Bird Sanctuaries Fill a Need

Posted by Lucy Tobias on Aug 4th, 2010 | Comments Off

Can you roll your R’s and say these words – Rescue – Repair – Rehabilitation – Release? Say them with me now.

Congratulations, you’ve just described the amazing world of bird rescue. And, you can go see this world in action at bird sanctuaries all over Florida.

Bird sanctuaries struggle daily with heartbreak, beaks to feed and more rescues on the way. Why? The answer is shocking – birds arrive due human cruelty (shooting, running them over, fishhooks) and violence to their environment (BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, clear cutting land). Selfless souls work 365 days a year to undo the damage and repair the web of life.

Daily the Suncoast Seabird Sanctuary in Indian Shores feeds their resident birds (over 600) some 500 to 600 pounds of fish. Every day 20-45 birds are rescued or admitted. Volunteers square their shoulders, smile and welcome two-legged visitors, admitted free, while wondering if any donations will show up today or if new volunteers will arrive (many have been trained and shipped to the Panhandle to work on birds covered with oil from the BP spill).

In the small sanctuary tucked in between high rise beach condos, brown and white pelicans groom themselves. They seem normal until you look closely and the lower part of a beak is missing or eyes are totally dimmed because of blindness or they stand on one leg, the other one is gone.

The day I visited a young boy imitating a shore bird ran back and forth in front of a cage while a shore bird, uttering the same cries, ran back and forth with him. Perhaps the bird thought they were related.

Songbirds are in cages with mesh so thick it is hard to see inside. Wild birds come to visit and perch on cage roofs. It is surprising to learn this small place, founded in 1971, by Ralph Heath, is the largest avian hospital and sanctuary in the United States, admitting up to 8,000 injured birds a year. In addition to money donations, they have a wish list on their web site. You might want to give it a look and take something with you when you go.

Be sure to walk through the sanctuary and out onto a lovely stretch of beach fronting the Gulf of Mexico. On my visit, terns were nesting right on the sand, a perfect reminder to be careful on the beach (dogs on leashes, children supervised) because many shore birds lay eggs in shallow cavities.

Suncoast is open seven days a week, 365 days a year from 9 a.m. to sunset.

In Ocala the emergency pager (352-402-3894) is always on at Owls-Ocala Inc., Ocala Wildlife Sanctuary. Keith Belisle, a Native American Indian, and Kenneth Lane are on call to rescue birds in Central Florida – eagles, osprey, owls, hawks, doves, waterfowl, the list keeps getting longer. They’ve been doing rescues for 15 years. Owls-Ocala does educational programs to all kind of audiences.

A recent addition doesn’t have feathers but fur. Belisle and Lane were called when a fawn was spotted running down Fort King Street in Ocala (I am not making this up). Chased by people it jumped or fell into a culvert and was injured. Belisle said the fawn loves blueberries and blackberries. If you have any to spare, call the regular number (352) 895-0451 or E-mail: owls-Ocalainc@hotmail.com

Their sanctuary is open by appointment only. Call for a guided tour. I’ve gone with my granddaughters, ages 5 and 8, and they loved it. The tour is free but donations are always appreciated. And, oh yes, they love volunteers.

By the way, Owls and Seacoast (and most bird rehab centers) are non-profit organizations and your donation can be used as a tax-write off.

More sanctuaries to visit:
Audubon Center for Birds of Prey in Maitland, open since 1979, specialized in eagle care and also owls, falcons, hawks and kits. Center hours are Tuesday through Sunday, 10-4. Admission $5 adults, $4 children, under the age of three admitted free.

Florida Keys Wild Bird Center, Tavernier, open sunrise to sunset, seven days a week, free admission, donations accepted. Call (305) 852-4486. They have raptors, songbirds, shorebirds, even turkey vultures.

Coming up:
A great way to learn more about native birds, and maybe get involved in bird rescue – attend a birding festival. Coming up – Florida Keys Birding & Wildlife Festival, September 22-26, 2010. Check their Web site and sign up for guided walks and tours.
For annual Florida Bird Events, visit this Web site

Watch a short video here:Suncoast Seabird Sanctuary

©2010 Lucy Beebe Tobias, all rights reserved.

