SCAS Offering Audubon Adventures

Satellite Beach Recreation Department Events

Birding Brevard: Where Did the Birds Go When Fay Hit?

Parrish Medical Center Project

Obitiuaries of Members and Friends of the SCAS

Larry Manfredi to Speak At October 17th Meeting

Little Green Places: Contest Invitation

Communication Made Easy

Dead Tree Society

Back to SCAS Home...

A Trip to the Springs

By Jason Frederick, President of the SCAS

Sunday, September 22nd, Kathy and I went to Wekiwa Springs for some hiking and photography. Weather was partly cloudy and hot. We headed out on the Orange Trail, one of many out there, for our adventure.

We headed out around 1:30 PM and immediately started sweating. The trail ran through a scrub habitat of mostly palms and scrub oaks, none of which was over 5 feet high. As we changed habitat to more of oak trees and cabbage palms, I noticed a spider web and warned Kathy about it. She has a touch of arachnophobia as some of you may know. As I am looking at the spider web shimmering in the sunlight, my vision focuses on the background which is in the shadows cast by the oaks and other large trees. There in the shadows is a large 6 point buck staring at me. I tell Kathy to look and she informs me that he is probably the same one she saw the day before. He repeated his actions that she witnessed the day before by just standing there letting us photograph him and stand in amazement of his beauty. I noticed that he had a small wound on the bridge of his nose and at that exact time he started to head further in to the wooded area. Suddenly a doe appeared and soon darted off with the buck following a few moments later. Before he left, he turned and looked at us as if to say that was his wife and she said it was time to go. I just nodded to him, knowing his predicament and thanked him for the experience.

As we continued on we could hear a pair of red shouldered hawks calling back and forth with each other as the soared high above. Carolina Wrens could be heard scolding and chipping from their hidden locations just off the trail. Blue Grey Gnatcatchers were babbling and feeding on insects just above our heads on the tree tops. Red Bellied Woodpeckers and Downy Woodpeckers seemed to be hanging out together as every time we saw one, the other was not far behind. A Pileated Woodpecker first flew by and then could be heard from a far off tree. The only warblers we could find were Common Yellowthroats. Several were heard making their single note chips from behind bushes as we walked along the trail.

We walked along a ridge line and the landscaped sloped off to the right. From this location I heard one of my favorite birds calling, the Eastern Towhee. The habitat changes several times along this trail that runs over 5miles long. Along a part of the trail that was thick with oak trees, we found a Tufted Titmouse who was so busy feeding I am sure he never noticed the two of us. In a section surrounded by pines, a pair of birds flew to our location making an unfamiliar call as it landed high above. They danced from branch to branch searching the pine cones and pine needles for insects to feed on. Once they finally stopped bouncing around, I was able to get a good look and discovered they were Brown Headed Nuthatches. Great find and a life bird for Kathy.

Gulf Fritillaries, Zebra Longwings, Giant Swallowtails, and a lone Spicebush Swallowtail made up the butterfly species that we encountered. We saw many species of dragonflies, a few Lubber Grasshoppers, nearly 50+ young Spade Toads all only the size of a pencil eraser, a Blue Tailed Skink, and a Gopher Tortoise. Several Grey Ground Squirrels were seen and heard along the trails and a total of 4 deer, 3 females and the 1 buck, rounded out the rest of the animals seen.

After we got home and prepared for bed, Kathy noticed that I brought a woodlands dweller home with me, a tick! Not the ordinary souvenir most people look for to remember their adventure. As it goes with many things in life, where there is one tick there is another, and another, and another, and another. There was 3 on me and 2 on Kathy, nothing like burning ticks off each other at 1 AM. Then, when we woke up Monday morning, another surprise, Chigger bites around our ankles. I am just glad we picked up our friends while on a nature excursion and not from doing yard work.