"Around six people met at Powers
Park to embark on one of the coldest
field trips this season. The brave
warriors decided they would indeed
continue the field trip out on to La
Chua Trail. We encountered
alligators, red-banded water snake,
white-tailed deer, as well looks at
some of the best birds of the
season.
Rex Rowan was able to find two
whooping cranes in the hundreds of
sandhill cranes we saw. The
population according to the
Gainesville Christmas count is
approximately 5,000 sandhill cranes,
and we were treated to great view of
them in flight and feeding in the
prairies of the La Chua Trail. We
also witnessed a flight of a few
hundred American white pelicans
overhead. We had great looks at 3-4
limpkins foraging together with an
American bittern close by.
A group of students were studying
snakes and we were able to see up
close and personally two red-banded
water snakes. The alligator
population is amazing out there and
we were virtually surrounded by
alligators measuring five feet and
longer. It was a little on the
hair-raising side.
A quick stop at Palm Point on the
way home ended the day for us with a
trip list of species below." -
Diane Reed, 2/5/2007
|
|
Leader:
Rex Rowan
Date:
Sunday, February 4, 2007
Time:
7:30AM (trip ends around 1pm)
Meeting Place:
Powers Park - Gainesville (1½
hour drive from St. Augustine ~ 72
miles)
What to Bring:
Drinks, lunch, snacks, insect
spray, binoculars, a scope if you
have one and lots of energy
Trip
Difficulty Level: This trip
consists of walking possibly over 2
miles
Directions:
Directions: SR 207 to Palatka
, US 19 to SR 20 towards Gainesville
. Just before you arrive in
Gainesville , after passing CR 234
and CR 2082, turn RIGHT into Earl P.
Powers Park to meet our group.
The La Chua
Trail, part of the 21,000-acre
Paynes Prairie State Preserve, is at
the southeast edge of Gainesville .
On weekends, when the District HQ is
closed, access is via Boulware
Springs, on SE 15th Street; this
will require you to walk from the
parking lot to the
Gainesville-Hawthorne Trail (on the
back side of the park) and then down
the trail to the La Chua connector,
a distance of not quite a mile.
After
descending a wooded slope behind
Little Alachua Sink, the trail
traverses an immense patchwork of
fields and marshes. The grass and
brush along the first stretch can be
very good for sparrows in winter. A
short side trail here leads to a
pond, Alachua Sink, where you can
see waders and, during periods of
low water, shorebirds. The trail
proceeds into wetter habitats, with
a drainage canal on one side and
marshes on the other, until it
reaches the shallow weedy open water
of Alachua Lake , the center of the
Paynes Prairie basin.
More than 270
species of birds have been found at
Paynes Prairie at one time or
another, 85 of which nest in the
preserve.
Location of the La Chua Trail is
described here:
http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/aud/best.htm
Questions?
Contact Diane Reed @ 904-829-9854. |
Pied-billed grebe
American white pelican
Double-crested cormorant
Anhinga
American bittern
Great blue heron
Great egret
Snowy egret
Little blue heron
Tricolored heron
Cattle egret
White ibis
Glossy ibis
Wood stork
Mottled duck
Blue-winged teal
Ring-necked duck
Black vulture
Turkey vulture
Osprey
Bald eagle
Northern harrier
Cooper’s hawk
Red-shouldered hawk
Red-tailed hawk
|
American kestrel
Common moorhen
American coot
Limpkin
Sandhill crane
Whooping crane (2)
Killdeer
Wilson’s snipe
Ring-billed gull
Forster’s tern
Northern flicker
Red-bellied woodpecker
Yellow-bellied sapsucker
Downy woodpecker
Pileated woodpecker
Mourning dove
Belted kingfisher
Eastern phoebe
Tree swallow
Blue jay
American crow
Carolina chickadee
Tufted titmouse
Carolina wren
House wren
|
Ruby-crowned kinglet
Blue-gray gnatcatcher
Eastern bluebird
Hermit thrush
American robin
Gray catbird
Northern mockingbird
White-eyed vireo
Blue-headed vireo
Orange-crowned warbler
Yellow-rumped warbler
Yellow-throated warbler
Pine warbler
Black and white warbler
Common yellowthroat
Northern cardinal
Eastern towhee
Field sparrow
Vesper sparrow
Savannah sparrow
Song sparrow
Swamp sparrow
White-throated sparrow
Red-winged blackbird
Boat-tailed grackle
American goldfinch |