Loving the Levees in Florida

Posted by Lucy Tobias on Apr 27th, 2010 | Comments Off

Levees are elevated structures built by U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to impound and hold back high water.

Building levees causes “unintended consequences” as they like to say in political speak. The “unintended consequences” in this case turn out to be good for you and me.

Consider the levee – lots of dirt piled at least six feet high and oh, say eight feet wide or more. The top of the level is flat.
There it is, the “unintended consequence” – turns out that flat, high surface is a great place to walk or ride bikes or watch birds.

Birders love levees because the sight lines are so great. Winter birds come to hang out in the waters impounded by levees. Birders use levees as their own elevated viewing platform, at least six feet about the water.

In the wintertime at St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge south of Tallahassee, drive down Lighthouse Road and see all the birding scopes set up on tripods along the levees.

St. Marks is a classic levee story. Walk down the Mounds Trail (chapter 7 in my book “50 Great Walks in Florida”) and find Marker No. 2. It is on a tree, about five feet up, showing how high the water rose on Sept. 13, 1843. The Hurricane of 1843 wiped out the nearby towns of St. Marks River, Magnolia, Rock Haven and Port Leon. Today the refuge has a LOT of levees.

A specially designated levee trail starts at the end of Lighthouse Road. It is one-half mile long, with free leaflets at the start. Travel the trail on foot, on bike or by horseback.

Walkers like me like levees because I don’t like surprises, say wildlife crossing the road or a snake sunning itself. I prefer my wildlife viewing from a distance and distance (good sight lines) is exactly what you have on levees.

At Sunnyhill Restoration Area, St. Johns River Water Management District, located in southeast Marion County, sandhill cranes may join you on your levee walk. That happened to me. Their attitude was “What took you so long? We’ve been expecting you.” And so we walked together. Sandhill cranes like this area and tend to stay year round. Ch. 28 in 50 Great Walks is titled “Walking with Friends” about the Sunnyhill Restoration Area.

There is one down side to levees – no shade. The tops are mowed. No trees grow here.

That said, now you know to bring a hat with a wide brim and carry lots of water for your levee walk.

Another good place for levee walking is Arthur R. Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge in Boynton Beach. This area is also a gateway for the Great Florida Birding Trail.

The big daddy of levee walks in Florida is the Lake Okeechobee Scenic Trail with the unfortunate acronym of LOST. Some 113 miles of LOST encircle Lake Okeechobee with gaps where the walker has to come down from the levee, and then get back up at a later point.

This levee is along the 35-foot high Herbert Hoover Dike. Surfaces are crushed gravel, some paved asphalt.
Once a year the Loxahatchee Chapter of the Florida Trail Association hosts the Big O Hike, a week of going around the lake. This year’s dates are Nov. 20-28, 2010.

Springtime is the perfect time for walking levees – cool, sunlit days with lots of breezes and no bugs or humidity. See you on the levee.

©2010 Lucy Beebe Tobias, all rights reserved

Florida Museum Beats Winter Doldrums

Posted by Lucy Tobias on Mar 3rd, 2010 | Comments Off

The Florida Museum of Natural History in Gainesville wants you to see Florida’s natural beauty with fresh eyes. From Feb. 6 through April 25 the Quilters of Alachua County Day Guild have 100 original quilts on display in a juried show. You’ve never viewed Florida quite like this – beauty captured for all seasons in stitches and fabric.

Then you know, or have heard about, about Butterfly Rainforest attraction, an outdoor exhibit attached to the Museum. Wear bright clothing, especially red, and maybe butterflies will land on your clothes as you walk through their environment.

Inside the Museum are fossils galore, shark’s jaws, water stories, tales of Calusa Indians and you can even walk through time from the Eocene, 65 million years ago, to the Pleistocene when humans arrive 14,000 years ago (just yesterday!).

Why go visit the museum now? Say it with me – It is time for a change! We are in withdrawal from the Winter Olympics – what? No more curling? Plus, we are weary of winter, a cold season that has stayed on in Florida like an overripe house guest without the decency to leave.

Take charge, leave the house, go someplace with the thermostat set at 72 and a little on the wild side. I recommend the Florida Museum of Natural History. Admission is free and it is family friendly, making this museum my kind of place.

