Interactive Habitats

The Florida Dry Prairie

February 23, 2010 By Drew Fulton Leave a Comment

Florida Grasshopper Sparrow (Ammodramus savannarum floridanus) - Three Lakes Wildlife Management Area, Florida

The Florida Dry Prairie is a rather nondescript habitat. It’s a big prairie of bluestem grasses and wiregrasses and palmettos. In fact, it’s not even really all that dry. At times it can be very wet, but its called a dry prairie simply because it is much drier than the wet prairies elsewhere in Florida. So what is special about these prairies? Well, they are home to sparrows, lots and lots of sparrows, but one of them is particularly unique.

Archbold: Prime Scrub Jay Habitat

February 22, 2010 By Drew Fulton 3 Comments

We know that the Lake Wales Ridge harbors some really unique life and habitats. We know that the local scrub is regulated by fire. But what exactly is the prime habitat for the Florida Scrub Jay? Let me just show you…

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Prime Scrub Habitat at Sunrise - Archbold Biological Station, Florida

As you can see here, Florida Scrub Jays like low scrub habitat with a mosaic of oaks and palmettos growing under five or six feet. As the head ornithologist at Archbold said, “If you can’t see the horizon you aren’t in good habitat.” Typically this short vegetation has patches of open white sand in spots where you will often find Scrub Jays foraging for fallen acorns and insects.

At first glance, wanting to live in a big wide open environment may not seem ideal. As a bird, you are easily exposed to predators from above. However, this is where Scrub Jays thrive, so let’s explore why.

Archbold: Scrub and Fire

February 21, 2010 By Drew Fulton Leave a Comment

As I continue to explore more and more habitats, I am continually amazed how many of them are dependent on fire for both formation and regulation. It is truly amazing the number and diversity of habitats that are classified as pyrogenic, meaning that they are entirely regulated by wildfire. The scrub of the Lake Wales Ridge is definitely one of those habitats and I’d like to use this series of panoramas to show you how.

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Intersection of Burns - Archbold Biological Station, Florida

This first panorama isn’t exactly the most exciting image as it is directly on top of a road, but I am including it because it is illustrative. At this intersection, you can clearly see three different sections of scrub at different stages of fire succession. Looking straight ahead when the image loads, you’ve got a recent fire, less than a year ago. If you pan to the right and cross the first road, you see a taller patch of scrub. This patch burned about 8 years ago. Continuing to the right, you will cross another road and see an even taller patch that hasn’t burned for at least 25 years. Let’s take a closer look at each of these forests…

Archbold: The Lake Wales Ridge

February 19, 2010 By Drew Fulton 1 Comment

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A Florida Scrub Jay perches in prime Dry Scrub habitat. Archbold Biological Station, Florida

I spent a couple days at the Archbold Biological Station earlier this month working on a project focusing on the Florida Scrub Jay and its habitats. As I have previously written, this is the location for Florida Scrub Jay research and a prime location for the beautiful scrub habitat that these birds call home.

Habitat Panoramas: Series Postponement

November 20, 2009 By Drew Fulton 1 Comment

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Mixed Hardwood Forest in early winter

After only a few weeks of this series, I have chosen to put things on hold for a bit. I made the decision based on a number of factors I’d like to take a few minutes to explore. First, I believe that this series will be extremely valuable and become a great resource, but at this point, I don’t feel like I am doing the various habitats justice. My original plan was to include photographs, text, and even audio to help better describe the habitat. As I am new to this region, and new to many of these habitats, I don’t have the photographic library or even the natural history knowledge I would like to be able to really describe these habitats. By postponing this series for a few months, I will be able to complete a lot of research as well as further expand my photograph library to be able to better accommodate this series.

Interactive Habitat: Winter Spruce Forest

November 13, 2009 By Drew Fulton 1 Comment

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Summer Hill Spruce Forest #1

Spruce trees are found in the northern latitudes around the world. My experience is that these forests are dark and dense with very little understory. A few ferns and other ground cover can be found scattered across the ground around the massive trunks, but the dense crowns of these large spruce trees block out the sun, preventing saplings and other trees from growing.

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Filed Under: Interactive Habitats Tagged With: finches, interactive panorama, panorama, plantation, spherical panorama, spruce

Interactive Habitat: Winter Spruce Bog

November 6, 2009 By Drew Fulton 1 Comment

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Summer Hill Spruce Bog #1

A spruce bog is a habitat that I am totally unfamiliar with so as of now, I don’t have a whole lot of information. It is a really amazing habitat and hosts a huge diversity of wildlife as they typically are somewhat small and create a lot of edge effect, where two habitats come together. In late fall and winter, bird life is relatively quiet. However, just this morning I saw Ruffed Grouse, American Crow, Blue Jays, Black-capped Chickadees, and more. Early in the year I had huge flocks of Song and Swamp Sparrows and other fall migrants including several Ash-throated Flycatchers. Mallards and Wood Ducks as well as Canada Geese call this marsh home as well. Spring and summer host numerous breeding warblers and other songbirds and I will bring you more on that in the spring.