Watering the lupine

I've been faithfully watering the lupine for a couple of weeks now. The plants are OK, so far. Some of the seeds in the covered beds have sprouted. There's still a long way to go, but so far, so good.

Different habitat, different birds

This probably shouldn't have been a surpise, but recently I saw a flock of Killdeer in the recently clearerd section of the preserve. It was a new species for the site.

Watching the seeds grow

I noticed that some of the Scrub Lupine seeds appear to be sprouting. Progress takes small steps.

Weeding & watering

Now that the excitement is over, it's time for the mundane to kick in.

The plants have to be watered for a time to get them established. Check.

The plants survive better if there are no competing roots, so the ground has to be cleared to bare sand. Check.

The invasive weeds have to be kept at bay, so a volunteer work day was scheduled to collect about 23 garbage bags of offending herbage. Check.

So far, so good.

The Lupine has landed

I've been busy, but this is historic.
On Tuesday I participated in a historic event. It was the first time seedling Scrub Lupine have been planted in the wild. the seedlings and two transplants from the wild came from Bok Tower's endangered plant nursery. The project was a cooperative effort involving Bok, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commis-

sion, The Natives and Ridge Rangers.

I need to go out and get an exact number, but I recall something on the order of 150 seedlings were brought in, plus two non-seedlings and some pots containing a seed each.

I've volunteered to water the plants. So far so good. I gave them their first watering this morning since the initial planting and everything looks good.

This is really exciting.

If it works, more will be planted elsewhere in the preserve.

Orchids in the swamp

It's winter, the time when some species of orchids emerge and bloom in Florida. There are some Habeneria orchids in the bayhead. I don't know whether it's the additional sunlight from a free fall (probably from the recent clearing) or some other factor, but a couple are nearly knee-high rather than ankle high or so.

I cleared a path to them today for the workday next Saturday. I thought it might be a nice bonus for some of the volunteers.