Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge的日誌

Photographer: William Wise | iNat Observation: 46607211 - Southern Blue Flag; Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge, Georgia. March 11, 2020. ©williamwisephoto.com

In the spring, there are splashes of purple and blue along the canoe trails of the Okefenokee Swamp. I have primarily found this beautiful Iris along the Suwannee River Middle Fork (red trail) where the channel is still wide, but taller trees provide some shade. The leaves protrude from the water a few feet and the beautiful purple bloom rises just above them. According to a USDA Plant Guide, the Southern Blue Flag swamp iris, Iris virginica, is perfectly suited to the Okefenokee habitat as it prefers wet, acidic, boggy soils. It is native to the coastal plains from Virginia to Louisiana. The source also states that Seminoles may have used this plant to treat shock following an alligator bite.

Photographer: William Wise | iNat Observation: 30037682 - Red-shouldered Hawk with a fish perched along The Sill Recreation Area; Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge, Georgia. March 13, 2015. ©williamwisephoto.com

Noises carry in strange ways in the Okefenokee Swamp. A silent solitude lies upon the blackwaters as one paddles through the refuge. But the dead stillness is suddenly broken by the scream of a Red-shouldered Hawk. Its call seems to emanate from over your shoulder, but the echo carries ahead, to the left, and to the right. It may take a few squawks from the raptor to pinpoint its location.

For many decades, the Red-shouldered Hawk has been one of the most common raptors in the Okefenokee Swamp. In 1913, Albert Wright and Francis Harper published “A Biological Reconnaissance of Okefinokee Swamp: The Birds” in The Auk, the scientific journal of the American Ornithological Society. Of the Red-shouldered Hawk, they wrote,

“Buteo lineatus alleni. FLORIDA RED-SHOULDERED HAWK: ‘Hen Hawk’; ‘Chicken Hawk.’- Very common. This is one of the most widely distributed birds, as its scream is one of the most characteristic sounds, of the Okefinokee.”

The call of the Red-shouldered Hawk is still piercing the stillness of the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge today.

Photographer: William Wise | iNat Observation: 29933071 - Southern Banded Watersnake; Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge, Georgia. March 10, 2015. ©williamwisephoto.com

The most noticeable - or, I should say, most unavoidable - sight on the Trembling Earth Nature Trail in the Stephen C Foster State Park is the gnats; great clouds of gnats six feet in diameter, swarming at eye-level populate the boardwalk at certain times of the year. We pass through one cloud - swatting and waving our hands with eyes squinted and mouth shut tight - only to encounter another gnat cloud a few feet further down the boardwalk. Swatting did absolutely nothing; like trying to blow a path through thick fog with your mouth.

But I must thank the gnats. If it not had been for the gnats forcing my eyes to squint and face downward, I would not have noticed a quick movement below the boardwalk and a stirring of the tannin-stained blackwater swamp. “A snake!” my daughter shouts. (She is somehow always the first to spot the serpents on our wildness hikes.) Sure enough, down in the sphagnum moss slithered a Southern Banded Watersnake, Nerodia fasciata. One cool reptile was now on our Okefenokee checklist.

N. fasciata inhabits most freshwater environments such as lakes, marshes, ponds, and streams.
Banded water snakes are active both day and night and may be seen basking on logs or branches overhanging the water or foraging in shallow water. (https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/29317-erodia-fasciata)

Okefenokee Journal, October 23, 2020...

Photographer: William Wise | iNat Observation: 64375795 - American Alligator with transverse rows of epidermal scutes lining back and tail; Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge, Georgia. October 23, 2020. ©williamwisephoto.com

Friday, 10:58 AM - "​Paddling upstream against a slow but constant current, the canoe run gets darker and darker. Although it is only nearing noon and night is far off, the senses are lured into believing that dusk has arrived. Little sunlight penetrates the thick vegetation. Barred Owls, typically creatures of the night, are calling aloud. Like skeletons draped in aged rags, the overhanging Cypress limbs become more and more covered with Spanish Moss until practically nothing of the host tree is visible, and it further blocks out the beams of sunlight struggling to shine through. You glide along the river in silence. Then something big and rough brushes the bottom of the kayak. No shape or figure can be seen in the tannin blackwaters. Is it just the rough bark of a submerged branch? Or the boney hide of a large alligator? "

