Palatka Ravine Gardens azaelas

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Hawthorne

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.

pileated woodpeckers in silver springs

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white handed gibbons vocalizing