Garberia Putting On A Show

 I spent some time today clearing the access to the south tract, which had become overgrown.

I noticed someone had mowed the area around the walk-through entrance to the north tract, which was welcome.  

Fron there I started clearing the previously opened path but need to come back when the weather moderates and I have more gear to get deeper into that tract.

I wanted to get far enough in to see if there has been any sprouting of Ghost Pipes,which have sometimes been numerous here, at least in wetter years (this was not one).

I did find a lovely patch of Garberia.

I also found and removed a small amount of trash.

Digging Into Another Trash Pile

 The winter rains have exposed more half-buried trash near the preserve's entrance and one of the Scrub Lupine planting sites.

I spent a few hours the other day digging and hauling  out debris. Most of it seemed to have involved a buried mattress and assorted household debris.

The non-metal debris filled a large trash bag. 

I also removed more pieces of concrete that I will move to the entrance along with the other similar debris.

Once the weather clears, I'll get back to resume work.

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.

Where do those golf balls come from?

I was walking through the south tract yesterday looking for Indian pipes when I found a golf ball.
I have found several of the these balls over the years, but their origin remains a mystery.
There is no golf course nearby. There is no driving range nearby.
The demographics of the surrounding neighborhood doesn't suggest there are any golfers.
I threw it into the fire lane and will pick it up later.
The weather is beginning to moderate and I thnk I will plan to resume work mining the windrows along the fire lane to recover more legacy trash.

Lupine Season And More Fire Trash

The Scrub Lupine seedling population remains small so far. I've located only a handful so far. Last year at this time I had located about 80 plants, so I don't know what's happening.
The plants began emerging in late December, but whether their further emergence was  affected by a couple of cold snaps is something I don't know.

I flagged a couple of them today to provide me with some perspective if any more pop up.
I'm wondering whether any will emerge from the path just north of the planting area this year.
That path was heavily impacted by fire vehicles in recent months during the first-ever  prescribed fire for that portion of the preserve.
While I was checking today, I discovered some patches of household garbage I knew existed, but can see better thanks to the fire.
I hauled out a couple of bags and two buckets full of debris.
I also recorded some wildlife while I was there.

I saw an American Robin trailing a small flock of Cedar Waxwings. The two species sometimes flock together while feeding in the winter.

Still cleaning up following prescribed fire

I went out today and brought back 4 five-gallon buckets of garbage exposed by the recent prescribed burns on the north side of the preserve.

The bulk of the trash was household garbage and the largest number of items were baby food jars.
I also disturbed a Southern  Toad that was hiding inside the containers.
Habeneria floribunda (nee odentopetala) is beginning to emerge in the bayhead on the southwest corner of the north tract.
Some vegetation is beginning to resprout, but it will take time to appreciate the full impact of the fire.
I'm also beginning to see more mushrooms.

How does my rosemary measure up?

One of the things I've noticed over the year is the height of the Rosemary plants in
some spots, which I attribute to lack of fire perhaps.
I have seen plants noticeably taller than me, which isn't that tall in real terms, but seems tall for Rosemary.
All of the Rosemary is in the south tract in discrete sections.
Today I wandered around for a couple of hours looking for plants and measuring their heights.
The tallest plant I found was 76 inches ( 30 cm) tall. Several others were  between 65 and 71 inches tall.
Inevitably my meanderings involved the discovery of small trash caches, some of which I was able to toss into the fire lane for later pickup. The rest I left in small piles to make them more noticeable during future forays.
I encountered a small flock of Pine Warblers, which I find here sometimes in winter, and one Barred Sulfur butterfly. 

Getting rid of the concrete pile

I have finished removing the pile of carpet and concrete that was uncovered in the fire lane during the recent bush hog operations that was a prelude to fire lane mowing, which will happen sometime in the future.

I'm still busting up the larger, harder-to-move pieces so I can use them elsewhere, which is either to line an entrance or make an entrance road elsewhere more accessible to two-wheel drive vehicles.

I also rounded up the Corona bottles and returned them to their rightful owner.

Concrete & Glass

I went to the preserve over the weekend with a goal of culling some of the Ceasarweed, but got distracted with the work next to the fire lane near the First Avenue gate.
I ended up digging up a large amount of concrete debris as well as some carpet and other household trash and related debris.
I did pile up some Ceasarweed and found another batch of Corona beer bottles.
While I was tossing the bottles into the edge of the fire lane I was approached by one of the neighbors.
He told me the bottles were coming from weekend parties held by his neighbors.
Meanwhile, while I was excavating the debris I encountered another Eastern Glass
Snake Lizard, minus part of its tail tip, which will generate. It stayed for a few moments before disappearing into the surrounding habitat.  

Bushhogging, trashing and questions

The fire lane was recently widened for some reason, but the old fire lane was left partially unmowed for some reason.
The bushhogging exposed some additional trash, with which I filled my truck bed today.

