Back on the Boardwalk

Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge lost its boardwalk, which gives visitors the quickest, easiest access to the swamp, two years ago in a massive wildfire. This is the most visited part of the refuge and has been sadly missed.

But, just before I arrived, the new boardwalk was finished.  Locals are still sad because most of the pond cypress around the boardwalk were burned and the feeling of walking in a winding tunnel of trees has been replaced by a straighter walk though  falling-down, dead trees and more marsh plants.  But many trees are regrowing from their stumps, in a decade or so, there will be another feel to this place.

Meanwhile there is something different to hear or see on each trip down the boardwalk.

Confused lizard tail  (Saururus Cernuus)

Two years after the wildfire

This first shelter was built over an alligator hole - usually easy to find the gator. 

Georgia bullrush ( Scripus georgianus) ?

I love nature's compositions best of all

Blaspheme vine (Smilax laurifolia) growing widely in hunt for a tree to climb

Dahoon holly (Ilex cassine)

The new boardwalk couldn't follow the curve of the old because of the cost

Sandhill cranes are almost always audible but give mostly rare, distant views. 

Another nature's paintings - this by ferns still to get ID

Phoebes are usually heard and sometimes seen 

New mushrooms are appearing almost every day

Another old curve - and do you see the tower?

The destination

One of views from the three-story tower

Pie-billed grebe family seen from the tower

Through Their Eyes

Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge had five classes of kids coming to visit us over two days so there was a rush to get enough helpers to set up stations for them. I volunteered to work on two of my off days. In return, I got to take the kids on the boardwalk and help with the Pond Study. I also got to go check on the kids at the Chesser Homestead so got a few pictures of them there.

The Pond Study consisted of letting the children use nets to collect fish, snails, insects and insect larva, and microorganisms from the pond. Groups of five kids and at least one adult spent about twenty-five minutes collecting the animals and transferring them to their buckets.

Ranger Sarah helping with the capture

Oh, the anticipation when the net comes in

Minnows and a snail -from the first two turns at the net

 Then they brought the buckets to the table and looked at them with the microscopes. After everyone got to see several specimens of pond life, they put the animals back into the ponds.

Working on identifying some of the specimens

The sheet shows many of the possible insects

Fascinating!

When the kids visited the Chesser Homestead, they learned about life about 100 years ago, and then played some of the old games.

Keeping the hoops rolling is hard work

The trip down and back on the boardwalk took another hour.  Some of the groups got to see an alligator that lives at the first shelter, built over an alligator hole. And others got to see the great blue heron that likes to fish in that hole. Everyone got to see great egrets and some got to see anhingas, white ibis, and hear sandhill cranes.

This little water moccasin was in the exact place on both days

This goggle-eyed pig  frog was spotted by a sharp-eyed youngster

At the top of the tower

 Getting to work with young children in the outdoors is always most rewarding for me. They are so excited and intense.  I was even able to get 25 loud, excitable kids to sneak up on the alligator that lives at the first shelter on the boardwalk.  And they found the little water moccasin and the googly eyed frog.  This was a great way to spend two of my days off.

Mystical Paddling Trip on Banks Lake

Finally got back on the water. Cindy, a staffer and a wonderful photographer, invited me to go to Bank's Lake NWR to mostly take pictures.  So I  reassembled  my canoe seat - it was all apart waiting for me to refinish the wood parts of my canoe - and left my trailer at 4:30 in the morning to meet her up there. She doesn't like to have to get up so early so had driven up the night before and slept in her car.

The day was predicted to be foggy at first and then was  to clear out pretty early.  We had to wait a while to put in because it was so foggy, that it didn't get light at dawn. But soon we were traveling through a surreal world.

Leaving

Cindy

 The fog lingered until the sun was high in the sky, making the colors of everything look different and colors with yellow in them really stand out. The fog also framed tiny vignettes of bright colors surrounded by monochromatic grays. It reminded me of when we used to paint selective areas on black and white pictures. 

Wasp nest

Only a pie-billed grebe has this shape

Patches of bright colors in the grey

The fog condensed on the multitude of spider webs, making lots of plants appear to be  draped in Christmas garlands. I was mesmerized by them for about an hour, until the sun dried them off.

The light made magical  things appear.   I was sure I spotted the elephant's child, fighting for his life, as his nose got stretched into a trunk.

For a real illustration, click here

 I'm pretty sure these trees don't always stand around so quietly.  Several of them looked like they had been wildly twirling in an all-night dance.  But I was unable to catch any of them in the act.

Dancer?

 As the day progressed, a few animals appeared but mostly it was very quiet. Very quiet of natural noises, that is. But there is some military place near by and airplanes were shooting Gatling guns. A VERY disturbing noise!

Squirrel checking us out

The only great egret we saw

Some of the cypress still had their needles and some other plants were turning the same colors

The sun has defeated the fog

Long view

Sunning threesome

Anhinga

Kestral

Phoebe

Hard working wasps

Reflections

Almost back - again by the piers

Happy!  Another wonderful picture from Cindy

  On the personal front, I'm working full time in the Visitor Center - a first for me.  Hopefully, we'll get more volunteers in that can take on some of that. I'm not built to work inside all day.  But I'm working Thursdays - Sundays so I'm going to be behind on my blogs for a while since I'm not getting outdoors much while it's light. And in this case, I drove for about 3.5 hours, played for seven hours, then had to get my oil changed and do a little shopping.  Made for a long day.  And yesterday, I had to actually WORK at the Visitor Center and didn't get pictures edited.

Postscript:  Cindy made FOUR blogs and a video of this trip.  All are fantastic.  The video really shows the reason we need wild places for out spirits and why I feel as though I'm doing moving meditation when I'm in this environment.

Here are the links:

Canoe in the Fog

Spider Webs

Cypress Studies in Black and White

Small Gems

Video: Spirit of the Cypress