Places: Yellow River Marsh Preserve State Park

The main pond near the parking area at Yellow River Marsh Preserve in late February.

The Yellow River Marsh was established in 2000. There are no marked trails, no programs, and no park rangers; just a small parking area. However, the park includes such a fabulous array of plants and animals, it is well worth the visit. Of course, the stars of the park are the pitcher plants (which I have blogged about before). I have made three visits to this park, the first on the 22nd of February. Here are some of my photos from that trip.

In February, last years blooms are withered, brown, and dormant. The shapes of the plants are still in tact, however, and fascinating to look at. These are Sarracenia leucophylla, the white-top pitcher plant.

Once again, Dakota Wilson is along for the
adventure. Some of the wet hardwood forests
around the marsh are beautiful.

Schistocerca americana, the American bird
grasshop per. In spite of its rather southerly
position, this species cannot tolerate hot
weather; it migrates north in the summer.

Yes. It is poop. But not just any poop. Well, I guess it could be any poop. I'm no tracker, but I think it belongs to a fox. I always make it a habit to photograph any poop I encounter along a trail. The one on the lower left especially looks like fox droppings. The one on the lower right however, not so much. Maybe that is just a domestic dog...

Like I said, there are no marked trails. As long as you watch your step (don't go trampling any pitcher plants) you can go just about anywhere. Dakota Wilson explores crayfish holes with his toes in this picture.

A nice panoramic view of the pond shore. At its deepest, it would have still been below my waist.

These two photos represent an interesting plant I found some distance from the pond in a pine flatwoods forest. I don't know what species it is (I will take botany next semester and then I will have no excuse) but I had to include it simply because it was strikingly beautiful. On the left is a close up to give you an idea of the plant's beauty. Right illustrates how the plant was growing.

Late evening on the first day of March in Yellow River Marsh Preserve State Park.

We didn't see a lot of wildlife for this February trip, but there were certainly some small birds in the pines, cricket frogs on the shore, and one large black snake, possibly a cottonmouth, basking on a clump of sedges in the marsh. Because I failed to catch the snake, I thought I'd make a return trip to the marsh the following month. The following photos are from that trip on March 1st. This time, I focussed a little more on the animals. Yellow-rumped warblers were especially common. In fact, it seems to be the most abundant warbler in Florida this year. Every park I visited this semester had some yellow-rumped warblers. Perdito Key had hundreds of them. At Yellow River Marsh Preserve, I had the opportunity to watch the warblers "fly catching," where they dart into the air with surprising grace and accuracy to pluck insects on the wing. It is very amusing to watch and certainly deepened my respect for warblers as a whole.

This is some species of crab-like orb spider.
It seems that, before the park's
establishment in 2000, Yellow River Marsh
was the location of some kind of
homestead.

I love spiders: LOVE them. What other creature can create
out of its own body enough of a substance, stronger than
 iron and more flexible than rubber, to create a perfectly
symmetrical web more beautiful than anything Leonardo
da Vinci could paint and more functional than anything
Thomas Edison could invent? This handsome wolf spider on
the right was prowling around the planks of an old rotting
building. Parallel trenches, overgrown with bushes, also
likely harken back to those days.

The pitcher plants are still brown and
rotting in March. No new blooms yet!
On the right is another one of those
"here's a bush and don't know what
else" pictures. It kind of reminded me
of a huckleberry bush from back
home. It could easily be in the same
family.

The above three photos are demonstrating the tree species that grow in the park. Once again, I really don't know where to start in identifying these. Oh! How I wish there was a botanist at hand! What I would give to be in the field with a herbaceous expert! One day, I hope to know enough about the green things in our world to be my own expert, but time is limited. I guess I'll just wait until next year when I take Botany as a biology elective. On the left is what I take as Ischnura hastata, the citrine forktail damselfly. On the right is one of the little crayfish that call the marsh home. This one was caught as I watched salamander larvae and tadpoles in a pool. Below are some tracks. I think the one set may be a white-tailed deer fawn, but I have little idea of what the other one is.










As you may have noticed, I am fairly uncertain about about the identity of some of the organisms I have encountered. If you have any idea what these species are, PLEASE let me know. Thanks.

My final visit to the Yellow River Marsh was late on my last evening in Florida-- I would be leaving to fly home at 5:30 in the morning the next day. I'm glad I stopped by once more though because there were four gems of nature waiting for me. First, the pitcher plants were now in bloom! Along with some other wildflowers.

 After I'd taken plenty of photographs of the pitcher plants, I noticed my second star. At first I thought it was a snake, but a closer look revealed the obvious: it was a glass lizard: an American legless lizard. Unlike snakes, it has eyelids and a lateral fold of skin down its side. It took to the water when pursued. I had to be careful handling it; they are known to drop their tails. Hence the name "glass lizard." This was the second glass lizard I've ever caught.

I've noticed a trend with these glass lizards; they are never far from water. The juvenile a caught at west campus last year was also near water and seemed to readily take to it. Seems to be rather unusual for a lizard, but most of the things I find in Florida are a surprise. Just finding this gorgeous turquoise speckled beauty was the most delightful surprise of the year. Until the next one...

We took a look at a cricket frog singing in the reeds at the ponds edge before making our way through the grass back to the car. Crossing the ground in front of me was the most beautiful creation I'd ever seen; a corn snake. I instantly fell in love, but I don't think he was loving me.

This guy was so stunning and so drop-dead gorgeous, I couldn't take my hands off him. He tried to bite me, striking whenever I was even close to being in range, but I was never tagged. How could anyone hate such a beautiful face? Orange, white, black-- It's "the Halloween snake." But I don't celebrate Halloween so maybe its more like "the harvest snake." It seems fitting since corn snakes are often found around or near farms. One of the greatest means of pest control available, they are better at eradicating mice and rats than the pest control guy and your cats combined.

I wanted to kiss him on the lips, but I think he would have given me a bloody one!