Professor Steven Goldsmith

Loggerhead Sea Turtle

Another main goal of my Florida trip was to observe nesting behavior in Loggerhead sea turtles (Caretta caretta). I teach about the ecology and behavior of this species in my Animal Behavior and Vertebrate Biology courses. Loggerhead sea turtles exhibit “natal homing.” Females return to the beaches where they hatched to nest, typically at least a couple of decades later. We think the female turtles accomplish natal homing through a phenomenon that is being called “geomagnetic imprinting.”

On the evening of July 10^th, I participated in a “turtle walk” at Archie Carr National Wildlife Refuge. Archie Carr was a sea turtle biologist at the University of Florida who advocated strongly for the conservation of sea turtles as an important part of the marine and terrestrial ecosystems. Population sizes of most species of sea turtles had been decimated by overexploitation by humans by the 1960s. Carr encouraged the preservation of the most important nesting beaches of central Florida, and the resulting National Wildlife Refuge now bears his name. Sea turtle populations of many species are rebounding, although most are still listed as threatened or endangered.

Access to the beaches of the Carr Refuge is strictly limited to guided walks led by members of the “Friends of Carr Refuge” who have special use permits from the Fish and Wildlife Service. On the evening of July 10^th, the leaders of the turtle walk found a nesting female Loggerhead sea turtle, and a group of “walkers” got to watch as she dug her nest, laid her eggs, then buried the eggs and camouflaged the nest before going back down the beach to the ocean. Any type of photography disturbs the nesting turtles, so is strictly forbidden during the turtle walks. Here are some views of the beaches of Archie Carr NWR:

The Barrier Island Center is near the northern end of the Carr Refuge.

I jokingly said the Carr Refuge is 20 miles long and 100 yards wide, and this is not far from the truth.

 

Florida scrub jays

One of my main goals on my biology field trip to coastal central Florida was to observe and photograph Florida scrub jays (Aphelocoma coerulescens). This is a threatened species that is endemic to Florida, and is a separate species from the western scrub jay. Florida scrub jays are known for their behavior of “cooperative breeding.” Young jays from previous years assist their parents in raising younger siblings. I teach about this behavior in my Animal Behavior course, so I wanted to see Florida scrub jays in their natural habitat, which I did at the Pine Flatwoods Trail within Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge.

Here is the Pine Flatwoods Trail

The birds are not easy to observe; they occupy a habitat that offers protection from predators (oak scrub, which is a successional stage of dense, low-growing vegetation maintained by periodic fires).

Pine trees will eventually shade out the oak scrub, so the periodic fires prevent the pine forests from doing so. At Merritt Island NWR, they intentionally burn parts of the refuge to promote scrub jay conservation.

You can clearly see the oak scrub on either side of the trail.

In spite of the habitat conditions, scrub jays are naturally curious and unafraid of humans, so individual birds would perch in dead pine snags or the tops of scrub oaks, and scold me with screechy alarm calls.

Because they live in family units, sometimes several birds at a time would be perched together.

I visited the Pine Flatwoods area of MINWR on four successive mornings, and learned something new each day. On one day, I was able to easily distinguish between adults and juveniles – the juveniles have brown heads and the adults (even the non-breeding “helpers”) have blue heads.

I didn't know it when I arranged this trip, but July is when the juveniles from the current year have fledged, so the families have grown, and bird biologists survey to assess population growth.

The helpers assist the breeding adults in a variety of ways, including watching for predators, defending the family territory against intruders from neighboring families, foraging and caching food, and feeding the babies.

Bird (and other) photos from Florida

In addition to observing and photographing Florida scrub jays, and observing nesting loggerhead sea turtles, I spent quite a bit of time in Florida photographing other animal species, mostly birds. I posted about manatees and gopher tortoises already.

There was a keeled green snake crossing a road

 

I got a good photo of a double crested cormorant a few years ago

and a great blue heron

I got good photos of a black vulture

And a tri-colored heron

And a white ibis

And of course a Florida scrub jay

More on scrub jays soon.

Canaveral National Seashore

Later on my first day of the Florida field trip, I drove north from Merritt Island NWR through New Smyrna Beach, then south on A1A to Canaveral National Seashore – Apollo Beach. I got to use my Senior Pass for the entry fee!

The road goes several miles on the back or lagoon side of the beach. This is an area where gopher tortoises are common.

There are several points along the road within the National Seashore that provide access to the actual beach, but you have to use an established boardwalk to cross the coastal dune area, which has stabilizing vegetation – human foot traffic on the dunes is prohibited. The beach area is used by sea turtles for nesting, so access is prohibited between 8:00pm and sunrise.

This was probably a green sea turtle nest – they dig a big pit and don't try to cover it up.

Some areas are pretty empty and isolated.

In other places there is a lot of human activity during daylight hours.

There is one of the boardwalk areas where nude sunbathing is permitted.

There is quite a bit of nude sunbathing.

More on this later.

Florida field trip

I am in central Florida this week on a biology field trip. I had two main goals, both of which are now accomplished, but I will come back to those later, because they were not the first things I accomplished. I saw things I thought I might see, but those were not the primary goals of the trip. That said, accomplishing them was enjoyable.

I spent most days exploring Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, on the Atlantic coast of Florida pretty much due east of Orlando. This is a large refuge with diverse aquatic and terrestrial habitats, and lots of diversity of birdlife and other creatures. My first visit was to the visitor center for advice about where to see certain things – the refuge is large and diverse enough that I figured I would not waste time looking for things on my own. I was advised to visit three main areas: The Scrub Ridge Trail (spoiler alert – one of my goals was to see Florida scrub jays), the Pine Flatwoods Trail, and the Manatee Observation Deck.

I stopped at the Scrub Ridge Trail first, hoping to see scrub jays. An aside – I knew it was going to be hot, humid, and buggy in coastal central Florida in July. I was mentally and physically prepared, but the density of mosquitoes was still astonishing. I walked the Scrub Ridge Trail but saw no scrub jays. I did see several other things, like an indigo snake and a garter snake, an eastern towhee,

And multiple ospreys.

After finishing the trail, I went next to the Manatee Observation Deck, which is a location right next to the road on the Haulover Canal.

The manatees hang out in this area, which is why the Fish and Wildlife Service put the Manatee Observation Deck there.

And hang out they do. What you normally see is a “boil” when a manatee comes close to the surface, sometimes a snout,

And you can actually see the manatees themselves in the relatively clear water.

I visited this area more than once. On one of the visits, I noticed a small anole doing displays while perched on the leg of a bench. I got several photos before I figured out why he was doing this.

(He was doing "push-ups," which is a movement display)

(Also flairing the "dewlap," which is a color display)

He was trying to impress a female.

My third stop was the Pine Flatwoods Trail.

By the time I got there, it was mid-day and very warm. I hiked anyway. This was supposed to be an easy 1 mile loop. I hiked in part of the way when I heard what sounded like the call of a jay (there were lots of mockingbirds trying to sound like jays, but I could tell the difference). I stopped, listened, and looked for several minutes, then a jay appeared in a pine snag several meters away. But there was just the one, and it was not doing much. I walked farther, but the trail kept going in a direction that did not seem right, plus it was really hot, so I turned around and walked back to the car. As it turned out, I had taken the first turn, which was not the actual trail, but I didn’t find this out until the next day.