out of the ordinary river

 A few hours of paddling on the Rainbow Springs River in the Florida October sun yields tons of Natures treasures.

Take a look at some of the wonders I witnessed  today.

It is Autumn now on the Raiinbow River. Just down stream from the head spring a Maple tree is true to fall form.

This little fellow let me get up close and personal before he made a huge scene by thrashing his tail and splashing violently as though he were a ten footer.

Don't forget the rule as I did. Nothing disposable can be brought onto the Rainbow River.

The Tuna package was carefully stored away and disposed of properly.

I shared my lunch with some of the locals who were hanging around in the lagoon.

A "vent", one of many in the bottom of the river, where clear 72° water escapes the aquifer and bubbles up the sand.

Apple Snails deposit clutches of eggs on the vegetation that grows along the shore. Apple snails provide food for fish, birds, otters and more.

Damsel fly. The river is host to myriad of Damsel Fly larva who make their temporary underwater home on the leaves of the Eel Grass.

Just beneath the surface is another world waiting to be discovered. A world inhabited with wondrous aquatic animal and plant life.

Plan a visit to this amazing biozone soon and see it for yourself. A great place to start is:

www.Getupandgokayaking.com

Rainbow Springs Florida.

They offer guided excursions in clear kayaks.

It's All the Very Best Stuff

Along the eastern banks of the river the land reluctantly surrenders itself to the water. Often it slowly and gradually blends into an indistinct boundary. River and land both share the earth here. Mosses and ferns and fungus live happily on every mound of soil that sits barely inches above the waterline.

Ever so slowly the river gives way to rich black soil, damp and fragrant with the odor of life.

Here, along this tangled web of life with it wild grape vines and river magnolias, bald cypress, maple and sweet gum trees the deer, camouflaged by nature, come to be refreshed by the cool, clear water.

On the open water the eagle, spotting his prey, swoops down snatching with his claws the unsuspecting fish and then flies to the treetops for dinner but here in the dark forest edge, protected from view by the dense vegetation the racoon, the opossum and deer find retreat and life.

Here, protected from view the River Otters live; the roots of the large sweet gums and maples growing in and out of the waters edge providing them dens for raising their young. And here along the shoreline of this living spring fed river they train the little otter off spring to dive and fish and retrieve muscles and crayfish and turtles from the shallow waters 

The colors of Autumn here on the rivers edge are somewhat subdued at this humid sub tropical latitude. However the maples and sweetgums do their part as the shorter days tells them of change and and a soon coming time of rest.

The eastern shore line of the river with its fallen tree trunks partially submerged provides the perfect sun decks for the Florida Red belly Cooter Turtles. After spending the morning dining on aquatic plants they sun themselves in the warmth of the afternoon. Sometimes a dozen or more of these river dwellers line up on a single log.

Autumn brings with it mass bouquets of blooming Cardinal plants. Their brilliant red flowers line the shores welcoming butterflies and honey bees.

The Sweetbay Magnolia makes its home here. Spreading out from the shore it arches gracefully over the waters edge. Helping to make this place where the water meets the land even more alluring and magical.

Truly a place of wealth and beauty is this living shoreline of the Rainbow River. 

Walking Slowly along Lifes Trail

At the very top of the game of camouflage is the Curve Toothed Geometer Catterpillar. Here he is pretending to be a branch of our Sunshine Ligustrum plant.

I'm using him/her as an object lesson, an example,with which to make a point.

My blog point is this. You'll never get to see an amazing creature like the Curve Toothed Geometer Catterpillar without first slowing down then stopping and looking closely at the hidden world right there at your feet.

I'm big into nature. Always have been since, as a small boy, my daddy hiked me through the woods of Southern West Virginia and taught me how to identify the trees. And since both mother and daddy showed me how to identify every edible wild plant the early spring seasons had to offer. I still remember most of what they taught me and still retain the love of nature they instilled in me.

