungi known and account for a huge majority of fatal poisonings caused by consuming mushrooms. The Amanita genus has many species of various colors. The fruiting bodies of the Amanitaceae develop inside an egglike enclosure called a universal veil. As the mushroom develops and breaks through this veil various remnants often remain on the cap, along the rim of the cap and/or along the stem and are sometimes visible near the base. In the photo below the veil is still complete from the rim the cap to the stem, enclosing the gills.
One of the more unusually colored mushrooms I have come across and photographed was this indigo milky while hiking in the Wakulla State Forest near Tallahassee, Florida. Also known as the indigo milk cap, blue latex will ooze from cuts or tears in this mushroom, with the latex slowly turning green upon exposure to air.
Recently the mushrooms I have most frequently come across and photographed seem to be oyster mushrooms. I have not been able to identify many of these to the species, although the mushrooms in the image below might be summer oyster mushrooms. I photographed these at Suwannee River State Park in North Florida.
I will close with my personal favorite mushroom photo that I made one August while camping in North Carolina. This is of a bolete mushroom in the woods on the lower portion of Jackrabbit Mountain in the Nantahala National Forest. I believe that this is Lanmaoa pseudosensibilis, a bolete with no common name that was until recently classified as Boletus pseudosensibilis.
Paul Rebmann
Feb. 25, 2024
December 7th, 2023
Several years ago I finally visited one of the east central Florida’s birding hotspots in Brevard County. Still widely known as Viera Wetlands, it was officially named Ritch Grissom Memorial Wetlands at Viera in honor of a longtime employee at the adjacent water treatment facility.
Since the wetlands are currently closed for maintenance work (see below for more details on this), I thought I would showcase a few of the highlights of my visit. One of the first birds I came across was one that I more frequently see while kayaking - a green heron - seen here with a dragonfly on a nearby cattail, demonstrating that sights in the wetlands include more than birds.
Green heron and dragonfly
The wetlands consist of a series of impoundments divided by levies with unpaved roads on top. The roads have been closed to vehicles for some time, allowing only pedestrians and bicycles. Upon entering, I came upon a snowy egret perched on the edge of a large vertical culvert that water was flowing out of. The egret appreared to be finding and plucking edible treats from the flowing water.
Snowy egret
Wetlands habitats are frequently populated by common gallinules, and here there were both adults and juveniles. These birds are also known as Florida gallinules and previously as common moorhens, a name that is now applied to eastern hemisphere species.
Adult common gallinule
Juvenile common gallinule
On this August day, an anhinga was perched with its mouth open. Like dogs, birds often pant to cool down when it is hot. Some may only hold their bill agape, others actually pant which is called gular fluttering, both techniques aid in evaporation which cools the body.
Anhinga in a small tree with bill open
Herons were in abundance, including both great blue and tricolored herons, the latter also known as Louisiana herons.
Adult great blue heron with tricolored heron in background
Tricolored heron with minnow in bill
Little blue herons and at least one osprey were also present, but neither were cooperating as photographic subjects on this day.
As promised, something other than birds, a four-spotted pennant was in the obelisk posture. Dragonflies often raise their abdomen on hot days to keep from getting too hot. In this position the tip is oriented towards the sun so that less surface area is exposed to sunlight.
Four-spotted pennant in obelisk posture
Back to birds with something completely different, boat-tailed grackles were noisily making their way through the shoreline vegetation. One of these was a female calling.
Female boat-tailed grackle
And a cattle egret flew past, this side view showing the dark legs and yellow bill of a non-breeding adult.
Cattle egret in non-breeding plumage.
Another dragonfly, this one a male eastern pondhawk.
Male eastern pondhawk
Both of Florida's ibises were present, the common and widespread white ibis and the glossy ibis, which is more frequently seen in the central and south peninsula than in the rest of the state.
White ibis
Glossy ibis - non-breeding adult
I was familiar with a fair variety of ducks before I moved to Florida, but black-bellied whistling-ducks were new to me when I finally saw some south of Tampa Bay one year. And I've nearly always seen these striking waterfowl in pairs.
Pair of black-bellied whistling-ducks
The Florida state bird was perched on the top of a post. Northern mockingbirds are the official state bird of Florida and also four other states.
