Friends of St. Joseph Bay Preserves

NEWS

September 2009

In this issue

• Bay Day 2009
• Turtle Patrol
• A Message from the Staff
• Mark Your Calendar
• New Staff
• Friends Board
• Pass It On!
• Membership Info

A Message From
the Staff

Enjoy the Buffer Preserve

Most visitors who enjoy kayaking and swimming in the Bay are blissfully unaware that they have already visited St. Joseph Bay Aquatic Preserve, the seaward portion of the St. Joseph Bay Preserves.

Most visitors are also unaware that they can enjoy the St. Joseph Bay State Buffer Preserve, the landward side of the Preserves.

Hiking, birding, butterfly-watching, photography, and enjoying wildflowers are just some of the activities that visitors can enjoy.

Parking and an information kiosk with a trail map are located in front of the Preserves Center on State Road 30-A.

The results of this year’s successful prescribed burn season are evident throughout the Buffer Preserve. Come see the mass flowering of wildflowers and grasses and the continuing opening of vistas as the uplands and wetlands of the Preserve are being restored by reintroducing frequent fire. The more open savannas that result from ecological burning are prime hunting habitat for the migratory hawks that pass through in the fall.

So, the mid-summer heat is easing just a bit; birds are beginning to migrate through the area; and wildflowers and butterflies are making their early fall appearance.

Go take a hike (or join one of our backcountry tours) at the Buffer!!

- Jean Huffman, Manager

These hikers are carrying their cameras to capture some of the scenes they see as they hike at the Buffer Preserve. BB

Mark Your Calendar

October 3

Be sure to circle October 3 on your calendar to remind you to attend our annual Bay Day celebration of the Bay and its birds, butterflies, and other natural wonders. See the accompanying article.

New Staff

We are happy to announce that the Preserves has acquired funding to hire Jessica McKenzie as of August 28.

Jessica McKenzie

As our newest employee of the Buffer Preserves, Jessica will be working towards strengthening public and community outreach, creating visual media for visitors that promote exploration and appreciation of the Buffer, running the Preserve Center, as well as assisting with prescribed burns, rare plant monitoring, and other field projects. She is helping co-ordinate the upcoming Bay Day event, an important fundraiser for the Preserves.

Originally a Montevallo, Alabama, native, Jessica has been a resident of Port St. Joe for two years. She has a B. A. in Psychology from the University of Alabama. She began volunteering at the Buffer doing rare plant monitoring last October, and is currently active in Turtle Patrol.

Chapman's Crownbeard (Verbesina chapmanii) is one of the flowers you might see at the Buffer Preserve, especially in an area that has been recently burned. BB

Friends Board

• John Oliver, President
• Michael McKenzie, Treasurer
• Penny Weining,
  Acting Secretary
• Ann Anderson,
  Outgoing President
• Nick Baldwin
• Bill Boothe
• Marcia Boothe
• Sandra Chafin

Pass it on!

If you know someone who may be interested in receiving information about St. Joseph Bay Preserves, please forward this e-mail. For more information about The Preserves, please call (850)229-1787 or visit www.stjosephbaypreserves.org.

Bay Day 2009
This Year's Morsel

The Friends of St. Joseph Bay Preserves invite you to attend our third Annual Bay Day on Saturday October 3. This event, held at the Preserves Center, features great food, live music, and local nature photography.

Bay Day is an exceptional opportunity for everyone to discover and enjoy the natural splendor of the St. Joseph Bay State Buffer and Aquatic Preserve as well as sensational food, music, and fellowship. We hope to see you there!

Families explore the Buffer Preserve on one of the many guided field trips on Bay Day. MB

Birding, Backcountry Trips and Bay Tours

We will have riding backcountry trips of the Buffer Preserve, trips focused on birding, and both wading and boat trips to St. Joseph Bay. On backcountry Buffer Preserve tours, you will ride in a tour wagon on the backroads with experienced guides (Jean Huffman, Buffer Preserve Manager, and Bill Boothe, Photographer and Naturalist extraordinaire) as they highlight our area’s beautiful fall wildflowers, butterflies, and birds, and illustrate aspects of the Buffer Preserve’s ecology and history.

Wading and boat tours will highlight the abundant and diverse marine life and seagrass habitat in one of the most pristine coastal bays remaining in Florida. Kim Wren, our Aquatic Preserve Manager, will lead the boat tours and this year we will have a pontoon boat generously donated by Seahorse Charters. Wading trips in seagrass beds and marshes will be led by Rosalyn Kilcollins.

We are lucky to have great regional birders to lead our birding trips that focus on migratory songbirds and hawks as well as other aspects of a few lesser known areas of the Buffer Preserve including the Deal Tract on the St. Joseph Peninsula and the marshes and flatwoods of the Money Bayou basin.

Join us again on Sunday October 4 for a final trip through the Buffer Preserve starting at 10:30 a.m. EDT.

We suggest a $10.00 donation for guided boat tours, but all other activities are free. All guided trips are weather permitting.

Low Country Shrimp Boil and Music

Beginning at 11:00 a.m. EDT on Saturday, guests may dine with a view on the expansive Preserves Center deck overlooking St. Joseph Bay. Our Low Country Boil features local wild-caught shrimp, corn on the cob, new potatoes, and kielbasa sausage, along with cole slaw, garlic bread and beverages. Lunchtime will kick off live musical entertainment.

The Shrimp Boil will last until the food runs out. Arrive early as the shrimp can run out quite quickly! There is a $10.00 suggested donation for each meal ticket.

