Looking out on the Star Lake morning sunrise
As the mist on the calm surface of the water rises up
We drink our coffee and make plans to explore
Hawthorne and Gainesville and vicinity.
Walking around the Kanapaha Garden in February
Spring blooms come early for us to admire
Camellias and azaleas and magnolias all flowered
And ancient cycads surviving from the Permian era.
Returning late afternoon in the warmth of the day
Preparing a delicious meal to eat beside the dock
We are tired and ready to sit quietly watching
The pink sunset glow settle onto the lake.
There’s a boat we can take out to putter around
Such a lovely way to watch the sunset unfold.
Sitting out on the water we hear the barred owls
Asking their question, “Who cooks for you all?”
Here and there a fish breaks the surface
Making a scoop sound feeding on insects
Leaving a circular ripple spreading out.
From across the lake voices float over to us listeners.
***
In the 1800’s there were steamboats on a lake near here
Left high and dry when a sinkhole opened almost overnight.
Now the water flows north underground to Alachua
And High Springs and the Santa Fe River which also
disappears
Sinking through the limestone in a slow gyre
Then surfacing again a few miles away in a place called River
Rise.
The former lake is called Paynes Praire where we go now
An enormous expanse of wetlands that is good bird habitat.
Hiding in the marsh grass by the La Chua trail
We saw a purple gallinule for the first time ever.
Blue winged teals let us watch in close proximity
As if they know this place is a sanctuary from hunters.
On the Cones Dike trail we saw an unknown bird
Fly up and away wings curved like a crescent
Saw others fly up until finally we spotted one in the marsh
And managed to get a photograph of a Wilsons Snipe.
On the Bolen Bluff trail we heard a barred owl
And located it sitting high up in the live oak
Turning its head around in almost a complete circle
Watching all around, watching us watching it.
Then we saw three or four pileated woodpeckers
Chasing each other around so close to us
Giving us a good look at these reclusive birds
Such a special moment perhaps once in a lifetime.
***
Extinction is the main display at the university natural
history museum.
So many creatures discovered in the fossil record don’t
exist today.
It shows a natural history of periodic mass extinctions
Proposing that today we are at the onset of another.
Later we look up hearing the sandhill cranes honking as they
fly
Swooping around and over us as we walk in the nature
preserve.
On the UF beef farm a solitary whooping crane stands mixed in
among a sandhill flock
Banded with telemetry standing on the cusp of extinction.
We have seen the white handed gibbons at the teaching zoo
Apes who vocalize as if talking, so closely related to us in
that way
Each one with its own distinct expressions if you study
them.
Now zoos have become places for endangered species.
Here where we are staying a turtle comes out of the lake
Late afternoon after a cold rain all day in February
Crawls into the yard behind the house and digs
Scooping into the sandy soil to deposit her eggs.
The next day the cars are driving over the spot
Tamping the soil so tightly the eggs might be entombed
And a man is planning to raid the eggs to send them off
To someone he knows who has an incubator.
And so from the point of view of the turtle
Humans are predators and invaders who destroy their habitat
Though to be precise that would be the Europeans
Who killed off and displaced the Native Americans here.
***
There are birds that some people want to exterminate.
Cormorants, crows, blackbirds, cowbirds, Canada geese
Looked upon as a nuisance taking farmed food
Fair game no license required no limit on the number killed.
These birds have learned to be wary of humans
Though the crows can tell friend from foe among us.
We watch them gather in the evening in the tall pine tree
We see out the window from our dinner table.
The birds have remarkable intelligence as you have pointed
out
Seeing the red wing blackbirds perched on reeds
Carefully turning over lily pads to find insects underneath.
It’s a wonder how they learned to forage this way.
Walking in Loblolly Park in Gainesville
Again we see a barred owl, this time closer even
As if it is commonplace to see such things
That we had never seen before coming here.
Walking the swamp trail in Silver Springs Park
We see a pileated woodpecker pair this time up so close
We can see their tongues flick out to catch insects
As their beaks like hatchets split off the bark.
Such unexpected encounters make our days
A delight of discoveries of natural beauty
Apart from the comings and goings of people
Finding creatures making a life around human activity.
