scrub « verdure
scrub
Wednesday, February 23rd, 2011

Oscar Scherer State Park is a surprisingly large park, over two square miles, for being right in the middle of the urban sprawl. Trails criss cross the park, with arrows on stakes pointing you to the official paths. Usually. South Creek, barely more than a drainage ditch in the northern sections, meanders through the park, and the Legacy Trail (Sarasota to Venice Rail-Trail) cuts north to south.

The park protects the Florida Scrub Jay, the only bird endemic to Florida. While bold and curious like their Blue Jay relatives, they only live in Florida scrub, hot, sandy areas consisting mainly of dwarf oak and frequented by wildfire. Habitat reduction has reduced their numbers to less than 8,000 mature birds. The park conducts a monthly census of its population of Florida Scrub Jays; every bird we saw had leg bands.

Florida Scrub Jay

We saw several sulphurs and zebra swallowtails, one red admiral and this common buckeye:

common buckeye

I haven’t been able to identify this one, so I’m calling it a feathered moth.

who am i?

Nor do we know what kind of fish these were, but there were several huge schools in South Creek.

fishies

I don’t think I’ve seen Northern Flickers since the group that lived near our townhome in Seattle.

male northern flicker

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