I found the bushhogging had been more extensive than in the past, including some of the internal trails. Fortunately it occurred after the flowering season, so none of the endangered species were affected.

The mowing took out a good chunk of palmettos in the northwest corner, but fortunately missed a patch of Nolina brittonia that grows there that I didn't discover until a few years after I did the original plant survey.

What's a little mysterious is why a strip of tall grass was left in the middle of parts of the fire lane. seemingly defeating the purpose of the buffer.

I'll have to inquire with FWC to see what's planned.

 

More dumping followup

I went out again this week and moved more of the dumped tree debris to the pile next to the fence.

I have heard nothing further from FWC about any enforcement or debris removal.

I also cut some tree limbs to reopen some paths in the north tract.

I plan to come in and gradually conduct some trash removal along the fire lanes. 

Tree clearing and tree piles

If you want to get an idea of how much tree work occurred in the adjacent lot, compare this 2014 aerial of the lot with what  it looked like this week.
Blue line denotes adjacent lots boundary.
I spent some time yesterday hauling all of the tree limbs consisting primarily of Cherry Laurel and Brazilian Pepper from inside the wooded area south of the fire lane to a spot near the fence where some of the neighbor's tree removal occurred.
I plan to pursue this issue with FWC next week.  This is obviously criminal dumping. 

More dumping from the neighbors

While I was out today GPSing a couple of Blue-tailed Mole Skink records and
checking on the survival  of this year's Scrub Lupine seedlings (0 percent), I noticed a large amount of Cherry Laurel and Brazilian Pepper  tree removal debris spread over a good portion of the edge area.

I talked to a couple of neighbors, who claimed to have seen the dumping and would ask the property owner to go in and remove the trash.

We'll see. I reported the incident to FWC. There was also some dumping of household garbage, but it was relatively minor compared to the tree debris. 

You CAN get there from here

Last year I discovered a path that was cleared through the south tract.
I asked about it and was told it was a mistake and would not recur.
That was then, this is now.
While I was leading a field trip last weekend, I discovered not only had the trail been recleared, but additional trails had been cleared to connect to various points along the four fire lanes.
I have not had a chance to learn the purpose, though it seems this is part of some kind of new management strategy.
I guess I was most amazed that someone the equipment missed an interesting pile of concrete debris that lies in the general area where some of the paths cross in the northeast section of the south tract.
I found a few pieces of litter that I had not encountered before. I'll return to collect them and probably mine the windrows that were piled up from the last fire lane work.
If nothing else, this makes monitoring the site somewhat easier.

Removing Remodeling Trash

Today I removed a truckload of construction debris from the north fire lane woods.
There was a door, some cabinet doors and miscellaneous material.
The gate combo has been changed, so I couldn't use a wheelbarrow to haul the material out. so I had to carry it out.
It was windy and so it was more difficult to move the larger items.
Anyway, it's out now. 

Raiding The Air Potatoes

There was a great turnout today for the Great Central Florida Air Potato Raid, despite the weather.

We got more than 300 pounds of air potatoes, which aren't really much of a problem here. Along the way I discovered some Brazilian Pepper that needs attention and found some trash that I picked up in the afternoon.

I also met with Bill Parken to check out the new path through the south tract.

It was a good day.

The only thing I didn't have space to collect was all of those Corona beer bottles one of the neighbors keeps lobbing over the fence.

I also flagged some more Scrub Lupine seedlings.

A Collectible Among The Castoffs

During my recent Indian Pipes quest--I found about 25 plants--I also found some trash piles from previous encampments.

Among the debris was a Teem bottle. I could tell it was old because it mentioned that you could turn it in for a deposit, which has not been possible in Florida for decades, despite attempts by environmentalists and others to return to the practice.

I finally got the majority of debris hauled out this morning, thought there's still a mattress frame I have to extract when I bring in the tools to do it.

I flagged more Indian Pipes this morning. They're popping up like winter mushrooms. I wonder if this year's high rainfall was a factor.
 

One Path Clear, More To Go

I finally finished work yesterday on removing the mass of Natal grass from the central trail through the preserve.

I now have a relatively easy task of clearing  branches away from this and other paths, which will involve loppers and shouldn't take more than a single visit.

The fire lane still lies unmowed despite pledges to get the work done. It remains an eyesore, an exotic weed sink and a fire hazard.  Also, when it's mowed it's easier to find the trash the neighbors have tossed over the fence.

Meanwhile, my next major project is to work on the trail on the south tract in preparation for Nature Fest and to make it easier for me to get around the property.

Cleaning the edges again

Over the weekend I continued my Great American Cleanup efforts along Holt/Holton Road area. I found a lot of older trash I'd missed in an earlier foray a few years ago and found some new stuff. It seems Heineken is the favorite beer of neighborhood litterbugs.

I also found part of an old bed frame, a small section of cast iron pipe, three tires and an old shoe.
There's lots of concrete debris, too. Maybe that can be formed into something.