Northern mockingbird
The final member of the well-represented herons and bitterns family that I photographed at the wetlands was this great egret with its head held high on an extended neck.
Great egret
Closing out with a couple of non-dragonfly insects, first a Southern green-striped grasshopper.
Southern green-striped grasshopper
Last, and also least (in size) was this barred sulphur butterfly on a blade of grass. 
In case you thought I was completely forgetting plants, bulltongue arrowhead, also known as duck-potato, was flowering and is in the header thumbnail of this post.
This reminder that as of late 2023 the Viera Wetlands are closed for maintenance to improve the primary function of the wetmands, which is to facilitate the final treatment of wastewater. Reopenening is expected in early 2024, February at the earliest. The wetlands are located at 3658 Charlie Corbeil Way, Viera, 32940.
Clicking on any of the links or images above will take you to the Wild Florida Photo page for that species where you can find more photos of and information about that subject.
Paul Rebmann
Dec. 7, 2023
October 11th, 2023
Green Sea Turtles
The last day of this past July started off with a pleasant surprise when I saw the Volusia Turtle Patrol marking a new sea turtle nest in front of the house. I went down to check it out and took some photos of the nest and the tracks left on the beach by the adult female turtle.
Green sea turtle nest in the dune
Turtle Tracks at Sunrise
Looking closely at the pattern of the tracks, and checking various references, I concluded that these were probably made by a green sea turtle. 
Green sea turtle tracks on the beach
This fact was exciting since most of the turtle nests nearby have usually laid by loggerhead turtles, with an occassional leatherback. Loggerheads make up nearly two-thirds of the over 200,000 sea turtle nests annually in Florida. Green sea turtles account for about a third with leatherbacks less than one percent and Kemp's Ridleys only totalling around a dozen in number statewide.
For comparison, here are some loggerhead turtle tracks with one human footprint for scale.
Loggerhead turtle tracks
Turtle season in Florida runs from May 1 to October 31 with nearly all sea turtle nesting happening during that period. After the adult turtle digs a nest and lays her eggs, it is typically 45 to 60 days before the hatchlings break out of their shells and dig their way up onto the beach to crawl to the sea. Both the egg laying and the hatching usually happens at night.
I missed it, but this nest hatched exactly 45 days after being laid. The following Sunday morning the Volusia Turtle Patrol volunteers dug out the nest. This is done for all of the sea turtle nests after they hatch or even if they never emerge. A count is made of what is found in the nest providing a census of empty eggshells, unhatched eggs, dead hatchlings, and live hatchlings that may not yet have emerged. Any live hatchlings are either immediately released on the beach near the water or taken to the Marine Science Center in Ponce Inlet to recover before being released. 
Volusia Turtle Patrol volunteers digging out the turtle nest
In this case, it took nearly an hour and a half for the two volunteers to dig out the nest using only their hands to find the spot where the eggs had been laid. The effort was well rewarded as about two dozen live hatchlings were unearthed along with the remnants of the nest.
rescued green sea turtle hatchlings in cooler waiting to be released
After finishing up the nest dig and recording the results, the hatchlings were released a few at a time since they were all so lively. 
Three green sea turtle hatchlings heading towards the ocean
This was witnessed with pleasure by a small band of onlookers who had gathered on the beach.
Green sea turtle hatchling on the beach
For more information on Florida's sea turtles and the Volusia/Flagler Turtle Patrol, visit the turtle patrol website.
For more of my photos and information about green sea turtles, visit the Wild Florida Photo green sea turtle page.
Paul Rebmann
October 11, 2023
March 23rd, 2023
Middle Suwannee River
The Suwannee River flows nearly 250 miles mostly through Florida, from the Okefenokee Swamp in south Georgia to the Gulf of Mexico. I have been most familiar with the upper section of the river from just south of the Georgia state line to where the Withlacoochee River(the northern one) joins the Suwannee, having canoed and kayaked numerous overnight trips and several day paddles with water levels that varied from extremely low to flood stage. But I had only done a few short day paddles at a couple of places downstream of mile 128 while visiting various riverside state parks.
Life events intervened last year and prevented a planned summer section hike on the Appalachian Trail with my friend Daniel, but we finally managed to pick a time in early December for some kind of adventure, deciding on a week-long kayak trip on the Suwannee River. My first thought for a trip was to start near the sill where the river leaves the Okefenokee Swamp in Georgia, but the low water levels would have made this difficult if not impossible, especially upstream of Big Shoals. We decided on the middle section of the Suwannee, all but a couple of miles of which would be new to me, all of it would be for Daniel who had not been on any part of this river.
