June 18 The Turtle Hospital

      After leaving John Pennekamp, we check into the Marriott Courtyard Hotel in Key Largo, our "home" for the next three nights. We had a little "drama" on that first evening, first at the pool and then later in the hotel. Ahhh whats a trip without a little drama. But today was a new day and we would be visiting the Turtle Hospital. It was an early rise...5:30 for me and 6:30 for the kids. After breakfast we headed south to Marathon Key. Founded in 1986, The Turtle Hospital has as it's motto Rescue, Rehab,Release, and part of its mission is to educate the public about sea turtles so that laws can be passed to make waters and beaches safe for them.

     After a twenty minute talk, telling the students about the work of the Turtle Hospital. and the diseases and the environmental hazards that turtles face we had a tour of the facility. The first stop was the operating and treatment rooms. We heard stories of Green Sea Turtles contracting fibropapilloma virus which causes infectious tumors all throughout their bodies. This is a worldwide epidemic and the Turtle Hospital has pioneered much of the treatments and surgical procedures used throughout the world. We heard about Loggerhead and Hawksbill turtles that get caught in fish nets, swallow or get injured by legal and illegal fishhooks or ensnared  by fishing line. And we were introduced to the rare Kemp's Ridley turtles that were struck by propellers on boat motors. We saw x-rays, heard about amputations and on the positive side release stories of those healthy to return to their habitat. On this day a small Kemp's Ridley would be released just a few miles from where we were.

     The highlight would be the turtles of course and so after the lessons we went out to meet Chris, Crusher, Hollarry, Henderson, Karsten, Bubble Butt and the rest. We visited some recent arrivals, some that had fibropapilloma tumors removed, some the would be released and some like Bubble Butt that would are permanent residents. Bubble Butt is the Turtle Hospital's oldest resident (21 years). He has a deformed shell (due to a boating accident) and cannot dive without the aid of weights that are attached. You can read more about the Hospital and their "patients" at http://www.turtlehospital.org/

June 17 John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park

       I have lost count of how many times I have been to John Pennekamp. I was here several times while in college, several times with Worldstrides and at least two with family (on vacations). I have hiked a few upland forests, walked the boardwalk trails through mangrove swamps and snorkeled in the coral reefs that are within the park boundaries and a few that are in the adjacent Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. Today we would be doing a beach snorkel, not a real exciting "adventure" but a necessary one to introduce snorkeling to the students that have never done this. We had about two hours, first to get fitted with rented gear and then to "experiment" in the water. I knew that an afternoon swim would not be very "fun"...because of crowds and the mixing of the water with sand and algae that accompanies a large group of people all vying for space in a roped-in semi-tropical beach. In past years we have seen large schools of tarpon swimming near the surface in the deeper areas and if the waters were clear enough we could see small tropical reef fishes along the rocks as well as the the remnants of an old Spanish shipwreck that are within the ropes. Two years ago, this was also the site that my son Chris and I, experimented with our new digital underwater cameras. With the crowds and the turbid water I didn't expect to see much.

       The best thing about this part of our trip was seeing the kids, don snorkeling gear and observing Daniel and Laura "get use" to the whole experience. With David and Susan's help their timidness was slowing replaced by trial and error and then getting a level of comfort with everything. Before departing for our hotel we did see a few tarpon, a few parrot fish and a few grunt and maybe a grouper.

 

 

June 17 - Shark Valley

       Day Two began as warm and hazy as we loaded our bus with suitcases, backpacks and duffel bags. After checking out of the Hampton Inn, we traveled across the Tamiami Trail (Hwy 41) to another section of the Everglades. Memories of my many past experiences flashed through my mind as we drove the well traveled route westward. I remember the narrow road of 1968 and 1969, dotted with Seminole and Miccosukee villages, the water-filled "river of grass" and the many canals that were built by the Army Corps of Engineers draining the homes of alligators, kites and ibises for agriculture and development. And then in the '90s when our family returned to see many of those villages replaced by tourist traps and air boat rentals as well as the birth of a Seminole casino industry. The road is much wider now, in 2011 and road construction is all over. I guess to accommodate the tourists, the commuters to workplaces, the housing developments and CVSs and Walgreens that seem to be everywhere. The canals did their job well...the watery saw grass is brown and the canals are low on water. Emily R was counting alligators, David was identifying birds, Susan would occasionally point out wildlife to some of the interested kids. Some of them were sleeping and others just didn't seem to care. Still, the anticipation of our first full day in Florida was there.

                        

       "There are no sharks in Shark Valley" are the words printed in our journal. The valley gets it's name from the Shark River Slough, an area of water that runs through this part of Everglades National Park. Cutting the slough in half is a 15 mile long trail that can be hiked, biked or experienced by riding a tram. With 38 middle school kids we would be riding the tram. After we met Julio, our "tour guide / educator" the kids were issued binoculars and we headed out for the 90 minute journey to the observation tower. Along the way Julio pointed out different habitats; the slough itself, the saw grass prairies, the cypress hammocks, hammocks of sweet bay magnolia and swamp willow. Birding was our primary goal here and we weren't disappointed. Birds of prey included ospreys and red-shouldered hawks (but no Everglades kite). Great blue herons, great and snowy egrets, Louisiana and green herons, red-winged blackbirds and boat-tailed grackles were abundant. Near the visitors center we saw anhingas (including one in a tree nest), purple gallinules, moorhens, a limpkin and others.