I know that one of the reasons I learned so much about the Appalachian hills is that the pace of that class room was very slow and gentle. We walked slowly through the woods. "Now look closely at the bark of this red oak" he would say to me, "this is how you can tell it from a black oak...even in winter when there is no leaves". 

And learning the plants during "green pickin" time in the spring was done slowly and methodically as well. "Now this here is Lambs Quarter ya pinch off the new growth only" mother would say as we went slowly along dropping the plants into a brown paper bag.

I reckon my upbringing is the reason why, to this day, I can often be found kneeling on the ground with my face near a plant or a bush or a rock examining and photographing some small creature or some minute plant. I move through my life and my days slowly. Wherever I find myself in, any given day, I'm usually going slowly enough so as not to miss the obscure, the miniature, the often unseen world of nature.

Don't get the wrong idea I'm no sloth. I'm constantly on the go. If we are not on a trip then we are planning one! We travel from coast to coast. We visit tropical rain forests in South America and the Artic tundra in the Northern Hemisphere. But as soon as we stop I slow down, open my eyes and look around me. I get up close and personal with my world. I would much rather find, living on a rock, an insect or a lichen that I've never seen before, and take a photo of it, than I would to see the Eiffel tower. And if I were to get the chance to see the Eiffel tower I'd marvel at its size and engineering and beauty for a while and then I'd be found inspecting the plants and insects that live in the soil at its mighty base.

Pam and I were in Alaska recently. We walked trails in the world's largest temperate rain forest. And what did we do mostly? We photographed dozens of mushrooms that wed never seen before. 

At low tide at the Alaska town of Hoonah, population 700, we explored the rocky shoreline exposed by the out going tide. I mean no lover of nature would ever pass up a chance like this. First of all I know that this particular opportunity may never present itself again. Hoonah Alaska, thousands of miles from our home base. I may never pass this way again. So what do we do? We do it!

And we found literally hundreds of marine creatures patiently awaiting the returning tide. Crabs, sea worms, crustaceans, bi-valves and star fish. And we photographed them all.

We flew to and landed on the Jeneau Ice field three thousand vast square mile of Icy whiteness! We walked upon a mighty glacier; one of the over 100,000 glaciers in that amazing land. From it we drank the cold water coming directly from the glacial ice.

  A millions year old 2-3 pound stone that had been carried down by the mighty glacier is now my favorite Alaska souvenier. You can't fly over a glacier and experience it too. You must land, stop, look, touch and become one with such magnificence.

      A high mountain lake in Alaska

That's true of our lives here on earth in general. You can't just fly over top of this amazing planet; you've got to stop and get up close to experience it. You must do one or the other. I recommend the latter.

Doing what Catterpillars do best.

The Geometer is aprox 4" long.

Curve Toothed Geometer Catterpillar 

I reckon he's called a geometer because he measures his length everywhere he goes.

Life on the Withlacoochie

Rivers have always intrigued me. I admire rivers. Rivers are dependable, permanent  and beautiful. And rivers, like time, cannot be stopped. The Withlacoochie for example is a picturesque southern river in north central Florida. It's waters are dark brown and sometimes almost black. The banks of the river are lined with Sweet Gum and Bald cypress, Sable Palm and magnolia. It flows for nearly a hundred fifty miles before entering the Gulf of Mexico.

I love this river. I love its calm dark water. I love its southern charm, it's gentle pace and mostly I love that it provides a place for myriad of life along it's shore line.

Because the Withlacoochie meanders to its destination, rather that rushes, it becomes home to many aquatic plants such as water lettuce and lotus lilies along it's shores. Also here are growing cat tales, rushes and grasses. 

Since the river has no banks, at least few high banks, it tends to wander off into the cypress groves that inhabit its shores.

Here you'll find, if you're willing to get down close to the nature of it all, a world of life in every square inch of the river Withlacoochie.

Take a look a some examples of the life I captured In photographs on just a square yard of the Withlacoochie River shoreline.