Just inside the entrance is a mastodon in the Central Gallery. Huge is an understatement. His tusks are thick, curved and look very fierce. Just his bones are on display but still, I’m very glad he is yesterday’s news and not coming soon to my neighborhood. His presence does however set the tone for a walk into the past as you go through the exhibits.

How easy it is to forget there was a Florida before Interstate 75. And what a vibrant, diverse heritage we have. The exhibits are clustered in permanent spaces.

Like sharks teeth? click to see a short video on shark jaws at Florida Museum

The exhibits put you in a different time and place. Watch water flow through a hardwood hammock and a limestone cave, see shark jaws so big you’ll reconsider going swimming, experience Indian village life and finally, my personal favorite, the Hall of Florida Fossils: Evolution of Life and Land. Who knew our history went back 65 million years? I did not. It was, and still is, fascinating news to me.

Museum hours are Monday – Saturday, 10-5 and Sunday 1-5. Address: University of Florida Cultural Plaza, SW 34th Street & Hull Road, Gainesville, phone (352) 846-2000. Closed Thanksgiving & Christmas. Website: http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu

A word about exhibits – the Museum is free. Special temporary exhibits, like the quilt show, charge admission, as does Butterfly Rainforest. The quilt show entitled “Quilting Natural Florida II” costs $6 adults, $5 Florida residents, $4.50 seniors and Florida college students and free for youth 17 and under and museum members.

Butterfly Rainforest prices are $9.50 adults, $8 Florida residents, $7 ages 62 and up, $5 ages 3-12. Last admission is 4:30 p.m.

Every Saturday and Sunday Butterfly Rainforest sells butterfly-friendly plants, 10 plants each week plus an unannounced species. A list of what is on sale is under Plant Sales For example, the weekend of March 13-14 has Blanketflower, Blue eyed grass, Dianthus, Fetterbush, Impatiens, Passionflower, Lavender Lady, Plumbago, red, Sage, tropical, Sunshine Mimosa and Turkey Tangle Fogfruit.

March Museum events:
March 8, 10-11 Discover Hour for ages 2-8
March 20, 10-3 Can you dig it?
March 22, 10-11 Discovery Hour for ages 2-8
March 25, 7-9 p.m. Scott Sampson “Dinosaur Odyssey” Lecture & book signing.
March 27, 11-4 From “Vague” to Vision Quilt Workshop

Finally, I’d be remiss not to mention the big temptation just inside the front door – the Museum gift shop. Take a deep breath. Resist. Do the Museum first. The gift shop will still do its siren call to you on your way out.

Afterwards, should you not want to go home to dead plants and more freezing weather, just go next door to the Harn Museum of Art. Admission is free. Open Tuesday through Friday from 11-5, Saturday 10-5 and Sunday, 1-5. Closed Mondays and state holidays. In the basement is a delightful lunch spot, the Camellia Court Café open from 11-3.

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NOTE: We are grateful to you, our subscribers, for following Saturday Morning Magazine and in appreciation we have a gift for you – a free booklet on getting started walking in Florida. Here is the link. Enjoy

Give a Day, Get a Day, Clean Up a Forest & More

Posted by Lucy Tobias on Jan 28th, 2010 | Comments Off

In the chill of early morning a line of cars blinked their left turn signals to get into Lake George Ranger District parking lot. Orange cones directed cars into two lanes.

I rolled down my window and pulled up to a woman dressed in the fashionable two-toned forest green uniform favored by Ocala National Forest personnel.

She leaned in and said: “Welcome to Disney World.”

I started laughing. It is 7:15 a.m. on Saturday, Jan. 23, 2010. Mickey Mouse is nowhere in sight. We are in Ocala National Forest, two hours north of Disney.
She groaned and squeezed her eyes shut.

“I didn’t mean to say that,” she gasped, then handed me the form to fill out for picking up trash at the Ocala National Forest Clean-Up Day. On the form is a box to check if you are registered as a Disney volunteer. No wonder Disney was on her mind.

You see Disney has this really cool program that started January 1, 2010. They want to inspire one million people in a program called Give a Day, Get a Day. You give a day for community service and in return you get a free day at either Disney property – Florida or California.