Virginia and I met Daniel at Suwannee River State Park, where we all stayed a couple nights in one of the modern cabins, giving us a day to deploy a vehicle at our paddle destination and explore the park a little. Daniel and I hiked the trails along the river to the no longer balancing rock and the Lime Sink loop. We had this late afternoon view of the Suwannee River from the trail bridge over Dry Run Sink.
As we were loading our kayaks at the boat launch, a fisherman launched his small motorboat and mentioned that we would have some rapids soon after passing under the bridges (a railroad and both old and new US highway 90). My kayak is a fiberglass ocean kayak that I purchased used 15 years earlier and that has been on many excursions. Daniel was paddling his skin on frame that he recently built, the first camping trip for this kayak. After many week-long kayak camping trips over the years, I have tweaked and refined where and in what order items are stowed for most efficiency and best convenience.
We finally got underway and passed the fisherman near one of the bridges then came to the rapids soon after that, providing a bit of fun for this paddler who has spent most of his canoeing and kayaking on slow moving streams, rivers and other flatwater. After the unexpected excitement of the rapids we had a gentle paddle the rest of the day. At nearly 15 miles, this was the longest day on the river for our trip. Here you can see a long wide bend in the river with the rocky bank exposed below a line of trees.
While the upper Suwannee has a number of springs including White Springs, Suwannee Springs and various smaller ones, this middle portion of the river is by far the real springs section. We stopped at several of these to check them out, including Charles Spring, Lafayette Blue Springs, Telford Spring, Royal Spring and Troy Springs where the hull of an old steamboat lays at the bottom of the spring run. The Madison was scuttled there by its owner during the Civil War to keep it from falling into Union hands. Many small unnamed springs could also be seen along the river, such as the one below.
We landed on a beach next to the outfall of Charles Spring Run and walked up the run to check out the spring, one of the few places on this trip that I had been to before, having kayaked up from Lafayette Blue Springs State Park several years ago. There was barely any flow from the spring at his time. Above the spring near the parking area Daniel found a historic marker mentioning that the Bellamy Road came by here. That was the first major Federal highway in territorial Florida connecting Pensacola to St. Augustine, following a path used by Native Americans and then the Spanish. The section between the Ocklockonee River and St. Augustine was constructed in the early 1800's by a man named John Bellamy and came to be known as Bellamy's Road. Several years ago I walked a hiking, biking and equestrian trail in River Rise Preserve State Park that follows a section of this road where it crosses the natural land bridge over the Santa Fe River.
Our trip was planned so that most nights we would be in one of the Suwannee River Wilderness Trail river camps. These camps have several screened in platforms for sleeping, each next to a picnic table, grill and fire ring. We did sleep under a tarp at Lafayette Blue Springs State Park in the middle of the trip and stayed in a small cabin at Suwannee Cove south of Branford the last night. The thumbnail image at the beginning of this post shows our kayaks 'parked' on the stairs leading up to the Adams Tract river camp.
We had a short day of paddling after camping at Lafayette Blue Springs, so that morning we explored the park and walked the sink trail before getting on the river. There are a number of sinks on this trail that are all connected underground to the Blue Springs cave system.
Another one of the sinks in this park is Egg Sink and you can see photos of it during both low and high river levels at the Wild Florida Photo Egg Sink page
Where we had our kayaks tied up below the campground there was the trunk of a tree that had fallen out over the river. Anytime the river level was much more than a foot higher than it was while we were there, this log would be underwater and perpendicular to the river flow. This had worn the wood into an interesting pattern that resembled waves.
Another historic note from our trip was passing an old turnstyle railroad bridge that had been placed across the river around 1901 to extend a rail line owned by the Drew Lumber Company. The bridge was hand operated, apparently by two men. It was in service until 1920 and has been in the current open position since then. Drew Bridge is among the oldest surviving swing railroad bridges in the country, having been built in the late 1800's, bought used, then barged from Brazil to its current location.