       New growth tip of Cypress Knee

           Moss in spore cycle 

   Duck Weed ~ floating aquatic plant

     Crablike Spiny Orbweaver spider

       Three inch tall Bald Cypress tree

             Floating Water lettuce

   Apple Snail Eggs laid on a plant stalk

An expanded area of shoreline, when searched and explored, turns up hundreds of species of plant and animals including Aligators, Snakes, several species of Turtles, many varieties of fish and River Otters as well plus a treasure of aquatic plants.

Today's indepth look was contained to a very small section of shoreline.

A slow moving river like this one is home to phytoplankton & zooplankton as well.

The Withlacoochie is a living river that would take a lifetime to explore. That would be a life well spent.

Talking about Lichen

Old Man's Beard is a species of Lichen. Today I photographed some I found on the trail. It was living happily alongside an air plant. They were actually sharing the same substrate. 

I have observed the Lichen called Old Man's Beard growing contentedly from the cold  heights of the Central Alaska mountains to the Tropics of South America, from sunny humid Florida to the high Andes mountains of Ecuador. 

This lichen can be found growing literally all over the world. 

    Old Man's Beard and Spanish moss

Several southern US states including Florida have an ephiphyte called Tillandsia or Spanish Moss. It is a true plant in the bromiliad family. This Air Plant attaches itself to tree branches and even the occasional power line. While it slightly resembles the old mans beard lichen the two are not related. Tillandsia is a plant. Old Man's Beard is not a plant. Instead it is a Lichen; a combined organism that arrises from algae bacteria and fungus.

Today on the trail these two completely diverse organisms posed together for their photo. In nature the Old Mans Beard Lichen thrives nearly everywhere around the world in some of the harshest and coldest climates on the planet. The Tillandsia is found only in the sub tropics and tropical regions of the world.

       Old Man's Beard Lichen in Alaska

Pam & I photographed this Old Man's Beard lichen recently near the small Alaska town of Hoonah. It's resemblance to Spanish Moss was undeniable. However the nearest Tillandsia was literally thousands of miles away in the deep south of the lower 48.

An upclose look would reveal the differences but the untrained & uneducated observer would conclude that global warming was causing tropical Spanish Moss to thrive is Alaska!! As is so often true that would be an incorrect and unscientific conclusion.

A lichen is a composite organism that arise from algae or cyanobacteria living among filaments of multiple fungi in a symbiotic relationship. The combined lichen has properties different from those of its component organisms. Lichen is found in many forms, colors and shapes. Below are a few examples Pam & I photographed recently in Alaska.

Lichens are the very first organisms to colonize the granite rock walls as a glacier recedes. Beginning the long process of breaking down the substrate and paving the way for grasses and eventually shrubs and perhaps even trees.

Alligator Snapping Turtle

This specimen was about the size of a Prius! Well maybe not that large but big nonetheless.  

His head is large and covered somewhat with algae. The tail is long and looks remarkably similiar to the tail of an aligator. The heavy and thick carapace is marked by three rows of spikes. These dinosaur looking protrusions begin to lesson with age. This turtles carapace was somewhat smoother showing only remnents of the spiked armour he once displayed. For this reason plus his enormous size I reckon that this specimen was very old. I'm going to venture a guess of 30 years.

Alligator Snapping Turtles are, of course, egg layers. Once my friend and I were exploring along the banks of the Suwannee when we came across a clutch of eggs that i believed to be snake eggs. With my knife I pealed back a section ot the leathery egg. No snake. Instead a tiny, perfectly formed, very much alive Alligator snapping turtle. As I held his tiny body in my hand he turned his head from side to side snapping his beak. I apologized to the heavens for my careless aborting of this tiny life; for he had not reached an age at which he could live outside the shell.

When snorkleing with a giant bad boy like this; one does not generally venture to pull out a tape measure so I'm guesstimating here that this turtle was more than 36 inches from nose to tail. And likewise the guessed weight would be around 75-80 pounds. 

He simply "walked" through the meadow of aquatic plants munching his way along. In the several minutes that I spent observing him he never once surfaced for air from the 12 or so foot depth of his beautiful home in the Rainbow River.