Nature is in a Holiday Mood!

I am writing this between Christmas and New Years so all is very much in a holiday mood. But of course here in SW FL our weather is definitely not in the traditional winter mode. Yet my one son in Salt Lake City Utah is able to enjoy an ice bath in a back yard creek! This Wim Hof technique is said to convey certain health benefits and is certainly a tribute to the abilities of the human body to withstand a severe temperature shock ( https://www.wimhofmethod.com/ice-bath-benefits ). My summer home in NC along the Haw River is not so cold as that but the winter view conveys a sense of suspended life just awaiting Spring. Compare a photo I took recently along the Blackburn Canal/Curry Creek East Preserve in Venice, FL; the plants are green and flowers are even blooming. The paw paws were in bloom- this plant is the larval food for the zebra swallowtail, none of which were in evidence. The gorgeous rose rush was a spectacular sight; it is one of a number of flowers that share a common pinkish/lavender flower color that attracts a wide variety of pollinators including bees. It is an aster with only ray flowers- no disc flowers in the center. The other flowers seen were mainly yellow. There was only one beautiful yellow Carolina jessamine, a few primrose willows (a non native but useful for attracting pollinators in polluted wetlands), and many star grass flowers, Hypoxis. There were however no pollinators in evidence perhaps since it was a cloudy day. .

In my yard monarchs have been active on sunny days and this individual is feeding on nectar of blooming seaside goldenrods. Cooler but sunny days also encourage activity of reptiles. Alligators in particular love to bask on sunny winter days. This box turtle and gopher tortoise were active in my yard, probably looking for food.

Flocks of white ibis periodically forage in my yard probing for small prey in the ground. Their success in modern times is likely tied to their ability to feed in human-disturbed habitats such as yards. In comparison the less common glossy ibis seems to stick more to traditional aquatic habitats.

One characteristic of aquatic and terrestrial birds is their participation in mixed species flock feeding groups, particularly in winter. A spectacular example of this was a group of white pelicans and great egrets feeding on fish in Lemon Bay across from my dock. Despite the wide differences in general feeding strategies and anatomy they may find greater success in feeding together when fish are concentrated.

The variation in feeding strategy may be considerable even within one species. For example this adult little blue heron is shown in a characteristic rigid stance with neck out-stretched. It can be recognized from a distance just by its profile. Yet the juveniles are not darkly colored but white- why would that be? The usual explanation is that body color determines feeding success under different conditions and thus the young and adults compete less with one another than if they were the same color. Of course there are dark and light color morphs even among adult reddish egrets and reef herons in the western Pacific. I might speculate that the white birds are more successful in catching small fish that have difficulty detecting predators overhead that are white.

One of the most bizarre creatures that one may encounter appeared recently on my bayside beach. A small piece of sea grape wood washed up and when split it revealed a number of shipworms or teredos which are rarely seen or recognized ( https://xray-mag.com/content/shipworm-scourge-wooden-wrecks-really-mussel ). These highly modified marine molluscs burrow through wood with sharp modified shell valves and destroy it, causing a huge amount of damage to unprotected wooden ships and piers. So this necessitates covering the wood with copper (in the old days) or infusing any wood used in sea water with toxins to prevent destruction of the structures. This has led to a considerable debate about how toxic these anti-fouling chemicals can or should be to balance protection of wood against wider environmental damage. So the shipworm is one animal that must have increased its populations enormously with the advent of human marine activities.

I had a wonderful holiday season enjoying nature in SW Florida and I hope each of you wherever you are did the same. There is no greater present that life has given us than the beauty and magnificence of the natural world.

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