I went out this week after a heavy rainstorm--5 inches at my house a mile away--to see what had emerged from the sand.
It was, as I expected, mostly broken glass.
I found one iron chain and a few remnants of aluminum cans.
Fall wildflowers are mostly past their prime.
The next survey will occur in mid-winter to see this year's crop of Scrub Lupine.
I went out today to remove the cages around several of the lupines located in the newest planting area. Many of them have reached mature size and needed to be uncaged so that they didn't become restricted.
In one case I had to cut off some shoots because they had grown through the wire openings and could not be pulled back inside without further damaging the plant.
When I contacted Cheryl Peterson at Bok, I learned that this was supposed to have been done already and offered to carry out the task to save her a trip. Most of the cages still had lupines of various sizes, though many were surrounded by everything from oaks to various species of grass--mostly Natal grass--and other plants such as Horseweed.
I also noticed the exoskeletons of Narceus gordanus, the large millipede that is fairly common here, stuck either trying to get in or get out of t he enclosures. I ddi see some rabbit scat, but no real sign of herbivory.
Since the mechanical clearing several years ago, I have been concerned about the decline of the number of Scrub Blazing Star on the preserve.
During a walk through today, I found a number of blooming plants that were emerging later than I had seen them before. though that may have been influenced by the irregular rainflall in late summer and early fall here connected with the arrival of Hurricane Ian.
Rainfall about a mile from this site for September was 19.1 inches/
The plants were emerging from a patth that had been cleared between the second Lupine planting area and the main north-south interior path.
The Lupines were doing fine, though some seem to be bound by the cages installed around them to protect them from herbivory by Eastern Cottontail Rabbits.
There was some tree fall along the northern fire lane adjacent to First Avenue, but generally the preserve .did well.
When I was doing a recent check of the preserve, I found two unflagged lupines that appeared to be surviving seedlings from 2021's emergence that may have been overlooked in last year's surveys.
The reason they may have been overlooked is because they popped up farther west along the path north of the first planting area than is normally surveyed.
I flagged both of them and took the extra precaution of bringing stakes and surveying tape to mark the area where the plants are located to prevent them from being inadvertently being snuffed out by FWC contractors that run equipment through this section of the preserve for reasons I'm a little unclear about.
I also learned that funding for continued monitoring out here is up in the air for now/
There are still a few surviving seedlings from this year, which means they may be able to survive to flowering age. Most of them are at the edge of the planting area, not inside it.
Additionally, there are other plants in a supplemental planting area where most of the plants are protected from hungry Eastern Cottontail Rabbits by cages. Most of them appear healthy, though some are more robust that others. I encountered only one cage that did not appear to have a lupine inside anymore.
It will be interesting to see what the place looks like next winter when the new crop emerges.
I was out looking for butterflies today when I noticed what appeared to be a Cherry Laurel tree had fallen onto the fence from adjoining property into the northern fire lane.
I plan to go out in the near future and deal with it.
I also noticed today that the Cogongrass infestation at the southeast corner of the north tract has grown. It has never been treated to my knowledge even though other infestations have.
As I was passing the original Scrub Lupine planting area, I noticed a plant that appeared to be about a year old just west of an area that had been roped off to protect a mature plant from overmanagement by contractors.
It was not flagged but it is hard to believe it was overlooked in the annual survey.
The number of Scrub Liatris along the north-south path seem to be increasing slightly.
Monday night I settled into a spot at dusk near the northwest corner of the norther n tract to see what was flying after dark.
In the meantime I was treated with a glorious sunset as the rainclouds cleared.
As the sun set, I could hear the booming of a Common Nighthawk, which still finds summer refuge here.
A pair of bats came zooming in above the fire lane from the lowland forest to the west.
As the darkness deepened, my lighted sheet began to become animated.
Burrower bugs landed in the first wave, followed by various species of scarabs, including a small light brown individual that was initially identified as a sand-loving scarab.
As usual, I was hoping for moths and eventually a few appeared.
The Southern Emerald was the first and later a Subject Lichen Moth and some micros of various species arrived, but they remained outnumbered by the beetles.
A pair of Bald Eagles have fledged two young in a communications tower of some sort behind an industrial building across the street from the preserve.
The nest site, if I recall correctly, was formerly occupied by Ospreys.
Today when I was checking it out, an Osprey flew by, touching off vocalization by an adult perched near the nest.
I was told by someone who works nearby that this is not one of the nests that is monitored by the EagleWatch program.
A small piece of scrub north of the south tract's fence line has dramatically changed recently.
About 100 feet of fence has been heavily damaged as a result of the upturned scrub habitat that's in clear view toward the industrial plant on the other side of the rail spur that serves the property.
The owner is KSW LLC, a corporation registered in Tampa, but based in Michigan, according to public records.
The most obvious question , which will be up to regulatory officials to answer, is whether there was any attempt to monitor the site for Sand Skinks, a federally protected species. before work began.
This is based on surveys on the site that revealed their presence on our side of the former fence line.
Meanwhile, the lock on a nearby gate was cut. FWC officials have been notified.
I visited the planting areas today to see if any lupine seedlings had emerged yet.
I found a couple.
In addition, at least one of the plants protected by cages to prevent being devoured by bunnies--saw some scat nearby--appears large enough to bloom this year.
The cages also contained some dead plants and some plants that may not be ready to bloom until next year
I also picked up some trash, including another golf ball, one of the most perplexing pieces of litter I fnd here.
