Another Rock Pile Uncovered

 It is a mystery why so much concrete debris was dumped here, but gradually it is being unearthed as part of  the management work to clear land for other work here.

In addition to the concrete, I've uncovered a buried cache of household garbage. Most of it is broken glass, though there is also a mixture of shoes, old plastic bags, metal and green board debris and clothing. 

I'm just beginning to mine this windrow, so there may be more discoveries to come.

With cooler weather coming, more work will occur as time permits.

Hawk Briefly Welcomes Visitors To Site

 

As I was completing some roadside trash cleanup today, I returned  to see that a Red-shouldered Hawk was perched on the entrance sign. I see them here occasionally, but this is the first time I've been able to photo document this species here for iNaturalist.

I

Cooler weather makes management more practical

 

Although October temperatures are  higher than they have been in the past, the weather has moderated enough to attack some invasive exotic plants that have been a chronic problem here that have been unaddressed by anyone else.

The main problems, as I see it, are Brazilian pepper and Cogon grass.

I spent a couple of hours or so Saturday morning in the south tract to attack one of the hot spots. I'll get to the three spots in the north tract in coming weeks.

I have modified my work practices. I'm bringing a chair to sit in to take a break in recognition of the fact that I'm a little older now and don't have the energy I had when I took on this project nearly 20 years ago;. I also brought lots of water.

October arrives; it is colorful

 I'll let the flowers speak for themselves.

Work days inside and outside

 Saturday I participated in a Ridge Ranger work day to thin oaks around the main Scrub Lupine planting area to allow for additional plantings this year.

As I was clearing small oak trees I noticed a significant amount of broken glass in the sand.

I returned Sunday afternoon to remove as much as I could get.

I also noticed a double recliner and other debris that had been dumped along Hobbs Road and decided to attack that problem over the following days.

I collected three five-gallon buckets of cans, bottles and other debris from the roadside on Sunday. I returned on Monday and Tuesday to dismantle the recliner so I could salvage the iron infrastructure that makes it work for recycling.

This will also make for lighter load when Polk County Roads & Drainage gets around to mowing and, I hope, removes the debris from the roadside. 

There has been noticeable increase in roadside dumping  in the neighborhood on road sections that do not run in front of houses. It consists of a variety of furniture, household debris and construction debris.

It is becoming a real eyesore.

 

Some new bird nesting discoveries

I don't spend much time in the preserve in the summer and even less in the dense southern  tract.
I recently went in to check out the condition of the Rosemary plants, all of which look pretty scraggly. but along the way made some other discoveries.
I saw more resident bird density than I see in the north tract.
I found Great Crested Flycatchers nesting in an exposed trunk in a sand pine that had fallen over, probably because of storm activity.
I also saw Pine Warbler, Northern Parula Warbler and Blue-Gray Gnatcatcher that likely nest in the dense forest canopy and understory.
I also found another cache of trash from old homeless hangouts and filled two five-gallon buckets, b but probably will eventually encounter more bottles and other debris.
I also saw Britton's beargrass farther into the south tract as I had seen before and some Curtiss' milkweed.
Additionally, I am working to figure out where the gaps are on iNaturalist postings for both tracts, since I apparently have some unexpected gaps.
 

Pepperless Corner Finally

I had discovered a Brazilian Pepper growing along the fire lane on the southwest corner and had trimmed it some time ago, but never remembered to come back and remove it.
Yesterday while I was conducting some light trash cleanup I noticed and remembered I needed to finish the job.
I went out today and dug it out and also mostly removed another exotic tree,, which I think is some species of Poinciana.
I also dug out some metal wire mesh that was half buried, but too deeply into the ground to remove manually.
On the way back to my truck I detoured onto Holton Road from the fire land and discovered several piles of demolition debris that appear to be from a bathroom remodeling project.
This is the first serious dumping I'd seen along the road in awhile. Mostly it's just the neighbors dumping their yard waste and other debris into the woods on their side of the fence.
I reported this to the county.

Tractor work plows some endangered lupines

The long-overdue maintenance of the perimeter fire lane on the north tract got a little out of hand.
The tractor also plowed though an area where the rare and endangered scrub lupine seedlings were growing and where new seedlings are emerging at this time of year.
Fortunately, some of the lupines escaped the blade and the disk and may survive to flower and to produce seed as part of a long-term effort to determine whether a sustainable population of McFarlin's Lupine can be re-established here.
In an area where a dormant natural seed bank was awakened, five seedlings have emerged so far.
Maybe some of them will survive to maturity.
For some reason, the survival rate for this species of lupine is low.

Still Making Discoveries After 17 Years

I put together a tentative plant  list for this site about 10 years, but the list continues to grow as I stumble onto species I missed somehow during 17 years of crisscrossing this small preserve.
The latest was Zigzag Bladderwort, a small yellow-flowered plant with a filamentous stem that I find in wet areas in pine flatwoods. This plant appeared at the edge of lowland area near its collision with scrubby flatwoods. Ecotones are like that.
I also recently found a  new species (for this site) of tiger beetles. Now the site boasts two common species.
Meanwhile, I have also been counting the bog orchids popping up in the small bayhead
I am also in the process of cutting a path around the perimeter along the fence line to further surv
ey this section to advance efforts to complete a catalog of the flora on managed properties in Polk and Highlands counties.
I also found the discarded shell of a Florida Box Turtle; in the Bayhead. I do not know where it came from. I rarely see this species anywhere.