Remember Pogo and Albert? Day 2

Chesser Island Homestead, Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge

Saturday April 8, 2017  More sun and mild temperatures.

All three of us made our way back to the Refuge in the morning. We decided to explore the Chesser Island Homestead, an interpreted 600 acre farm on a dry island in the Okefenokee where the Chesser family eked out a living in the late 1800s, through raising livestock, harvesting the sap of the Slash Pines (turpentine), raising sugar cane, hunting and smoking meat/fish, and working in the Refuge after it was created in the latter part of the Great Depression (1937). Tom Chesser stayed until 1958 with the blessing of the Refuge, only leaving to follow wife Iva to Folkston, where she found the proximity to services somewhat more amenable.

Local history is the subject of several websites, including some Wikipedia entries.  If interested, read on after luxuriating in this blog!:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chesser_Island

You may also read about the industrial history of the "swamp", including the Suwannee Canal (used today as the origin of the eastern-side boat tours, such as the one I featured in the previous blog edition), and the attempted draining of the area in the 1890's, as well as the great fire of 2011, which burned over 75% of the Refuge:

https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/geography-environment/human-history-okefenokee-swamp

Arriving at the Homestead, we were fortunate to find volunteer Gordon Saager, who provided us with a very informative tour.  Gordon knows the Chessers, some of whom also volunteer at the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge(NWR).  Our tour gave us his personal insights, and we shared a lot of our farming knowledge. We learned much more about southern farming from Gordon,  for example, the process for tapping the Slash Pines reminded me very much of our Sugar Maple tapping for maple syrup. Above is a photo of Gordon, Jan and Winston in front of the Chesser home.  Below,  is a full house photo with the same three posing!  Note the white sandy soil.  Growing anything on this sandy substrate was a challenge.

Thanks Gordon, for this photo of your three guests.  Below as the sign says, you see the water well technology....a hollow log.

We then toured the out buildings, amidst Spanish Moss festooned oaks.  Note that the local lumber trade focused on Cypress and Pines. Cypress has many of the same qualities of our local White Cedar (Arbor Vitae) in Eastern Ontario, except that Cypress trees are giants compared to Cedars.

It being early April, a lizard's heart turns to romance. The Homestead was humming with wildlife romance, including the beautiful male Fence Lizard (in the following the two photos) showing off for a nearby female.

 Fence Lizard , Sceloporus undulates (male) above and below

 Fence Lizard (female)-note the "ladder" pattern on her back.

We left the Homestead and took a trail back into the wetlands, where we spotted this lovely turtle:
Florida Red-bellied Cooter, Pseudemys nelsoni, which obviously ranges into the Okefenokee in Georgia. Notwithstanding the name, I had never seen this turtle in Florida.

Thanks to the staff at Okefenokee NWR for putting me into contact with Gordon.

We left the Okefenokee,  and memories of Pogo and Albert,  and ventured into Tennessee for the next chapter of our adventurous route home.

Remember Pogo and Albert? Day 1

Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge, Folkston, Georgia, April 7, 2017, 4 PM and still gorgeous out!

Arriving in the late afternoon from our winter haunt in Dunnellon, Florida, we were up for a boating jaunt into the wilds of the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge.  I had already explored the early April beauty of this 350,000-acre wetland, which lies just north of the Florida-Georgia state line.  Jan was looking forward to her first visit.  Winston, as seen below, was right into it, so to speak.  The rainfall sourced bog and swamp supplies water to the St. Mary's and the Suwannee Rivers.

The tour boats do not allow dogs, so, even though Winston isn't much of a dog, we had to find alternative arrangements for him. Thank goodness he is cute.  The staff in the office were happy to keep him for the duration of our exploration tour. Most of the alligators (there are 20,000 estimated in the Okefenokee), were also quite pleased to dog sit; however we thought that might not be the best approach.

You can see the broad smile on this largish 'gator indicating a Winston welcome. We found the 'gators to be very interested in our presence

As we passed the tall "Spanish Moss" festooned trees along the canal, we enjoyed the clear cool April air, and plentiful wildlife.  More large smilin' 'gators greeted us every few yards, as the sunned amidst the native wetland flora, with birds singing from every corner of the swamp.  The boat makes no noise, and leaves no wake, thereby enhancing the  full sensory experience. In fact, as we wended our way, one large bull alligator let out a hiss and a roar, which caused Steve to say "'guess we were a tad close to that one!". This gave us quite a chuckle.

This time of the day, everyone is quite peaceful and liable to rest and bask, including this Great Blue Heron.....

...notwithstanding another large alligator not far away. The alligators are temperature regulating, not smiling, with their mouths open. However, I still like to think that they are smiling.

Then we left the Canal and entered the bog.  Okefenokee (a word in the local Muskogee or Creek family of Native American languages, the same language group spoken by the Native Americans in the Dunnellon Florida area) means "trembling earth" and refers to the Spaghnum Moss layered "ground" in the bog, which trembles when one walks upon it.

Just like here in Eastern Ontario, where I live during acceptable weather, bogs are typified by a community of plants that can adapt to the nutrient poor wet environment, like this Pitcher plant (bloom below).

Another stunning wetland plant that doesn't quite reach our area is the Orontium aquaticum-Golden Club (below) which I also featured in this blog on my last visit to the Okefenokee.

Steve, our guide (the one here sporting the classic hat, shades and a long white beard) was so very knowledgeable about the history, natural history and ecology of the Okefenokee, as we meandered from the Suwannee Canal into the bog portion of the Refuge. As you can see, only one other person joined us on this "last tour of the day".  This provided us with the opportunity to ask Steve about local biology/ecology.

As we curved and rounded our way along the Suwannee Canal and back to the dock, Steve told us about the early history of the land and its people, who eked out a living in this difficult environment, leaving behind their homesteads when the Government of the USA created the Refuge in 1937. One of those homesteads has been preserved by the Refuge, and interpretation of the history of this land is available. You will be able to learn a little about this aspect of the Refuge in my next blog instalment.

Meanwhile, with the moon rising, it was time to collect Winston from the caring folks at the office and return to our temporary digs at Kingsland,  Georgia.