Exploration Upriver

The 2015 Apalachicola field season has officially started. Migrants have been slow and steady on St. George Island the past three days with the weather being hot, humid, and stormy. We have successfully sampled from several of our target species, including Indigo Bunting, Northern Waterthrush, Red-eyed Vireo, and Gray Catbird.

The view of the bay from our field site at Unit 4 of ANERR on St. George Island. It has been a steamy few days to start the field season.

Our team took the afternoon yesterday to explore up the Apalachicola River and some of its tributaries for locations for possible future research. Megan Lamb of ANERR and the ECSC captained our adventure. Here are some photographs of our trip on the water:

A young American Alligator relaxes along one of the tributaries of the Apalachicola River.

We saw lots of waterbirds, including one Anhinga. The "snake bird" is known for floating low in the water so only its long neck is exposed above the surface.

We were enthralled to see this spectacular Pigmy Rattlesnake sunning on a sandy road near a remote boat landing.

The channels are lined with a variety of house boats.

Migrants abound! Solitary Sandpipers are in the midst of their trans-continental migration.

Pretty self-explanatory.

On the water.

An Eastern Pondhawk devours a moth.

A wetland specialist, the Least Skipper butterfly.

Dreams do come true on the river.

We were graced with the nearly constant presence of soaring Swallow-tailed Kites. We also enjoyed multiple sightings of Bald Eagles, Broad-winged and Red-shouldered Hawks, Osprey and a Mississippi Kite.