The Rainy Season Begins.
Today’s card swap at the trail camera was a solo drive. Over the past six weeks, Katie and I have taken out several groups of family and friends. Each time someone new visits the forest, we given them a bit of a tour. I say a bit, because the Picayune Strand State Forest is quite large, and by a “bit,” five hours of driving is only a small slice of the whole!
The roads today were clear until Merritt Boulevard. The western side of the forest had no puddles on the roads, but once on Merritt the elevation changes just enough that some puddles were 6 to 9 inches deep. The Merritt canal, dry crusted mud flats two weeks ago, are bursting with new grasses after the first rains. No standing water in the canal yet, but soon marshes filled with flowers and birds will take over as the rains become more regular.
Merritt Canal once flowed directly to the Gulf of Mexico. Restoration efforts plugged the canal every couple of hundred yards, resulting in new wetland marshes that attract wading birds and other wildlife well into the winter season.
I saw many deer in the forest this morning. Several groups of four to six white-tailed deer saw me coming, and either bounded back into the woods they came out of, or hopped across the road to the woods they were trying to get to. Turkeys were also out. Turkeys are kind of fun to watch. They more or less trot alongside the road. I slow down and follow behind and eventually they will trail off into the woods.
The pond where the camera is located has filled up. We spotted some interesting looking rocks the last time we were out. My guess is that they are some kind of fossilized corral, but I can’t identify what kind yet. Today I took some closeup pictures of those rocks, and sent them out to Instagram to see if anyone knows what they are.
I can't yet identify what form this pattern in the limestone on the edge of the pond. I think either corral, or maybe worms/invertebrates in the muds under a shallow sea. Glasses for scale.
The drive back was dustier, though nothing compared to what it was a few weeks ago. The limestone gravel roads had dried enough between 7:30 when I left and 10:30 when I come back in that the Jeep was kicking up some dust. I stopped at a site on Sable Palm road where a crew is working to cut down and mulch invasive melaleuca trees. Piles of fresh paper-bark mulch were alongside the road, and heavy equipment parked in the woods. I was easy to see the damage the melaleuca had done to the natural setting: pines and cypress in the area were thin, yet present. Hopefully they will quickly recover as this habitat is restored.
Melaleuca, or the paperbark tree, was introduced as a flood-control measure. Because they are so good at soaking up water, they out-compete native pines and cypress for resources. Crews are actively cutting down and mulching the melaleuca along Sable Palm Road, restoring the natural habitat.
On the other side of the road, a red-bellied woodpecker was yapping at me from up in a dead tree where its nest was evident. I pulled out the Canon camera and shot a couple pics, but couldn’t get quite tight enough with the lenses I have. I posted a couple of the cleanest pics to iNaturalist to get a confirmation of species, and got a response within an hour or so, which is typical for iNaturalist. One of my favorite outdoor apps for this purpose.
Red-bellied woodpecker getting ready to pop back into the nest. Sable Palm Road, Picayune Strand State Forest.
The trail camera has a fresh card, and is at 97% battery after two weeks. The roads should be good for a while more. When the time comes that I can’t get out there to check on it, it can be left until the water goes down in the fall/winter.
This week’s capture was a closeup of the bear sniffing the camera around sunset. Everything else was just wind in the trees, and the pond filling up in the background. I placed the camera at that location thinking that that pond was a good watering hole for wildlife during the dry season. Now that the rains have started, they may be able to find water more readily. The big question in a few weeks will be where to stage it to be left alone when the area floods, as it surely will. I don’t know when They turn on the Merritt pump station, but once that starts, the entire area is flooded.
Until next time!
Ted
