Bea and I headed south on Monday January 5th to beat a pending snow storm coming on Tuesday. Made it to Rocky Mount, NC the first night, St Augustine, Fl the second and Sebring, Fl on the third. We found a room that was handicapped accessible and stayed three weeks. We liked Sebring
My Grandfather wintered here in the 1940’s.
At the end of January Bea had to go to California for our grandson Porter’s Grandparents Day at his school. The site would have been hard for me to navigate, so I stayed in Florida.
What to do? What else but set up an experiment to see if a one-legged almost 75 year old man could survive camping in a tent for 7 days.
My choice for this experiment was Kissimmee Prairie Preserve State Park. Its 54,000 acres contain dry prairie. wet prairie, marshes, sloughs, Cabbage Palm and Oak Hammocks. This preserve protects the largest dry prairie still left in Florida. it is the home of several endangered/threatened animal species including the Grasshopper Sparrow and the Crested Caracara. It is in a remote part of central Florida and is a favorite for those who enjoy astronomy because there are no city lights. it was a full moon when I was there and the evening sky was spectacular. I fell in love with the place.
I had reserved a camping site for only one night. The following day I was able to move to another site where i stayed for 6 days. My neighbors were very friendly and were willing to help me when I needed assistance. The weather was great---clear and sunny during the day and cold at night. It got down to the high 30’s and low 40’s at night and windy with highs in the 60’s during the day.
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| Sunrise at Kissimmee Prairie |
Sunrise from my campsite. The crows showed up at 7 am each morning and made sure I was awake.
The land is flat and much of it is free of trees and shrubs—just prairie plants including native grasses, Sawtooth Palmetto and a variety of wildflowers, so you can see long distances
Since I could not walk, I drove the roads during the day and at night. I got to see some really exciting things happen just by being in the right place at the right time. The first night I was at the preserve I saw a small whitish bird fly up from the side of the road. it turns out that is was a Burrowing Owl. This small owl feeds on insects and is attracted to the roads because in cold weather the insects congregate along the warmer road surface at night. On another occasion as I was looking for song birds, a Red-shouldered Hawk carrying a snake landed on a branch of a tree just in front of me.
A short time after I took this photo, a second hawk flew in and clobbered this guy knocking him off the branch. The last I saw was the one with the snake flying over my head, and the second one in hot pursuit about 20 feet behind. WOW. The snake looked like a Black Racer. This was the second time I had seen a Red-shouldered Hawk with a snake.
I saw a good variety of birdlife during my stay, but the star was the Crested Caracara. Although this bird is more common in Central America, it is found in the prairie areas of central Florida. I had seen different individuals sitting but the most spectacular was when it was gliding and soaring above me with the sun glistening off its beautiful wings and underbelly. AWESOME. It is a relative of falcons.
I did a little hiking with my walker. A short trail near the campground went through a hardwood hammock, so I “drove" my walker about 1/4 mile trough this really impressive woodlot. As I traveled I saw 8 turkeys and heard and then saw a Barred Owl. I made several calls and it looked at me with distain as if telling me "you are not really an owl”. He/she was about 50 feet away—a really cool sight.
On another occasion I found a Yellow-Crowned Night Heron rookery. I watched a male heron display by repeatedly lifting the yellow feather on his head up and down. I had never observed anything like that before. According to the staff at the park this site was one of the rookeries patrolled by rangers working for the Audubon Society in the early 1900's.
Camping in a tent while having only one leg is not an easy experience, but I was able to adapt and use the tools at my disposal. I had to constantly be aware of where the crows were---at any opportunity they would swoop down and grab any visible food item and things left on the table had to be covered all the time. One time I left an orange on the table. i came back a short time later and they had rolled it off the table and carried it about 25 feet away. A family of five was busy feasting on my orange. On two different evenings I cooked my supper over an open fire---I had not done that for a very long time.
I had no trouble sleeping. However two different nights I was awakened by the "singing" of coyotes. Their calls are not really howls or barks, they are quite musical, so I prefer to call it "singing". A bit eerie, but interesting. I often heard the Barred Owl at night as well. One night I woke up and above me I could see the Big Dipper clearly visible in the sky. In the wee hours of the morning I would hear the Crows (you could set your clock by their visit---right at 7 am). Off in the distance I could hear the bugling of Sandhill Cranes and the shrill call of the Red-shouldered Hawk.
I had a very tame Palm Warbler often sitting with me when I ate a meal. It seemed interested in small crumbs of food.
This place does nor have big water areas but does attract a good variety of wildlife. The area has White-tailed Deer, River Otters, Alligators and most of the common wading birds. In January a Florida Panther was released into the preserve. It was injured and had been rehabilitated.
Just like Middle Creek in PA, the staff do controlled burning. At the time I was leaving on February 4th they were burning a 2800 acre section of the prairie. Burning at the beginning of the growing season seems to have the most positive effect.
I had a great experience at Kissimmee Prairie Preserve. I met some very nice people and would love to go back sometime.
NOTE: TO SEE MORE PHOTOS OF MY TRIP, CLICK ON THE SLIDE SHOW ON MY BLOG.
Dick's Blog---Native Plant Action Network
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