Registration and Trip Information

For the latest information about Bay Day, be sure to visit http://www.stjosephbaypreserves.org/BayDay.htm where you will be able to view the most current schedule and trip descriptions. You may also download a flyer that you can post at your office or other public place.

Reservations must be made for the 8:00 a.m. EDT birding and bay boat trips ONLY. You may make advance reservations for these 8:00 trips by calling (850) 229-1787. All other trips will be open for signup at the Preserves Center starting at 9:00 am. Signup for field trips will continue all day. Spaces are limited and will be filled on a first-come first-served basis.

For 8:00 trip reservations and other questions about Bay Day, you may call (850)229-1787 between 9:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. EDT.

Call for Volunteers

If you are interested in helping with our Bay Day event, we gladly welcome volunteers! Plan, promote, and carry out the annual Bay Day celebration. Volunteers are always needed to prepare food, set up tents and tables, serve, clean up, etc. This event attracts many local area residents as well as out-of-town visitors.

For more information, please contact Jessica McKenzie at (850)229-1787.

Jessica McKenzie, Staffr
Buffer Preserves

Turtle Patrol

Friends of St. Joseph Bay Preserves volunteers have taken on the duties of Sea Turtle Patrol on the St. Joseph Peninsula from Stump Hole to the St. Joseph Peninsula State Park this nesting season (May-October). The Friends succeed the Gulf Coast Conservation Association (GCCA) who, led by Martha Maglothin Godwin, handled turtle patrol on the peninsula for ten of the last eleven years. Kim Wren, whose duties include managing the St. Joseph Bay State Aquatic Preserve, now holds the permit for marine turtle conservation issued by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC).

Turtle Patrol volunteers record nest's location with GPS co-ordinates. They also note the number of eggs in the nest, when eggs were laid, and measure and draw the turtle's track. JM

Ten volunteers from the Friends organization attended training sessions in April and began patrolling the beach on May 1. The volunteers are on the beach at dawn every morning looking for sea turtle tracks. When the tracks of an adult female sea turtle are spotted (the males never come ashore!), the volunteers determine what kind of turtle made the tracks and whether a nest full of eggs was laid and covered or whether the tracks represent a "false crawl," the term used when the turtle returns to the water without nesting. Nests are covered by a screen to keep predators like dogs, coyotes, raccoons, and people out and the four corners are secured by stakes that must be hammered into the sand securely before stretching yellow caution tape around the nest and attaching a sign explaining that it is a sea turtle nest and must not be harmed under penalty of fine and/or imprisonment. (Sea turtles, their nests, and their eggs are protected because the species are threatened and endangered.) Finally, the date of the nest and its identifying number are written on two of the stakes. A form is also completed showing date laid, identifying number, location, GPS latitude and longitude, track measurements, a drawing of the track and its peculiarities, and other information. The job requires a good deal of physical and mental effort, especially on days when there are multiple nests and false crawls or inclement weather, and many people who volunteer opt out after their first patrol.

Caution tape marks the location of an active turtle nest. Please do not disturb the area surrounding a turtle nest. JM

Hatching season begins in July and even more work is added. As volunteers patrol the beach, they must check nests for signs of hatching as well as look for new crawls. Hatching is evidenced by a multitude of tiny tracks and sometimes a hole in the nest where hatchlings emerged. Typically volunteers will excavate nests several days after hatching to determine hatch success. A hatching success form is completed showing the number of eggs that hatched, the number that did not hatch, whether the nest was inundated by tides, eroded, bothered by predators, etc. All the stakes, screens, signs, and tape are then removed. On some occasions, live (or dead) hatchlings are found in a hatched nest. One of the joys of turtle patrol is to release a live hatchling into the sea. The hatchling must be allowed to crawl on its own down the beach and into the water. If a hatchling survives the dangerous trek across the beach pursued by ghost crabs, birds, and other predators, then it must swim around the southern tip of Florida to the Atlantic gyre where it most likely lives in Sargasso weed. If it is a female, she may return in about twenty years to nest on the beach of her birth. It is estimated that as few as one in 10,000 sea turtle hatchlings will return.

In our area, green turtles come ashore every other year during even years.. NB

All but one of the turtles nesting on the beach this summer were Loggerheads (Caretta caretta). In even numbered years a few Green turtles (Chelonia) nest on the peninsula. This year, one lone Kemp’s Ridley (Lepidochelys kempi) has nested on our beach. One Kemp’s Ridley has also been documented in a prior year. A Loggerhead nest may contain as many as 140 eggs with the average between 100 and 120. Eggs incubate about sixty days. Most of the eggs in a nest will be the same sex since temperature seems to be the deciding factor. Colder temperatures seem to produce males and warmer temperatures produce females. Adults can weigh up to about 300 pounds and be about three feet wide and four feet long while hatchlings are about three inches long and weigh only an ounce or two.

So far this year, 87 nests have been found on our part of the St. Joseph Bay peninsula. Hatching season is in full swing, ending on October 31.

How You Can Help Our Turtles

• If you live on the beach, turn off exterior lights and cover your windows from dusk to dawn. Failure to keep the beach dark during the hatching season will result in hatchlings heading away from the ocean and toward the lights--and death.
• Please respect the caution tape around marked nests and stay clear of the area.
• Don't leave trash and other debris on the beach. They present additional obstacles on the turtles' perilous journey to the sea.

Volunteer or Donate!

Your volunteers will have been working hard for the turtles for almost six months. If you are interested in becoming a part of Turtle Patrol, please let us know. If you don’t have the time or physical energy to do this strenuous job, you may help by donating to the Friends of St. Joseph Bay Preserves. Either way, your interest and support are greatly appreciated. We hope to see you on the beach!

John Oliver, Board President