Life on Big Pine Key, FL

SUNY Cobleskill graduation 

May 10, 2014

Whoa!

Life has been crazy this past month! On May 10th, I graduated with my Bachelors degree in Wildlife Management from SUNY Cobleskill. Rewind back to the week of Thanksgiving last fall, I started applying for jobs and internships to begin immediately after graduation. I watched my friends and classmates snag awesome opportunities all over the country, and I felt left out and disappointed. I felt like I was lacking somehow, and that all this work and energy was for naught. I know, kind of dramatic, but 6 months of rejection will make you think the worst of your abilities!

Finally, finally, FINALLY I got the call: Would you like to come on board??? And lucky, lucky, LUCKY me, it was for an internship in the Florida Keys! The Florida Keys National Wildlife Refuges Complex Ranger, Kristie, interviewed me on a Thursday, and hired me on a Monday. Within 5 days, I was on the road and I made it down here on June 9th. It was a quick transition from hanging out in my college town, empty of friends, trying to figure out my week/summer/life, and trying to budget my limited funds to stuff whatever I could into my car, and heading 1,500 miles South!

I’m working as a “Visitor Services” intern in the Key Deer National Wildlife Refuge office on Big Pine Key. This is the most commonly visited refuge, out of the other 4 refuges in the Keys. Key West NWR, Great White Heron NWR, and Crocodile Lake NWR are the remaining refuges that make up the complex. Hey, check us out and “like” us on Facebook! You’ll see some of my pictures and writing from time to time as well as some awesome wildlife pictures –> Florida Keys National Wildlife Refuges Complex .

Ok, you’re all here for pictures. So I will post pics of the critters I’ve run into so far, and in subsequent entries I will elaborate on the natural history of some. I hope you enjoy!

The first animals are the famous Key deer. These guys are the same species of white-tailed deer found in Northern/Eastern United States and Canada. They are a subspecies. I’ll get into all of that later, but for now: notice their SIZE and how TAME they are!

A Key deer (Odocoileus virginianus clavium) buck checking me out. You’ll notice how close I am to these deer. They are very conditioned to be in close proximity to people, unfortunately, but they do make for nice photos.

Key deer fawn

I was exploring the refuge the other day, and sat on a stump when these two walked right up to me, to check me out.

No zoom. They were looking for a hand-out, which unfortunately many people have probably fed them before. This makes them less “wild” and more susceptible to getting hit by a vehicle, because they’re often fed from cars.

This is a refuge vehicle I was using the other day, and as I was walking to the car, the pair followed me and cut between me and the car. Begging for treats!

Signage is EVERYWHERE to warn visitors and residents to watch their speeds, and that it is unlawful to touch or feed the deer.

A Florida box turtle (Terrapene carolina bauri) found rummaging in the yard in front of my house.

A six-lined racerunner (Cnemidophorus sexlineatus), a VERY speedy lizard!

An anole lizard, specific species unknown. Likely a brown anole (Anolis sangrei). This guy is probably a male, and he’s showing me his dewlap trying to scare me off!

I found a Mediterranean house gecko (Hemidactylus turcicus) in…the house! The poor guy was very easily caught because I think he was dehydrated and starving, but also slowed down because of the AC. I released him outside, but I found him dead later. This is an introduced species to the Keys.

Mediterranean house gecko

Sea turtle nest site on Bahia Honda State Park beach.

Sea turtles nest along the shores of the Keys, and nests are taped off. I hope to be able to see live sea turtles and hopefully snorkel with them while I’m here!

This is an interesting bird. I believe this is a Würdemann’s heron. This is a controversial bird-nerd topic, and I’ll be sure to discuss more in a later entry. For now, this is a Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias) with a white head :)

Assorted shore birds. To be honest, I’ve not taken the time to ID them. I just thought I’d share, as they are happily feeding in the sea grass at low tide!

This was a *SPECTACULAR* capture, I thought. I believed I had photographed a rare species, the Bahama Mockingbird (Mimus gundlachii). After submitting my sighting to eBird, and conferring with some people here, and my orno professor from Cobleskill, everyone agreed this was in fact a juvenile Northern Mockingbird (Mimus polyglottos) that had yet to molt into it’s adult plumage. Not as exciting as I had hoped, but neat nonetheless.

And my final picture to share, the Anhinga (Anhinga anhinga)! I believe we have a nesting pair at a popular visiting location on the Key Deer NWR, which is really neat! These guys more often hang out in the Everglades than the Keys.

Week #11 of Independent Study Results

Since the beginning of February I've had 4 Cuddeback Attack IR cameras mounted and "soaking", as some will say, capturing any and all living creatures wandering in front of the sets. Next week on Monday, I will be pulling the cameras, and collecting the final pictures. It's bittersweet. I love using the cameras for personal enjoyment, and to see who's prowling around when I'm not there. But this study has taken alot of work and "thinking" time. I still have half of the work left to do, all of the compilation, analysis, paperwriting, and presenting of the findings to do during the busiest time of the semester.

I hope I'm afforded the opportunity to present before my time at this college is up! Though, I think I may have opportunity to continue this type of work at SUNY Cobleskill, where I'm heading next.