Somebody may have kept count of all the alligators we saw as well, but I don't know that number. All I can say is that they were very abundant, ranging from small newborns (near the conduits that took water from one side of the road to the other) to 11 feet or more (sunning in dry areas or swimming in wet ones). We also saw two species of turtles: Yellow-bellied sliders and Florida soft-shelled (at least one of these was preparing to lay eggs). Insects were also abundant; mosquitoes from time-to-time and deer flies. But the dry weather and lack of rainfall made this  a very enjoyable experience. We also saw a few more lubber grasshoppers, an occasional swallowtail, Gulf fritallaries and the queen butterfly. The latter mimicked the monarch and was so abundant that some bushes had 5 or 6 clustering together on nectar producing blossoms.

       On one stop most of the students, going barefoot, followed Julio through a dry mat of periphyton. Maddie was the "guinea pig" selected to hold a large clump of the algal colony as he explained the importance of these organisms to the health of the Everglades and the organisms that call it their home. Later we would read and write in our journals about periphyton.

       At the half-way point we embarked once again to climb the observation tower, look at much of the same, read the story of the Miccosukee and Seminole people that still inhabit much of the Everglades and walk a nearby borrow pit where we found that nesting Florida softshell turtle. The trip back to the visitor's center did not include any stops so it went pretty quick. After a visit to the gift shop we boarded the bus and headed east for the Keys.

Splash Into Science

June 16, 2011  Anhinga Trail

After two and a half hours of flying and another hour or so looking at the Fort Lauderdale - Miami landscape we arrived at the Hampton Inn in Homestead, Florida. Susan, our course Leader for this year's excursion gave us a little down time. So after checking in to our rooms and donning bathing suits we hung out in or around the pool until dinner time. After an enjoyable meal of tacos, rice and beans we started out for our first "science tour".

At around 8PM, Donna, David and I, along with 38 middle school students stepped off the bus in Everglades National Park. For Florida it was a somewhat cool, breezy and not-too-humid evening as we watched the sun move closer to the horizon. The students and their parents were warned that this section of the Everglades was "mosquito heaven". The mosquito is one of the lowest organisms in the "River of Grass" food web and therefore the primary food source for all sorts of organisms from the fishes that inhabit the slough to the birds that fly above it. So before we left the hotel, the students dutifully applied bug spray, changed into long sleeved shirts and pants and some, like myself even had head nets. On previous trips when our bus pulled up to the visitor's center at Anhinga Trail biting insects (including a few deer flies) were already hovering by the windows look at the potential for fresh blood. Not so, this year! To my amazement it was quiet as we departed the bus into the park. No whine of mosquito wings in my ears. No slapping of exposed skin. No mosquitoes????

After a brief lesson about the Everglades and "observation etiquette", we started our hike along Anhinga Trail. One of our first interesting finds was the lubber grasshopper...always a favorite target of mine for photographing. So as the group of kids, led by Susan moved further away from me, I was happily focusing and shooting, focusing and shooting and yes focusing and shooting looking for that perfect close-up of an insect that I had to dissect in college.

As dusk settled into night, a nearly full moon started to become visible in the night sky. The hushed voices of the students (not so hushed as I would like...but not bad for middle school kids) ahead could be heard. But so too were the unforgettable sounds of frogs. Among the night sounds we heard the grunts of pig frogs, the chirps of cricket frogs and more calls from pickerel and carpenter frogs as well as the southern toad. Later the distinct call of the green tree frog and southern toad made our list.
At this point in our hike, more and more flashlights started to illuminate the darkness, most beams being directed toward the water as we looked intently for two beady red eyes peering out of the sawgrass. The American alligator was at the tail-end of breeding season so we didn't expect to hear the bull roar of gators looking for a mate. But we did expect to see these large reptiles...and we weren't disappointed. As the trail made a turn, maybe a quarter-mile into our hike, we encountered two rather small alligators sitting quietly under the bridge. They didn't seem at all interested in us, even with excited voices and flashlight beams focused on their faces. After a few photos we moved on looking for some big gators. I was busy taking night photos along the way so again the group got pretty far ahead. There were just too many things to see in such a short time. I photographed pond apples, saw grass, more lubber grasshoppers and the trail itself with the flash on and sometimes just by flashlight. Night photography is a bit of a challenge so I'm always working at improving this. I heard that some kids found a pair of mating walking sticks (stick insects) but I missed them. At times I just watched the gar swimming below me in the clear waters of the slough.


We did see those big gators we were hoping to see...first the red eyes in a distance, and the movement of water little closer, but a few ventured close enough to the excited students that we got some neat pictures...in our minds and in our cameras. We continued the hike until around 9:30 and then headed back to our bus and eventually the Hampton Inn. A few more photos of lubber grasshoppers, a couple of shots of a Cuban anole and a failed attempt at recording some night sounds rounded out the evening. All-in-all it was a good start to our science trip. And amazingly no mosquitoes.