The list of possibilities is long and diverse and included this cleanup day.

After checking in at Lake George, cars were directed to staging areas. I ended up at the Fore Lake Division with 407 other people. There were 10 divisions in all. Heather Frebe, pubic information officer for Ocala National Forest, said an estimated 2000 people came to clean up on Saturday morning, with 1322 people checking the Disney box. (you had to be preregistered with Disney to qualify the event).

“We started out at 4 a.m. this morning,” said John Romig of Jacksonville, armed with his black garbage bag and walking the sides of a forest road with his wife Nicki, daughter Reagan and son Mitch. It is a good two-hour drive from Jacksonville to the forest.

The Romigs came well prepared with packages yellow latex kitchen gloves purchased from the dollar store. They gave me a pair and I was grateful. These gloves are a must for picking up trash.

“It is fun picking up trash,” said daughter Reagan then she gave me a look and made a pronouncement with a teenager’s grown-up wisdom: “Picking up trash is picking up trash.”

So true. And pick it up we did, at least two bags each. – beer cans were everywhere along with soda bottles, water bottles and the occasional finds of really big dump sites – sofas, household trash – time to call in the pickup trucks and serious muscle to haul that trash away.

“My daughter signed the whole family up, six of us,” said Lois Gibbons of Ocala. She was searching dirt road areas along with her husband Richard. It was the couple’s first time at a forest clean up.

“This is a beautiful place. It is land God gave us, we need to take care of it,” Lois said but she didn’t see much hope of changing behaviors that lead to throwing cans out car windows. “It is young people driving off the paved tracks throwing cans.”

Her husband asked if I know the difference between a good old boy and a redneck. Ummmm, no.
“A good old boy throws his cans in the back of his pickup truck,” said Richard. “A redneck throws them out the window.”

Now you know.

And the Disney angle? Huge. Being out in the forest in the sunshine, picking up trash, would be a Disney day for me, for the Romigs and the Gibbons and so many others. Who knew picking up trash could lead to such fun and such a savings?

“We couldn’t all afford to go to Disney as a family without doing this,” Gibbons said. “My daughter worked a night shift at Munroe and she is coming out for this today.”

It is one ticket per customer no matter how many times you volunteer. The program continues until one million tickets are distributed or until December 15, 2010. To search for an activity on the Disney site, type in your zip code and look at the all or narrow the categories down to say, animals and the environment, arts and culture, children and community. Personally I loved getting outdoors and doing something positive.

What are you waiting for? Sign up to give a day. This is, as management gurus like to say, a win-win situation.

And volunteering makes a difference. Forest officials say the six hour cleanup netted 46 tons of trash in the Marion County area and 30 tons of trash in the Lake County area. Yes, it was worth it.

Lucy Beebe Tobias is your expert for finding authentic Florida. She is a former New York Times Regional Group reporter and columnist and the author of “50 Great Walks in Florida”, University Press of Florida. Her Website is: www.Lucytobias.com

Take a Boat Ride in History’s Wake

Posted by Lucy Tobias on Dec 30th, 2009 | Comments Off

Breakfast at the Old Spanish Sugar Mill Restaurant inside DeLeon Springs State Park is an event. The tables have built in griddles. Our waitress showed us the button to turn on the griddle (gee, that was the hard part, it was on a table leg, we never would have found it).

As the griddle warmed, she brought coffee, big pitchers of home-milled pancake batters and the sides we’d chosen – blueberries and eggs. We began pouring batter, laughing, enjoying the moment, watching for the telltale bubbles that mean it is time to flip those pancakes.

Our table faced the windows. We looked out at DeLeon Springs headspring with its walled off swimming area and a waterfall spilling over boulders into Spring Garden Lake. This tranquil scene, with 19 million gallons of water a day coming from an underground cavern, empties its crystal clear water into Spring Garden Creek, then onto Lake Woodruff National Wildlife Refuge, the St. Johns River and eventually this water flows into the Atlantic Ocean. What a journey! And it begins here.

