With many excitements to visit a new country, eagerness to observe and learn the management of various sub-tropical wetlands and in situ conservation of wetlands' biodiversity in Florida, USA, we left the Bangor University early in the morning on 1st March, 2014. This was a field course of a week entitled "Conservation and ecology of subtropical wetlands, Florida 2" led by Professor. Chris Freeman and Dr. Christian Dunn. Main aims of this course were to develop basic field skills of various new habitats, learn ecology in situ, promote group works, experience the challenges faced by wildlife scientists, and critically examine all conservation and management strategies. In addition to these aims, I was there to collect mangrove soil samples for my dissertation. Warm and pleasant weather provided me a warm welcome for my first feet on the USA. I was wildly enthusiastic to observe as much wild flora and fauna as possible before reaching our final staying station. Unfortunately, in spite of around four hours' drive, I was unable to even see the landscapes because of the dark night. According to our field plan, we reached our final destination, Vester Marine Field Station, Fort Mayers, Florida late night. After some sleep for the night, actual field works started from next day.
The following blogs provide each day's activities, biodiversity in the sites, visited sites introduction and critical analysis of the management and species lists observed.
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| Map: Florida (source: worldatlas) |
Park Location: N 26° 23.578, W 81° 52.063, Temperature:
26 °C, Sunny and bright day.
Day 1: Lovers Key State Park
2nd March 2014
Park Location: N 26° 23.578, W 81° 52.063, Temperature: 26 °C, Sunny and bright day.
After lunch, we went to the Lovers Key State Park, a Florida state park and managed by Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP). The park has an area of 712 acres consisting various important islands such as barrier islands, Black Island, Long Key, Inner Key and Lovers Key. The park borders to Bonita beach and Bonita springs. Every year thousands of visitors come to the park in order to enjoy various activities such as wildlife viewing, swimming, canoeing and kayaking, fishing, hiking, picnicking, mangroves visiting and enjoying beautiful beaches. However, the islands, forming the park, underwent various anthropogenic influences before the state acquired them and declared as a park merging with the Carl E. Johnson Country Park in 1996. Islands were highly disturbed due to various developmental activities between 1960 and 1970. Among other impacts, an influential impact was observed in mangrove wetlands since they were disturbed due to dredging a canal system passing through Black Island.
The park is famous in Florida for its rich flora and fauna. Our aim of the park visit was also to explore the biodiversity. The park provides habitats to varieties of wildlifes including West Indian manatees (Trichechus manatus), marshrabbits (Sylvilagus palustris), bottlenosedolphins (Tursiops), and more than 40 bird species, including roseate spoonbills (Ajaja ajaja), osprey (Pandion haliaetus), Snowy Egret, bald eagles, and American Kestrel (Falco sparverius). Whereas, Black Island is famous for woodpeckers, hawks, owls and warblers.During a short visit, we were able to site many species of birds, mammals, reptiles, marine mollusks (Atlantic Horseshoe Crab ( Limulus polyphemus)) and butterflies along with the observation of floral diversity. Birds species sited include Osprey (Pandion haliaetus), Barn owl (Tyto alba), Red horned woodpecker, White Ibis (Eudocimus albus), Reddish Egret (Egretta rufescens), Brown Pelican (Pelecanus occidentalis), Pine Warbler (Dendroica pinus), Northern Mockingbird (Mimus polyglottos), Ruddy turnstone (Arenaria interpres), Eastern Screech Owl. Alligators, brown anole (Anolis sagrei), Green Anole (Anolis carolinensis) were also observed closely. Dominating tree species observed were Strangler fig (Ficus aurea) and Spanish cerrex and Red mangroves (Rhizophora mangle) and Black mangrove (Avicennia germinans). Moreover, we also got an opportunity to see squirrels, fire ants and Gopher tortoise.Observing Florida’s most famous state butterfly Zebra long wing (Heliconius charitonia) was really an amazing experience. The most exciting parts of the visit were to observe West Indian manatees (Trichechus), and a boardwalk through red mangroves (Rhizophora mangle) trail. In future, I will definitely prefer to visit this place again. Despite being entirely a strange place in a never visited country, I found the place quite familiar to me. I believe the feeling was due to the fact that most of the flora and fauna observed in the park were familiar to me.
After spending around three hours in the park, we headed towards a beach. As the field activity was finished for the day, remaining time for students was to relax. While all of my friends were swimming, I was busy in observing different types of shells and clicking pictures in the seashore. It was a fun! After spending couple of hours, we headed towards our living place, Vester Coastal marine station.
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