Anyway, last Sunday (April 22, 2012) we had a freak spring storm. A Nor'easter blew up from somewhere, and dumped 1-10" of wet snow on the Finger Lakes region. Where I live, North/central Finger Lakes, we got probably 3-4". I woke up to a winter wonderland and a beautiful emergency text notifcation from the college: SNOW DAY! I don't care how old you are, a snow day is a gift. A friend of mine a bit more South than me, and in higher elevation got 8" of wet HEAVY snow. Even though school was cancelled, my cameras were waiting for me still at the field station, which was south and higher in elevation...

Muller Field Station after spring snowstorm 4/23/2012

...I expected the worst, but I drive an AWD SUV, so I drove down. Suprisingly, I think most of it melted off by the time I got there late in the afternoon, even though it was still snowing a bit. Our weather was SO screwy this spring. Last Friday, 2-3 days before this storm, it was in the 80's and sunny and breezy...our poor fruit farmers!

Camera A

As I approached the first camera, I held my breath. I haven't been to check the cameras in 2 weeks. Last week I was at the 2012 Northeastern Natural History Conference so I asked a classmate of mine if  he wouldn't mind checking them for me, as he has in the past. So, thanks to Joe! I was holding my breath, as I always do upon approach, because of A) hoping my camera is still there, B) it's still hanging as I left it, and C) still running.  Check, check, check. As you can see, behind the camera there is quite a bit of standing water behind the tree it's mounted on. Also, the scent pad was swollen with water and was quite disgusting. I wonder if/how this impacted any movements of the critters who live nearby? I have many pictures and video of medium sized mammals like raccoon and opossum coming from behind the camera, or going behind the camera, but I'm not sure if they will in 5" of water. The following are the better pictures collected.



Camera A yielded 16 pictures from the past 2 weeks.

Gray squirrel

White-tailed deer

Raccoon

Raccoon

Camera B

Camera B looked ok, no standing water here...just some slushy snow. This camera had a whopping 39 images waiting for me! I rarely get 20 images on a camera a week, which is what would have been on there for just one week, and especially on this camera. It's not "hot", if you know what I mean.... I've been hoping and dreaming for a black bear, which I have repeatedly and recently found sign of here at the field station. It is bear country, they are out of the dens, and I'm using stinky-smelly scent, so the conditions should be right, right? I'd even take another river otter or 2! I just got my first 3 weeks ago, which was awesome. To check them out, visit this entry: Two New Critters!

I have to be honest, I didn't get either of those animals...BUT I did get a new species! Not a mammal, so it doesn't directly pertain to my study, but wicked cool to watch through the lens of a camera.

BAM!

A Great Blue Heron, isn't it gorgeous? One of my favorite birds. I'd love to handle one someday, I'm sure it would be a trip, but I'd love to do it!

And Joe, thanks Joe for the help!

GBH vocalizing? Or swallowing something?

In this video, this GBH is clearly fishing! I'm thinking bullhead?

One white-tail? Just watch the following video. This is why I LOVE the video feature of the Attack's!

Love the yearlings!

Camera C

Lot's of snow here! Not sure why, and there's some standing water as well behind the camera. This camera isn't really that "hot" usually, and this time over 2 weeks yielded only 12 pictures...typical.

I was again hopeful that I got the elusive local Ursid or Lontra canadensis...but nope.

Raccoon

Opossum

A soggy raccoon...was it in the water? Or was it raining...I wonder.

Soggy raccoon

Camera D

The final camera, 'D', is usually my hot spot. but this time: 9 images. 9! I couldn't believe it. Usually I get a ton of red foxes trotting back and forth, and these past two weeks, not that many. The grass in front of the camera I noticed is getting higher, maybe that's blocking a bit of the action on the trail. The mown trail is what I'm standing on, and about 7 feet wide.

I'm really interested in getting all of this data on the spreadsheet and starting to play with it, and watching for trends. Where have my fox friends gone?

White-tail deer

The only red fox I got!

My friend and future roomie Mady, who came to hang out for the day since we didn't have class! Her job was to carry my journal for me :)

That's it for the camera pics. Kind of lame for 2 weeks worth of images. I wonder where everyone is? Like I said earlier, it has been warmer than usual, up until the Nor'easter over the weekend. This week it has been cold and rainy, so we'll see next week when I pull the cameras.

I'm backed up about 3 or 4 entries, and I wanted to cram one in before this weekend. I'm heading off to the high peaks region of the Adirondack Mountains for a canoeing and camping trip. This is my fulfillment for a P.E. credit that I need for my degree, and of course I jumped at the chance. The trip is being led by 2 of my favorite professors, and I'm going with a bunch of fun friends who are also conservation majors. We'll be canoeing down the Raquette River, of which I've led trips of kids down this very stretch of river myself, for about 10 miles, and then tenting out. I just made a venison and bear meat stew for Saturday night, and I can't wait to eat it! I've never had bear...and I feel it's fitting to eat it while canoeing and camping in the backcountry.

