Wintertime means snowbirds out on Lake Okeechobee - and by snowbirds we don’t mean tourists from up north. Last week Audubon Florida’s Paul Gray, Jane Graham, and Audubon Florida Board member Jud Laird went on a Lake Okeechobee airboat adventure with SFWMD Governing Board member Kevin Powers and Nicole Mader, a dolphin researcher from Florida Atlantic University's Harbor Branch. Here’s an account of what they saw:
It was perfect weather to enjoy the abundant wildlife on Lake Okeechobee. Areas of the marsh that were bone dry in 2011 and dry for most of 2012 have refilled with water. With Lake Okeechobee’s water levels just below 15 feet, the lake marsh is entirely flooded and is a little too deep for most wading birds. We are looking forward to water levels drawing down this spring, which will open plentiful habitat for wading birds.
On our voyage, Paul drove us into a thick patch of cattails. Lake Okeechobee is historically a nutrient poor system, with some cattail vegetation. However, the influx of phosphorus from fertilizer and animal feed from the Northern Everglades watershed is linked with an overgrowth of cattails, which hampers navigation and degrades habitat. Audubon is advocating for measures to reduce the amount of phosphorus from human induced sources entering the Lake.
We saw several species of ducks, coots, gallinules (including the nuisance Purple Swamp Hens), and a few Great Blue Herons, Everglade Snail Kites, Kingfishers, and White and Glossy Ibises. It was a little surprising that we did not see any alligators, but a green anole, which is a native lizard, crawled aboard the boat and took a liking to Kevin Powers’ leg!
While we saw a plethora of birds on the Lake, the stars of the day were the migratory Sandhill Cranes. There were flocks of hundreds of Cranes flying across the Indian Prairie marshes in elaborate patterns. Dr. Gray explained that these Sandhill Cranes were probably from up north, most likely the Great Lakes region and/or Canada, because these cranes have less iron stain and Florida Sandhill Cranes typically are not in such large flocks.
It was a gorgeous day out on Lake Okeechobee! Never a dull moment in the Everglades' liquid heart.
