Sept. 17th was a fine day for us to visit Weedon Island Preserve. The Preserve is both a cultural and natural history center and we had a well-rounded morning learning about the native people and plants of Weedon. The Preserve consists of both scrubby flatwoods and mangrove wetlands traversed by a boardwalk.   In the flatwoods area near some Hog plum (Ximenia americana), we came upon a gopher tortoise which tolerated our presence while it ate grasses voraciously. As we moved on after lingering to view rusty lyonia, St. Johns wort, flat-topped goldenrod and blackroot, the tortoise actually followed us down the path: perhaps it thought we would lead it to greener wiregrass!
We also saw two members of the family Scrophulariaceae in bloom: Blue Heart and Sweet Broom. Dotted horsemint was in bloom as well and wherever we saw it the air was cloudy with pollinators, including the metallic green Halictid bees.  Dotted horsemint is well worth a place in your garden simply for the beneficial insects it attracts! Highlights of the day in the boardwalk section included reviewing our black, red, and white mangrove identifications on a very healthy and lush stand; glimpsing a Tricolor Heron; and seeing some otter scat full of crab claws. The many Golden Orb-weaving spiders were particularly noteworthy for both their bright (and large!) appearance and the golden color of their webs. We saw killifish and mosquito fish darting among the mangrove roots and the Sea Myrtle (Baccharis halimifolia, aka Salt Bush) was especially lovely.  The Center itself is an attractive building which blends well with its surroundings. Its facade creatively features the traditional punctated and incised designs which decorate the pottery found on site, which is also on display inside. The film "Shadows and Reflections" about Weeden Island Culture was well worth viewing. Many thanks go out to Gorgon O'Connor for coordinating this field trip!

Werner-Boyce Salt Springs State Park  Once again we found ourselves visiting that extraordinary coastal park with the lo-o-o-ong name: Werner-Boyce Salt Springs State Park! Each year the rangers do a certain amount of prescribed burning, periodically using fire to help maintain the fragile natural communities within the park. We explored an area in the southern end of the park that had been burned only a month before.     An explosion of bracken fern turned the forest floor a lush green. With saw palmetto and other shrubs burned back, the space created will soon be filled with wildflowers. Already the blackened saw palmettos were producing flower buds! And the pea family was very visible including the Coral Bean and the Bastard Indigo.And to top off the day, we watched as a young eagle took some of its first forays into the atmosphere. The eagle had still been seen in the nest tree only a couple days before. When we spotted him he was perched in a pine tree, alone, many yards away from the nest tree. Soon one of the parents began calling to the youngster from high overhead. The immature bird spread his wings several times and moved about on the branch, shifting back and forth, and then…he was off! Junior was flying! He flew low, staying close to the treetops for awhile. But with the adults continuing their calls, he soon caught a thermal and soared upward. The kid was pretty good in the driver seat, and when he suddenly dropped out of the thermal and sped downward, maybe he was showing off a little too. We just watched and listened for a few moments longer as the three eagles circled above and then disappeared into the sky. 

Werner Boyce Park   

A small group of us toured the park which is located behind Hollywood 18 on Scenic Drive in Port Richey and consists of a half mile loop trail. This passes through or near pine flatwoods, freshwater marsh. baygall. and hydric and xeric oak hammocks. Because of the recent dry weather it was an easy and dry walk. Try it sometime after an afternoon at the movies.!

Brooker Creek Preserve Our field trip to Brooker Creek was great fun! Led by two enthusiastic and very knowledgeable guides, Kristen Sommers and Anne Schmidt, we roamed a 1.5 mile trail that crossed a main channel of Brooker Creek (no bridge), passed through oak hammock and pine flatwoods communities, and explored a flatwoods site where over 400 Catesby lilies had come up three years before, after burning and roller-chopping had been applied to the Land. Two species of plants growing on the creek’s surface were floating hearts and the curious floating fern. Dropping from above, and scattered along the banks, were the round, green seeds of a tupelo. (Actually. I think the tree was throwing them at us). Kristen picked up a tiny oak toad to show us: full-grown they are only about an inch in length, and have a cream-colored stripe down the back. This little amphibian has a big voice and its call sounds much like the peeping of baby birds.On the underside of a St. Johns wort flower we found a large, spectacular yellow spider poised and ready to snap up its hapless victims. These spiders camouflage themselves by changing colors to match the flowers on which they hide. We also spotted an adult antlion. (Most of us are familiar with the funnel formed in the sand by its larvae- sometimes called “doodlebugs”, but don’t know what the adult looks like.)The diversity of herbaceous plant life in these healthy flatwoods was simply amazing-just how it should be. But, of course, we came to the preserve especially to see the Catesby lily in bloom. A large flower with reddish orange sepals, yellow at the base and brownish purple spots--it is a real jewel here among the grasses. shrubs and less adorned wildflowers. We wrapped up the day with a picnic lunch and a visit to the Education Center there. Some of us, led by Annie, even crawled through the simulated gopher tortoise burrow complete with plant roots and animal sounds...