12/28/06 (Thursday): Our great adventure (Part II) has really begun to take on momentum. This past week has been fantastic.

Last Thursday, I went out with the biologist and an intern to learn how to monitor scrub jays.

We went to a piece of property nearby that's owned by The Nature Conservancy, Saddleblanket Preserve. It's not open to the public yet because it's still in the process of being restored. Tiger Creek Preserve (where we're staying) is mostly a Sand Hill ecosystem, whereas Saddleblanket is a Scrub ecosystem. Scrub is Florida's version of a desert. Everyone thinks of Florida as being almost subtropical--green and moist with lots of vegetation. Scrub is dry with large patches of bare, white sand and scanty vegetation. In its own way, it's quite beautiful. And in my opinion, the scrub jays are the jewels of the scrub!

Scrub-Jays live only in Florida and only in the dry oak scrub. Oak scrub historically was maintained by lightning-caused fires that occurred about every ten to twenty years. Development, beginning in the 1950s, caused this ecosystem to be separated into islands of habitate surrounded by homes and orange groves, which prevented most scrub patches from burning regularly. As a result, most scrub in Florida is overgrown, and many scrubs have succeeded to oak hammocks or sand pine forests which are completely unsuitable for Scrub-Jays.

The Florida Scrub-Jay was classified in the early 1970's as a threatened species, but it's decline continued. By 1993, Florida Scrub-Jay populations had declined an estimated 90%, to about 10,000 individuals. Since then, further, severe declines have been documented in some Scrub-Jay populations in Brevard County and elsewhere. I feel very privileged to have seen as many as I saw this past week.

I'll be helping to study two families of jays. As recently as 1996, there were only 3 jays in this preserve, and they were not producing families. Then, a female jay who had been banded in another, nearby, preserve joined the 3 jays, and now they've separated into two families, both of which have produced young this year for the first time. The biologist has encouraged the birds to become accustomed to her to facilitate studying them. Although this is discouraged in general, it's necessary to study such an endangered creature. It was such a thrill to have them fly right up to us!

We went to Wiley's family on Friday to stay through Christmas. I met my friends Lucie and Elaine for lunch and had a good time catching up.

Then on Saturday, we met Troy for breakfast and then decided to go to Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge. They have a wonderful drive through an area that was diked for mosquito control purposes. Now it attracts hundreds of birds. These coots were part of a huge raft of birds that seemed to be swimming shoulder-to-shoulder.

This kildeer was right beside the road. They've been known to pretend to be injured to draw predators away from their nest, but this one seemed perfectly calm and unconcerned with us and our truck!

These pretty creatures are hooded mergansers. My camera doesn't have much of a zoom lens, so you can see that we were quite close to these birds!Roseate spoonbills were formerly my favorite bird (now my favorite is the scrub jay). These pink beauties aren't close enough to show their oddly flattened bills.

Moor hens are another favorite bird of mine--their beaks look like they're made of red patent leather, and they swim with absurd feet that look like a chicken's!

Okay--no more bird pictures, I promise. But we also saw several alligators. This was a very large chap with an unusually long tail.

We drove home via a different route because we wanted to check out Haulover Canal. Wiley and his Dad have come here for years to fish, but we were surprised to see some changes they've made. There was a nice deck area where we saw some manatees. (You'll have to click on this picture and enlarge it to see this fellow--he's under the water and there's a little glare.)

There was also a scrub area that had a kiosk with a sign describing what scrub is, why it's endangered and how it's being managed with controlled burns. I think Troy thought I'd lost my mind when I walked to the edge of the parking lot and began calling scrub jays. And I think I was as surprised as he was when a couple of them actually appeared! I didn't have anything to reward them with, so they soon flew back into the bushes. It's quite magical! This beauty was a female. I know that because she put her head back and made a sound that only the females make--it sounds sort of like the clicking that the old tin frog toys made.

When we finally got home and told the tale of our adventures, the whole family decided we'd have to make a repeat trip so they can enjoy the adventure, too. On Christmas Eve, Wiley's father, niece and nephew and I decided we couldn't wait. I'd read about Lyonia Preserve near DeLand, and we decided to go see if we could whistle up some scrub jays there. I guess I shouldn't have been surprised, but I was, when the jays cooperated beautifully! More magic!!

Okay--so I lied about no more bird pictures. But you have to admit these are some pretty wild pictures, and the family is quite photogenic. It's hard to believe how curious these birds are. Anyone would think we were feeding them peanuts (their favorite food)! Of course, that's not allowed (for very good reason) except for trained researchers. Katelyn doesn't look like she's sure whether she wants to befriend this fellow!

We had a really nice time with family over Christmas. Santa was good to us and visiting with family was great. We hope all of you had a wonderful Christmas and that you'll continue on our great adventure with us in the new year. Peace!