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Published: January 6th 2013
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Friday, January 6—Paynes Prairie State Park, Florida
This morning we took a three mile bird walk along the Bolen’s Bluff area looking for birds. The tour leader was quite knowledgeable about birds and we saw several different species. She knew what level in the trees to look for a particular bird and knew them by their call. We decided we would never be that sophisticated in our birding, especially with our hearing problems and poor ability to mimic. She was disappointed in the lack of sightings as she has guided this group several years before and had seen many more species. She also attributed it to the drought and the cold.
After walking along the bluff for awhile, we dropped down onto the prairie where we saw some of the wild horses on the Preserve and a few more bird species that preferred meadows to trees. The horses were wild and are descendants of the ones that came to the area with the Spanish.
Later, several people said they were headed to Micanopy for lunch and since that was on our way, we decided to join them. We ate at a deli they liked and the sandwiches were
substantial enough that we took half of them for later.
We then went further south to the small community of McIntosh. We discovered a small rv park (Sportsman Cove) with full hookups for less money than we were paying at the State Park. Nothing to write home about, but the drive there through the fields and old Victorian houses of town were quite nice. The “resort” was supposed to be on the Florida Birding Trail on OrangeLake. This was opposite the lake from Cross Creek and the drought had affected the birding opportunities on this side also.
We took our naps, fixed our dumplings, and headed back to the rally for the potluck. Before dinner we stopped by the visitor’s center at the park and were surprised to see a bald eagle on lookout in the tall pines nearby.
Saturday, January 7—Sportsman Cove, McIntosh, Florida
We had hoped to go on a guided birding tour of the lake by boat, but because of the drought, the boats couldn’t be operated. Since the rally didn’t have anything going on that we were interested in—a trip to the butterfly house in Gainesville and antiquing--we decided to
just rest.
Sunday, January 8
The next morning we joined a group who were going to view the prairie from the northside of the park at the Boulware Springs Trailhead. Here they had an interpretive center and many springs where alligators and some of the larger water birds, such as ibis and herons. It was directly across from where we had walked the previous day and saw the horses.
The prairie used to be a large enough lake that they had steam boats carrying cotton, oranges, lumber, and passengers across it. Ranching and farming, the growth of towns, and the changes in weather patterns dried up most of the lake leaving the prairie as it is preserved today. The ecology of the area still fluctuates with the rain fall. (
http://www.floridastateparks.org/history/parkhistory.cfm?parkid=81)
Sharon stayed near the large pond, which was covered and had benches for watching the various different species of birds that came to feed. Valerie and a few other participants walked out on the prairie to see the elusive Bison herd (just one was seen). As you can see from the picture, the bull was standing in the water and pulling up the grass,
much like moose do.
When we had our fill of bird/bison/crocodile/turtle watching, we left the group and headed toward St. Augustine where we had an appointment with a dealer on the following Monday. We spent the night at another state park, Mike Roess Gold Head Branch. From here we could smell and see the smoke of a wildfire that was to our northwest, but was otherwise too far away for us to be concerned.
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