Obsessed with a habitat which I knew about but until recently didn't realize how little I know about it. Its the Florida Scrub!
I suppose it all started when I started researching where in Broward County I wanted to buy a house, and I started to look at elevation maps, because I don't want to live in an area that will flood or historically was a swampland, and I found that mostly just eastern Broward was not part of the Everglades. For example, areas like Weston, and parts of Davie, were wetlands, wet grasslands, and cypress swamps. Eastern Broward County, closer to the ocean, is actually higher in elevation, and historically consisted mainly of pine flatwoods and a few areas of scrub habitat.
Florida scrub habitat is mostly areas that are higher in elevation and consist of mostly well draining sand. They may have been created when sea levels were higher and they may have been a sand dune or island. They support a very unique variety of animals and especially plants, which evolved during these times of higher sea level, when they were cut off from the mainland. So this got me interested in finding a house that may have been in one of these areas, for the practicality of flood avoidance, and also the challenge of gardening with natives here, where many plants are rare or extirpated from Broward already.
One of the birds that are included in this category is the endemic Florida Scrub-Jay. It used to be found in this county, as well as Miami-Dade, but now they cannot be found in either. They are extirpated, which means locally extinct, and have been since the 1980's (60's for Miami-Dade).
So as you may have guessed this is what the next collection will be on. The scrub habitat and the only bird that can be found exclusively in this habitat, the Florida Scrub-Jay. Im off to look for the jays and to get inspiration at a scrub stronghold, the Archbold Biological Station in Highlands County.
I hope when I do find my house I can restore the yard to what a Broward County native scrub would look like. And can you imagine what would happen if all my neighbors did too? Maybe the Florida Scrub-Jays could come back to Broward County, and people and jays could live harmoniously...
Anyway, Im off to the Lake Wales Ridge and Archbold Station!
Here is one of the main buildings in front of the visitor center. It's full of native scrub grasses and wildflowers. It is the end of the dry season, but it would be interesting to see when the native wildflower are in bloom.
One of the many informative signs around Archbold. They do a good job of labeling plants and also having signs explaining a lot of information on the trails.
A Sand Pine - Pinus clausa and Scrub Hickory - Carya floridana,
two of the taller trees of the scrub habitat, the hickory is still dormant.
More view of the habitat, with Scrub Oaks - Quercus sp., Palmettos,
and Slash Pine - Pinus elliottii in the far back.
I didn't see any Scrub Jays on my hike at Archbold, but on my way there I did see one sitting on a power line along the highway, so I decided to go back to that area and see if I could get a closer look.
There ended up being a family group of about 15-20 birds.
Heres a group of 3 Florida Scrub-Jays, Aphelocoma coerulescens. This group was not as tame as a group I've encountered before in Sarasota County, FL. I didn't notice any were banded. But it's good that they are not exposed to too many people and can live in a more natural state.
This particular bird was the most visible the whole time. I think it was keeping watch while the other birds were in the scrub below. This area seemed to be a little over grown, maybe it will need a burn sometime soon.
A watercolor sketch I made of the Florida Scrub-Jay - Aphelocoma coerulescens, at Archbold Biological Station. In my painting, I have a variety of scrub plants from this habitat including:
-Scrub hickory, Carya floridana, in the back left
-Sand Pine, Pinus clausa in the back right
-Scrub oaks, Quercus geminata and Q. myrtilifolia
-Rusty Fetterbush, Lyonia ferruginea
-Silver Saw Palmetto, Serenoa repens
-Eastern Pricklypear cactus, Opuntia humifusa
-Florida Rosemary, Ceratiola ericoides
-Skyblue Lupine, Lupinus diffusus
The blank area is the bright white sand.
I hope you enjoyed this post, I'll be working on this bird this month, and hopefully on a new garden. This year has been very hectic for sure, and I hope things will calm down. I think being in nature would help a lot for everyone.
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