ST VINCENT ISLAND - NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE

ST VINCENT NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE
This was a pre-planned event and we met at 8.30 to take the short ferry ride to St. Vincent National Wildlife Refuge. For the first time in five days we met ‘birders’. The wildlife is taken care of by volunteers and they escorted us around only a small part of this 10 mile long barrier island. It is open to the public and there are areas which are restricted for nesting Terns including the Snowy Plovers. We didn’t see one.

On the point were numerous Brown Pelicans that also flew and fished. We saw the following Terns : Caspian, Royal, Sandwich, and Gull-Billed. We missed out on Least and Forster’s, but we have time. Two Skimmers sat with them. All these birds spooked when a Turkey Vulture flew over. A Great Blue Heron – a dark morph - looking ‘terminally grey’ with a tinge of colour in the thighs ignored us. Aloof and majestic.


We walked the beach and Gannets fished off shore. Also a Brown Booby was spotted and two Cattle Egrets as well. We turned inland to cross the island. The ecology of the island and the dune system is one of interest and much too involved to do it any justice here. The island has been logged twice in the 1940’s and 60’s and they are hoping that the current administration will not authorize further logging. There is some good undergrowth and there are still mature trees. We had our first confirmed sighting of an Eastern Towee. Woodland birds can be difficult and we hoped for more, but only a calling Yellow-throated Warbler obliged. We changed tack a little, searched for Pigmy Rattlesnakes. We looked under palm fronds and metal sheeting without success. However, a beautiful Water Moccasin/ Cottonmouth sat alert on the edge of a small pond. Michelle also photographed a Black Swallow Tail, a young Oak Toad, and some successful bird shots.

Returning to the boat we saw six ‘shore’ birds and we were with a birder. These were four Sanderling, two Wilson’s Plovers and a Western Sandpiper. Early we had a Sanderling in summer plumage. We can confirm that many solitary ‘shore’ birds are Sanderling although we usually see them in small groups scuttling about.

Our guide, Susan Cerulen, is a published author with Coming to Pass – Florida’s Coastal Islands in a Gulf of Change. www.susancerulean.com. Her husband is an authority on what has been happening with the dunes over time. With us was Nico Wieders, Ph.D, an associate scientist at the research facility of Florida State University. We were in good company!

Evening time required a pit stop for fuel and then next to ‘Up the Creek’ was The Bowery Station. Open Mics from 5-7 allowed the up-and-coming a chance. I will say ‘real music with real people’ and something poetic may come.
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