Due to the low water levels from Dowling Park to Adams Tract there were occassional shoals, none of which were as big as the first day's rapids, but still provided a welcome break from flatwater paddling. And except for the day that we passed Branford we almost had the river to ourselves, seeing very few other boats on the water. And even that busy day all the motorboats were small, carrying people out fishing and those that were underway were very courteous to us paddlers. Our last day we paddled down the river which was noticably slowing down as it approached the confluence with the Santa Fe, which we paddled up the mile to Ellie Ray's RV Resort where we had left Daniel's truck. The Santa Fe was yet another completely different river, now flowing through a broad cypress swamp. We loaded the kayaks and our gear in the truck and went into the bar there for a beer before heading home after a great trip.
For even more photos of the Suwanee River, visit the Suwannee River page at Wild Florida Photo.
Paul Rebmann
March 21, 2023
January 30th, 2023
My local Florida county – Volusia – is sponsoring a monthly nature challenge at a different county preserve each month on iNaturalist. According to the challenge coordinator Trey Hannah “The Explore Volusia Challenge was designed to get people out to the wonderful Volusia County conservation Lands”, and in my case it has been working.
The challenge started in October and that month’s location was Scrub Oak Preserve, one of the county’s newer properties and one that I had been meaning to visit for some time. So with only three days left in the month, I participated in the first challenge by hiking the one mile trail and making the five observations on iNaturalist as directed by the signs along the trail, as well as submitting observation of several other plants & animals seen along the trail, including a Florida scrub jay.
Florida scrub jay framed in green at Lyonia Preserve (2010)
For those who are not familiar with it, iNaturalist is an online social network of people sharing biodiversity information to help each other learn about nature.
I have been using iNaturalist more and more the past several years, both as an aid to identification, but also as a reporting tool as one of my contributions to citizen science by adding to their observation database. Identifications for some observations can be made by the iNaturalist AI (artificial intelligence) which is not perfect, but can often confidently suggest at least the family or genus, it which point the user can utilize other sources to narrow down the ID or other iNaturalist users - many of which are experts in their field of interest - will suggest a better ID.
The second month’s challenge was at Doris Leeper Spruce Creek Preserve. While I have explored several parts of this property, the section where the challenge was taking place was new to me. Due to hurricane Nicole and a family camping trip, the month was nearly over by the time I participated. Not part of the challenge but the highlight for me there was a giant airplant (Tillandsia utriculata) in front of somewhat dry resurrection ferns (Pleopeltis michauxiana) on an old leaning tree trunk.
Giant airplant and resurrection ferns
The thumbnail photo at the top of this post is a great blue heron along Spruce Creek.
In December I scheduled a day for the challenge between my week-long Suwannee River kayak paddle and various late month activities that included a state park kayak tour, Christmas bird count and a traditional family New Year’s camping trip. This time it was to a familiar property, Deep Creek Preserve. I had been there on a number of Florida Native Plant Society field trips with the local Pawpaw Chapter, as the chapter namesake plant – Rugel’s Pawpaw – occurs on the property. But my visits had been before the current three nature trails had been laid out and marked. The challenge was on the 1.2 mile orange trail, along which were several ferns, including one that I have only seen here, drooping forked fern (Dicranopteris flexuosa). 
Drooping forked fern
After completing the first trail, I hiked the 4.4 mile yellow trail, observations on both trails included some mushrooms. Two of these, one a reddish-brown flat-capped mushroom and another a orangish-red inverted cup-shaped mushroom were both identified as Genus Laccaria. A third very different mushroom came up as Genus Amanita.
Amanita mushroom
January brought me to a very familiar site – Longleaf Pine Preserve – having hiked here before including attending a number of native plant field trips, one of which I led. The nature challenge here was on the 0.8 mile long orange trail and included feral hog sign, mosses, and carnivorous plants. My favorite photo of the day was a new species for me, the Florida airplant (Tillandsia simulata) found only in Florida. 
Florida airplant
And hanging by a thread from a leaf of one of these airplants was something else new, a tiny round eggsack of the Basilica orbweaver spider.
Basilica orbweaver spider eggsack
I did not get a photo, but the most exciting sighting of the day was a Wilson’s snipe that I accidentally flushed up while passing through a wet area.
The February challenge will be at another familiar location, Lyonia Preserve.
Clicking on any of the links or images above will take you to the Wild Florida Photo page for that species where you can find more photos of and information about that subject.
