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| Hiking | 2.55 Miles |
254 AEG |
| | Hiking | 2.55 Miles | | | |
| 254 ft AEG | | | | |
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| no partners | | Name's: gummo
Partner: the mom
Mood: pirate
Mission: to visit our country's 1st national wildlife refuge, Pelican Island National Wildlife Refuge, and to have the mom see more of Florida's wildlife.
Song: The Coast Of High Barbary by The Shanty Crew (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Zs-Zr9 ... 1421914688)
Things I've Seen: Brown Pelicans, Osprey, Tricolor Heron, lots of Great Egrets and Snowy Egrets, a Toad, 2 Otters, White Ibises, Gray Catbirds.
Things that I've Learned About Florida: 1) The volunteers are great but will talk your ears off if you let them. 2) Birds that are difficult to photograph in AZ, are very easy to photograph in Florida. 3) Locals generally don't go to national parks or refuges.
Confession: When strangers ask me for money, I always feel like I'm being scammed.
Little Facts About Me: 1) I've picked up two hitchhikers in my life, one guy, one lady. I drove the lady four blocks. She hitched a ride because it was too cold to walk.  2) I generally don't say, "hi" to people on the trail because I'm always scanning the terrain for wildlife, and it distracts me from my thought processes.
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On my trip to Florida, I and the mom wanted to hit new areas, and we decided to hit Pelican Island NWR and later hit St. Sebastian River Preserve. Ironically, I saw only one pelican at Pelican Island and dozens of pelicans at St. Sebastian River.
Pelican Island is a small NWR with a lot of history. It was the first NWR in the country that Teddy Roosevelt established because too many people were killing pelicans for their feathers, and he wanted a refuge for them. It was 5-acre island that was reduced to a 3 acre island due to erosion. The refuge was then expanded to include some of the coastline. The pelicans are more common in the summer here.
The refuge consists of otters, raccoon, birds of all types, snakes, manatees, lizards, and bobcats. As we started our hike, the mom and I spotted 2 river otters. They were originally far away but approached us quickly. One of the otters caught a fish effortlessly and approach us further as if he wanted to share it with us. We were good, thanks. The otter appeared to have gotten the message and turned to another bank and ate its catch in the bushes.
Next, I went on my own because the mom cannot hike well. I jogged most of the way and took pictures quickly. Jogging and photographing usually doesn't mix well, but this is Florida, where birds are easy to spot and don't scare too easily. I saw a large gathering of egrets and herons in the vegetation, but it was too thick for a decent photo. I flipped a few boards left over from bridges they built and found a toad and a few insects that weren't worth my time.
I saw an osprey, which are very common there, nest in the distance and saw numerous branches of the trail that I'd like to explore later, but time was not on my side. I saw one gray catbird and heard about a dozen of them all around me. They definitely enjoy this area.
I hit the refuge pretty quickly and wasn't able to hit the other trails or comb the coast for other critters. If I had the time, I probably would have seen more, but we were on a tight schedule and wanted to hit St. Sebastian River Preserve next, which should be called Pelican River Preserve (when you see the pics, you'll know why: http://hikearizona.com/photoset=33736). Mom is moving out of Florida, but I still plan to hit Florida next year or maybe in October/November. When I do, Pelican Island will be on my hit list.
Lastly, there's no way the AEG here is 254ft. This trail was level and FLAT! |
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Route Editor
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