• Middle Fork Suwannee River; Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge, Georgia.
• Friday, October 23, 2020
• Sunrise 7:04 AM, sunset 5:27 PM
• Day length: 10 hours 20 minutes (-1 hr 8 min)
• Temperature - high 84; low 65

A 2015 Okefenokee Journal excerpt:

Photographer: William Wise | iNat Observation: 29977854 - Brown Watersnake; Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge, Georgia. March 11, 2015. ©williamwisephoto.com

In the early 1990s as a young unmarried man, I was usually out in the rural areas and swamps of Georgia, Florida and the Carolinas flipping pieces of tin and digging through piles of debris hoping to find snakes. Reptiles became a lasting interest, and much of what drew me to the Okefenokee Swamp in first place. Twenty years later I found myself back in the Okefenokee with my daughter. Thankfully she shares her dad’s love of snakes and is always hopeful for a reptile find as well!

On our 2015 trip, we weren’t disappointed as we quickly came across a Brown Watersnake along the swamp boardwalk in the Stephen C Foster State Park. I’m not sure how we spotted this perfectly camouflaged dark, black and brown snake laying in the dark water choked with brown leaf litter. There are several species of Nerodia found in the Okefenokee. I usually recognize N. taxispilota by the squarish blotches that run in equal spacing down its back, cady-corner with the patches that run alternatingly down each side.

Okefenokee Journal entry from March 13, 2019...

Photographer: William Wise | iNat Observation: 21510857 - American Bittern; Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge, Georgia. March 13, 2019. ©williamwisephoto.com

My daughter and I were only ten minutes into a four-day canoe trip through the Okefenokee Swamp in Georgia and already we nearly had missed something! As we were paddling up the channel to Billy’s Lake from the Stephen C. Foster State Park boat ramp, we pulled to the side to let a tourist-laden pontoon boat pass by. As they went by, the naturalist on board pointed out an American Bittern camouflaged in the marsh grasses. We had paddled right past it, hidden in plain sight!

But we can’t be blamed. Even one prominent ornithology website says, “You’ll need sharp eyes to catch sight of an American Bittern. This streaky, brown and buff heron can materialize among the reeds, and disappear as quickly, especially when striking a concealment pose with neck stretched and bill pointed skyward.” With his bill pointed upward, he blends in perfectly with the tall brown grasses that line the water’s edge. Again, perfectly hidden in plain sight.

El legarto is no mere "lizard"!

Photographer: William Wise | iNat Observation: 46517992 - American Alligator; Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge, Georgia. March, 2020. ©williamwisephoto.com

Rumor has it that the alligator received its name from the Spanish explorers that claimed Florida in the 1500’s. If true, I’m sure that "el legarto" didn’t simply mean a lizard, but THE Lizard! For the impressive alligator is no mere squamate, but on the order of a greater magnitude: Crocodilia!

The order Crocodilia are large, predatory reptiles. They are primarily carnivorous and feast upon fish, crustaceans, birds, mammals and even other reptiles. While they are quite imposing in appearance, and some crocodilians have attacked humans (the largest number of attacks comes from the Nile crocodile), the American Alligator is rarely a threat to people. According to a Georgia Department of Natural Resources publication, “the opportunity for humans to experience any of the alligator’s weapons first hand will come only to those who attempt to capture one. Under natural conditions, alligators are usually shy, retiring creatures that generally mind their own business, which does not include promoting encounters with humans.”

Still, el legarto is no mere lizard!