Paul Rebmann
January 30, 2023
December 2nd, 2022
Volusia County Endangered Ferns
Back in October I did a presentation on Endangered Plants of Volusia County for Halifax River Audubon featuring 21 of the 36 plants that the Florida Plant Atlas lists as endangered and having been vouchered for Volusia County. Those 21 species in that program are ones that I photographed somewhere in Florida, five of which are ferns and the subject of this post.
The first endangered fern is the one I most recently photographed and also the smallest. Mainly a fern of southeast Florida occurring on limestone outcrops and the sides of sinks, toothed spleenwort has also has been found in Volusia County.
The ferile fronds are held erect and up to ten inches long with widely spaced pinnae (the separate divisions in a compound leaf or blade). There are two to five sori (a cluster of spore-containing cases called sporangia) along the veins of the underside of the fertile pinnae. The sterile fronds are spreading or drooping, less than 5 inches long and with pinnae that are closer together, each of which is only slightly longer than wide and with only a few coarse teeth. There are usually not more than 12 pairs of pinnae per blade.
Toothed spleenwort sterile fronds
Toothed spleenwort is Asplenium dentatum, a member of the Aspleniaceae, the Spleenwort family of ferns.
Another endangered spleenwort is eared spleenwort, Asplenium erosum. These are typically found on trees, stumps and fallen logs in wet hammocks and swamps. This fern occurs in Volusia and Flagler Counties, along the central west coast of Florida and in Collier County.
In this spleenwort the fertile and sterile fronds are similar and up to nearly 16 inches long. There are ten to 22 pairs of pinnae, each of which is narrowly lance-shaped, toothed and having a lobe (the namesake 'ear') near the base on the upward side of each pinna. Up to ten pairs of sori can be found on each side of the midvein nearest the tip.
Eared spleenwort on moss-covered oak trunk
Previously Florida occurances of this spleenwort were known as Asplenium auritum which were later determined to be the same species as Asplenium erosum.
The next endangered fern lacks the feathery-looking leaves that we commonly associate with ferns. The most noticable part of this fern is the palmately-lobed sterile blade with the appearance of a mis-shapen hand and is why it is called hand fern.
Hand fern, showing both the sterile 'hand' and the fertile spikes
The fertile blades are stalked spikes that grow upward in two rows from the petiole and margins of the sterile blade.
Once common, this fern is now rare due to overcollecting and loss of wetland habitats from draining for developments. Almost aways found in the leaf bases (boots) of sabal palms in hammocks and swamps from central Florida into the Everglades.
This species was first described by Carl Linnaeus as Ophioglossum palmatum in 1753. Due to distinct differences between hand fern and other Ophioglossum species, some botanists now classify it in a different genus as Cheiroglossa palmata.
The following ferns are all Pecluma species that were previously considered to be in the genus Polypodium before 1983.
The first of these we will look at is the comb polypody, Pecluma ptilota var. bourgeauana. Also called swamp plume polypody it is found in floodplain forests, moist hammocks and swamps in much of the Florida peninsula, most often terrestrial, but sometimes growing on trees as seen here and less likely on rocks. 
Comb polypody on live oak tree
This fern can be differentiated from the other Florida Pecluma species by having a rachis (the center stem of the leaf blade) that is either smooth or if not has scales that are thread-like. The overall outline of the blade is elliptic, tapering to a point at both ends.
A similar-looking fern is the plume polypody - Pecluma plumula.
Plume polypody on live oak tree
The difference between this and the previous fern is that this one has a black rachis with whitish to brown lance-shaped scales. Also plume polypody is more likely to be found on trees or rocks and less likely on the ground. The blade is divided into 20 or more narrow segments.
The habitat is wet hammocks and swamps of the Florida peninsula. Much like resurrection fern, plume polypody is known to shrivel up during drought and revive with rain.
A sixth endangered fern found in Volusia County is another polypody, Pecluma dispersa, the widespread polypody and one that I have not photographed, although it is one that I will be keeping an eye out for. Similar to the plume polypody, but one of the differences is that the blade is lance-shaped instead of tapering towards the base.
Clicking on any of the links or images above will take you to the Wild Florida Photo page for that species where you can find more photos of and information about that subject.
Paul Rebmann
December 2, 2022
