Saturday May 21st I went to the Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary and enjoyed a hike through trails that made me feel like I traveled back in time. The four separate habitats of the nature preserve consist of the wet prairie, cypress forest, central marsh, and the pine flatwoods. Each habitat has a different variation of plants. In the wet prairie you can identify sand cordgrass, water dropwort, St. Johns-wort, buttonbush and blue flag iris. The cypress forest has the pond cypress, alligator flag, swamp lily, strangler fig, pond apples, bald cypress, red maple to name a few. The marsh has pickerelweed, coastal plain willows, sawgrass, swamp hibiscus, and the broad-leaved arrowhead. The pine flatwoods habitat has sabal and slash pine trees, saw palmetto, yellow-eyed grass, and star-topped sedge. In each habitat the vegetation had to adapt to the dramatic changes in rain throughout the year. The swamp goes through months of a dry spell where there is barely any water on the ground even in the areas of the lakes. Then rainy season comes and the majority of the land is covered. For example the resurrection fern looks dried, curled up and dead during the dry season, but within thirty minutes of rainfall it unfurls and turns green again.
I did not run across many animals, but the few that I saw were amazing. I witnessed a grey squirrel doing acrobatics between two trees in the pond cypress area of the reserve. During my walk through the cypress forest I had the great opportunity of viewing a red-shouldered hawk’s nest courtesy of a telescope that was set up on the trail. And farther down the trail I got to witness the red-shouldered hawk scoop up what I believed to be a decent sized lizard, perch on a tree and have its dinner. Throughout the whole trail trek there were numerous bird calls, but I only saw a few up close. Two were red cardinals chasing each other through the trees and then several Carolina Wrens darting between branches. One very recognizable bird sound was the pounding of the woodpecker which was audible throughout the whole trail. Lizards such as the brown and green anole were a long the whole trail, plus one southeastern five-lined skink. On the trail to the central marsh the grunting of the pig frog was the dominant noise. I peered everywhere over the trail ledge, but could not spot one. The bugs that I ran into were the eastern pondhawk dragonfly, a black and yellow argiope spider, a ruddy dagger wing butterfly, a zebra longwing butterfly, but the most noticeable was definitely the deer flies that would attack and bite any uncovered flesh if I stood still for more than ten seconds. A great egret and what I believe was an anhinga bird wading through the Lettuce Lakes in the bald cypress area. In the same area of these birds were two alligators. One of which, was very interested in the anhinga, and was slowly creeping closer to the bird, which I can only imagine the finale because I did not get to stay and watch due to being attacked by dozens of deer flies in this area. Also in the Lettuce Lakes was a mother alligator with at least a dozen baby alligators splashing through the shallow water.
I think the areas of the swamp have heavy soil that retains water for a lengthier amount of time. Even though water is not visible above the surface the look of much of the soil seemed did not appear totally dry throughout, but more of a very dark mud consistency.
I believe people that visit the Corkscrew Swamp have a great reverence for the nature. A respectful volume of noise was administered throughout the trail with regards to the animals that inhabit the area. Even some trees throughout the trail were saved by constructing holes around the trees. I do not believe people have adversely affected the area, if anything it has created a better understanding and respect of the vegetation, trees and animals. Also awareness is formed of the possible demise and extinction of some of the species of trees. I would not change one thing of my experience at Corkscrew and I hope that it is there for generations to come so more people can go and enjoy true nature.