Across the way sat M.V Acuera, a 28-seat pontoon boat with a canvas roof cover. On the sides it says Fountain of Youth ECO/History Tours. Our plan: first, enjoy breakfast, and then take a boat trip. It worked but not quite the way we’d envisioned.

Tours leave at 10 a.m., 11 a.m., noon and 1 p.m. Tickets are $12. The narrated boat ride lasts 50 minutes, going down Spring Garden Creek and into Lake Woodruff National Wildlife Refuge. Reservations can be made at Sugar Mill or call the boat tour (386)-837-5537. To know more, visit the eco-tour’s Website.

BUT, and it is a big “but”, there must be a minimum of eight passengers for a tour to leave the dock. We were just two people ready for the 11 a.m. Apparently no one else wanted to leave the griddles.

So off we went to nearby DeLand, walking around downtown, visiting galleries, shops and museums. Captain Frank assured us he had 12 signed up for the 1 p.m. We returned (your park entrance receipt gets you back in all day) and boarded the M/V Acuera.

Captain Frank tells us Native Americans used to visit the springs 6,000 years ago. That was long before pancakes. In the early 1800′s Major Joseph Woodruff and his wife Jan bought 2,000 acres, grew sugar cane and indigo.

“He was the first to bring slaves to Florida,” Frank says.

There on the right – an anhinga and a great blue heron. On the left, snowy egrets and moor hens. An osprey sits high in a tree.

It is late fall, some color on the trees, most are bare.
“Come earlier in the fall for a brilliant change of color in the fall bright sunshine,” says Frank.

We see white ibis, lots of them, they were the sacred bird of Egypt.

Colonel Orlando Rees bought it in 1831 and made the earthen dam to power a sugar mill. Naturalist John James Audubon visited Rees in 1832 and Rees took him on a boat trip along the waterways, just like we are doing now. This is a great way to see birds. As we smoothly glide along, bird sighting are frequent. We also ask about plants.

Captain Frank points out smooth beggar tick – an unusual name – for yellow flowers blossoming by the water’s edge.

“This is old Florida, the way it looked for centuries, this is what the Spanish saw, what the Indians saw,” Frank says.

In the reeds an immature lack-crowned night heron and a female cormorant. We see an immature little blue heron – they are born white then turn blue in one to two years.

Alligators, big ones, sun themselves on the banks. Capt. Frank says they have 3,000 pounds of pressure in their jaws. We take his word for it.

A tri-colored heron is spotted in the shallows. Overhead a red-shouldered hawk flies by. A cooter turtle suns itself on a log.

We are floating in the Refuge now, some 20,000 acres of preserved land and water.

In the 1800s no highways existed. “The only roads were waterways, product was shipped by water, the only way to get to market,” says Captain Frank. He waves his hand outward. “It is 126 miles by water to Jacksonville. Steamboats came in the late 1820s, that is what really settled Florida from the center out, steam boat traffic, towns developed along the rivers and people came.”

And we come today to float in history’s wake, catch a glimpse of immature yellow crowned night herons and watch a kingfisher fly by. There are moments when you just have to say: “it doesn’t get any better than this.”

Short, narrated boat trips are a great way to see authentic Florida. We loved doing breakfast and a boat trip at DeLeon Springs and we’ll be back with family and friends.

Here are more possibilities:

A boat tour on the Wakulla River at Edward Ball Wakulla Springs State Park located southwest of Tallahassee. Upcoming tours include a photo tour on the Wakulla River on Saturday, Feb. 6 and a Valentine’s Cruise & Dinner on Saturday, Feb. 13.

A tour boat at Jonathan Dickinson State Park in Hobe Sound goes up the Loxahatchee River to Trapper Nelson’s homestead and a ranger-guided tour of the homestead.

A little more adventuresome – From Fort Myers, it is a three-hour (or more) catamaran ride to Key West on the Key West Boat Shuttle. Spend the day or two, return by boat.

Since seeing birds is such a big part of a river boat trip, I recommend a good field guide, particularly the Sibley Guide to Birds.

Pretty amazing that he illustrated every bird. I like the different views. A bird will fly overhead and all you see is the underside. Well, Sibley have those undersides.

©2009 Lucy Beebe Tobias, author of “50 Great Walks in Florida”.. All rights reserved.