Three weeks into our new campaign to protect Florida's Special Places and we have had dozens of incredible submissions. This week's featured nominee was written by Julie Wraithmell, Audubon of Florida's Director of Wildlife Conservation. Her selection is located on the coast of the Big Bend area of the Florida Panhandle - St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge.
Julie submitted her narrative on the Florida's Special Places Facebook Page. Please take a moment to check it out and post your stories and photos that showcase your favorite Florida spots. Julie's nomination:
Some of my favorite memories of the Lighthouse Unit:
- Rose-breasted Grosbeaks feeding in the roadside blackberries, having just returned from their long overwater spring migration, with messy smears of blackberry all over their faces that make you wonder if the wine stain on their breasts is really adaptive camouflage for their tendency toward messy eating;
- Molten yellow Prothonotary Warblers, the color of sunshine, with eyes as dark as coal singing their hearts out from the cool summer shade of the Twin Bridges floodplain forest;
- Lying on my back on the spillway dike of Tower Pond on a rising tide, with Dunlin, Willets, Yellowlegs and more flying into the pond skimming so low over me I could feel the pressure from their wingbeats on my face;
- The formidable carnage of migrating large green darner dragonflies tearing migrating monarch butterflies to pieces before my eyes, and then migrating Merlins hawking the dragonflies and eating them on the wing;
- The Lighthouse marshes' sunset summer cacophony of raucous Clapper Rails and the metallic precision of Marsh Wrens;
- Migrant Orchard Orioles moving like a wave through the shoulder-high gallberry, feeding urgently and oblivious to their spectators.
Thanks Julie for your wonderful memories from St. Marks. Everyone is encouraged to take a moment to upload your favorite Florida's Special Places stories at our Facebook Page and then check back often to see if your nominee has been selected to be featured!