Okefenokee Journal from Tuesday, March 10, 2015; 4:13 PM -

Photographer: William Wise | iNat Observation: 29932812 - Green Heron; Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge, Georgia. March 10, 2015. ©williamwisephoto.com

After pitching camp in the Stephen C Foster State Park campground, the game with my daughter was to see who would spot our first alligator. So we headed down the Trembling Earth Nature Trail and onto the boardwalk that heads into the swamp. On our way, two woodpeckers chased each other, spiraling around and through the trees; a doe and fawn casually fed on the grass near the cabins, and a Green Anole darted across our path.

Near the back of the trail loop, a spur of the boardwalk heads 2,000 feet out into the standing water of the swamp. Underneath lies 2 to 3 feet of dark tinted water, but very clear to the bottom, revealing submerged debris, logs, grasses and vegetation. As we neared the mid-point of the boardwalk, a Green Heron burst aloft between the bushes on my left and stopped on a limb to check out the intruders. An agitated rooster-like crown covered his head but then smoothed back as he settled on a perch; beautiful, shimmering, iridescent shades of blue, green, and tan. To my daughter’s impatient dismay (she was ready to see what lie up ahead), I stayed with the heron for at least ten minutes, following him from perch to perch, waiting for the opportune “Kodak moment.”

© Photographer: William Wise | Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge, Georgia. May 2, 2020. ©williamwisephoto.com

Between the open skies of Billy’s Lake and the prairie landscape of Mixon’s Hammock lies a twisting, constricted canoe trail called The Narrows. The sky overhead is darkened by Black Gum, Cypress, Bay, Red Maple and Dahoon Holly. The eye-level view left and right is overcrowded by Titi, Hurrah Bush and other shrubs. Unless the refuge cutter boats have recently passed through, sharp sticks and twigs stab toward the narrow channel hoping to impale the unskilled kayaker.

The current flows westward from Billy’s Lake toward the Sill. This seems like an advantage to the westbound paddler, but don’t be deceived. The current can carry you along so quickly that steering becomes difficult and pushes you into the scratchy shrubs lining the narrow channel. Many of these protruding limbs are tipped with spiders, and even snakes, to jump aboard the canoe. Even though the current is against you heading back to Billy’s Lake, I have found it a much more enjoyable journey with time as the steering is much more manageable.

Scanning the shore with my binoculars around Billy’s lake, I was a bit startled when...

Photographer: William Wise | iNat Observation: 46503864 - Spotted Sandpiper; Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge, Georgia. May 2, 2020. ©williamwisephoto.com

Scanning the shore with my binoculars as my daughter piloted our canoe around Billy’s lake, I was a bit startled when I saw a small group of four plump sandpiper birds gathered on a downed cypress tree. Sandpipers in the Okefenokee? This was definitely a first for me. Since our Okefenokee excursions have always been in March, I had not spotted a Spotted Sandpiper in the swamp before! About an hour later, near the entrance of The Narrows, I saw another group of 9 standing on a log in the shade.

Apparently, I wasn’t the first person to be surprised at seeing them. In 1913, Albert Wright and Francis Harper explored the Okefenokee for the American Ornithological Society. In the society’s scientific journal and official publication, The Auk, they wrote of the delight in finding the Spotted Sandpiper within the great Swamp:

“The Spotted Sandpiper was a distinct surprise as a summer resident of the swamp. Not only is this several hundred miles south of its known breeding range, but one would not expect it to find a suitable haunt in the Oke-finokee. The lakes and runs are practically shoreless; they are simply open spaces in the otherwise continuous cypress swamps. However, the logs and driftwood near the edges of Billy’s Lake serve as teetering stands; half a dozen were seen here on May 11, one on June 5, and still another a few days later. Earlier in the spring one or two were reported from the canal. The species probably does not breed in this latitude.”

According to allaboutbirds. com, Spotted Sandpipers are “the most widespread sandpiper in North America, and they are common near most kinds of freshwater, including rivers and streams, as well as near the sea coast”… and apparently blackwater swamps as well! Looking at eBird’s illustrated checklist for Charlton County, the Spotted Sandpipers are most commonly observed in the Okefenokee in April and May. So I was happy to be able to make a May visit to the swamp (thanks COVID19!) and spot this Spotted Sandpiper!