Lastly, I just went and visited my new college that I'm transferring to this fall: the State University of New York at Cobleskill yesterday to get some administrative stuff figured out. I'm so excited about my fall schedule: 19 credits, but very much looking forward to it.

-Statistics I (3)

-Geographic Information Systems (3)

-Wetlands Assesment Dilineation (3)

-Woody Plant Materials (3)

-Wildlife Policy & Regulation Compliance (1)

-Spreadsheet & Database Applications (3)

-Environmental Law & Regulation (3)

! ! !

Wildlife Wednesday: April 18th, 2012

This past Wednesday, the 18th, our Wildlife Society Club rallied together for a field trip to our local National Wildlife Refuge: Montezuma. We were able to snag a college van, and headed out mid afternoon. It was a perfect day for birding, which was the theme for the day. MNWR is known for it's migratory birds that take a stop off the flyway during migration. Of course there are resident birds year round, but we're able to see many different water birds that we might not without the refuge.

So under sunny, mild skies our first stop, just outside of MNWR was at a Bald Eagle nest. This nest was naturally made by the birds on top of a utility structure right at the North end of Cayuga Lake at the outlet. As we pulled up, we were excited to see an adult Eagle up there. As we stood and watched we saw 2 brown fuzzy heads pop up, and then another adult off in the distance, perching in nearby trees.

Mom?

Club members checking out the nest, and some of the students to the right are watching the other adult soaring above us.

Kelly and Delicia using the scope John brought for us.

An Eaglet!

TWO Eaglets!

Photo credit: Joe Varga 

I recently bought a beautiful Nikon with a 36x zoom, but that camera did not take this picture. The club's VP, Joe, took this picture with his smart phone lined up to the scope we had set up. A little bit of ingenuity got the shot!

Photo credit: Adriel Douglass

And finally, both adults! The one in flight has a stick that he/she is bringing back to the nest to add to it. I'm sure with 2 rambunctious Eaglets up there, some of the structure of the nest is lost.

After a half hour or so at the viewing site, we had to get going. We headed back to MNWR and stopped at the Visitor's Center to look out over the first marsh flat.

Photo credit: Kevin Skrzynski

As we walked up to the observation deck, we noticed a little Tree Swallow on the railing. It didn't fly away for a few minutes, and allowed us to get some great pictures!

I love the markings on the face, I didn't realize that they had a 'mask' like the raccoon...it makes this little bird look so stern!

We then loaded back up into the van to do the several mile "wildlife drive" through the refuge. This refuge is known for migratory birds using the land as a "stop-over", and that's what we saw!

Photo credit: Adriel Douglass

 Green-winged Teal

Friend, classmates, and students! And our tour guide, John, is in there too somewhere :)

Canada Goose demonstrating a yoga pose?

Great Blue Heron

Trumpeter Swan and an American Coot

Coots! One of my favorites! I would love to handle one someday...

A male and female Mallard

Blue-winged Teals, male and female.

Caspian Terns

Pair of Mallards on a nest, which also happens to be on top of a muskrat lodge.

Yellowlegs

A brief stop at one of the pull-offs.

And some of us are very excited to be at the refuge!

In the background you might be able to pick out a tractor trailer. MNWR is cut right down the middle by Interstate 90. This has been pretty controversial, but human necessity out-won the wildlife and precious ecosystems that were there first.

A panorama from the top of an observation tower at Tschache Pool.

Miscellaneous ducks.

And that was our final stop at Montezuma for the day!

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After we regrouped back at the visitor's center, John invited us all to his house for dinner and a dusk walk. He lives nearby and owns 50 acres of old farm land that has been allowed to run wild. Because it is in the earlier stages of succession, it's brushy and shrubby, but still open more or less, and John mows trails through it. The point of this dusk walk was to look for the Woodcock, which is an awesome springtime bird to look for.

Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of the Woodcock, but we did see and hear one. The sun was setting, and I didn't even both trying to play with settings on my camera. I didn't want to miss any of the action! The following picture though is one of John's that he got on his property a few years ago.

Photo credit: John Van Niel

How awesome is this? An adult and baby caught at just the right time of year! John wrote an entry about this last year, to check that out visit: Sky Dance: An April Tradition.

As the sun hit the horizon we headed out for our walk to be in place for when the birds came out to do their "dance"...

Two years ago when I started at Finger Lakes Community College, the first class I was in was "Introduction to Environmental Conservation" taught by John. In this course, John intruduced us to Aldo Leopold who writes about the Woodcock and its 'spring dance' in A Sand County Almanac. The read was a hard one, if anyone has read or tried to read Sand County before. I'm a 'reader', always in the middle of a book for leisure, but I struggled getting through that book. Over this past winter I picked it up again and read through it. It's still a tough book, but the content meant so much more to me now being 2 years deep into conservation-minded life. Visiting John's home, and finding the Woodcock performing this annual 'dance', just brought my time here full circle. It was such a fun day with friends, classmates, and a professor that goes out of his way to educate and connect with his students.

This was one of my last events involved with FLCC's Wildlife Society, but I'm glad to have been apart of it and to experience days and nights like this.