Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge's Journal

March 13, 2019 Okefenokee Journal entry... -

Photographer: William Wise | iNat Observation: 21995022 - American Alligtor; Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge, Georgia. March 13, 2019. ©williamwisephoto.com

With only an occasional, gentle stroke, our canoe glides easily across the smooth surface of Billy’s Lake in the Okefenokee Swamp. The morning air is still, the water smooth, the entire scene quiet and meditative. From a bit further up the lake, echoing across the water, comes a deep rumble. A second time, the rumble breaks the still air, this time followed by another on our left bank. We stiffen in an attentive hush. Hearing the rumble again, I whisper to my daughter, “The bull gators are bellowing.” What a sound! You hear it, not only with your ears, but with your entire body. Never will you forget those intense, guttural moanings. The Dragons of the Deep were roaring. This is swamp!

How cool. I had no idea that the Okefenokee had its own moth! And I wasn’t even on the lookout for this little critter when I found it...

Photographer: William Wise | iNat Observation: 47382643 - Fetterbush Lyonia (Lyonia lucida; Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge, Georgia. March 11, 2020. ©williamwisephoto.com

My daughter and I were paddling north up the Suwannee Middle Fork (red trail) from Billy’s Lake. The run is usually quite wide, but at some points can require some careful steering around Cypress buttresses. On one of those maneuvers around the base of a cypress tree, I grabbed onto a stump to try to swing the canoe a bit so my daughter, sitting in the back, wouldn’t crash into the fetterbushes. As I held the stump, just a few feet from my face I caught a glint of orange, black and white.

© Photographer: William Wise | iNat Observation: 47382643

“Hmmmm. Cool looking caterpillar”, I thought to myself, but didn’t immediately stop the canoe. At the next tree, I saw a couple more and decided to switch to a macro lens and capture a few shots. There were about a dozen, maybe two, munching the leaves and tender vines.

Upon returning home I posted most of my finds on iNaturalist. With some help from iNat users Ryan St Laurent (@rstlaurent) and Giff Beaton(@giffbeaton), I discovered this bright caterpillar was the Okefenokee Zale Moth, Zale perculta. I also discovered there really wasn’t much information published on the internet about. I did learn that they are listed as “imperiled” because of their specialized diet and habitat in which they occur, but not “immediately imperiled” since the Okefenokee is protected as a National Wildlife Refuge. Thankfully, they are also found in a few other swamp habitats outside of the Okefenokee.

Some sources:

• https://www.savannahnow.com/entertainmentlife/20200531/natural-georgia-finding-new-colonies-of-rare-moth
• https://georgiabiodiversity.org/natels/profile?es_id=15342

The story of the Okefenokee's "Fetterbush"...

Photographer: William Wise | iNat Observation: 45350400 - Fetterbush Lyonia (Lyonia lucida; Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge, Georgia. March 11, 2020. ©williamwisephoto.com

In the spring, the Okefenokee Swamp shrubbery is decorated with delicate rows of tiny, pinkish-white bells. These small flowers are of the Lyonia lucida bush. Although they look and smell like a sweet Valentine’s Day treat, they haven’t always been thought of so fondly, as revealed by a few of their common names: fetterbush, staggerbush and hurrah bush.

Fetterbush grows thickly and is often entangled with other shrubs and vines, such as the well-armed greenbrier. Being so thick, it fetters the legs of anyone attempting cross the swamp on foot. Fetters were prisoners’ iron shackles in a less politically correct age. In fact, when his weakness was exploited, the Biblical strongman Samson was “bound in fetters of brass to grind in the prison house.” Lyonia’s other common name, Hurrah bush, comes from the exclamatory shout for joy made by the swamp adventurer that finally makes it through the thickets and staggers into a clearing.

Sources:
-https://plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/lyonia-lucida/
-Schoettle, Taylor. A Naturalist’s Guide to the Okefenokee Swamp. Darien, Sea to Sea Printing and Publishing, 2019.

Prior to being set aside as a National Wildlife Refuge, White-tailed Deer were commonly hunted on the open prairies of the Okefenokee Swamp...

Photographer: William Wise | iNat Observation: 49829159 - White-tailed Deer hiding on Billy's Island; Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge, Georgia. March 11, 2020. ©williamwisephoto.com

Prior to being set aside as a National Wildlife Refuge, White-tailed Deer were commonly hunted on the open prairies of the Okefenokee Swamp. In an excerpt from the 1926 book History of the Okefenokee Swamp, A. S. McQueen and Hamp Mizell describe why "Chase Prairie" received its name:

"Chase Prairie derives its name from the fact that it was a favorite place to chase down deer that would come out on the space to feed upon the grass and water plants. A number of hunters would gather with dogs around this large Prairie and some would chase the deer from the islands into the Prairie, while others would have boats convenient, and they were so expert with the little narrow boats used in the Swamp that they could propel these boats so swiftly over the water-covered Prairie that a deer would be overtaken before he could cross it."

Photographer: William Wise | An Okefenokee Swamp Prairie; Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge, Georgia. October 24, 2020. ©williamwisephoto.com

“Sophie” is the resident alligator of Stephen C Foster State Park. She has been out there patrolling the waters on every one of our Okefenokee visits, and populates the boat launch with baby gators. My nature journal from March 10, 2015 describes our first meeting with Sophie:

Photographer: William Wise | iNat Observation: 29933513 - Sophie, the resident American Alligator of the Stephen C Foster State Park; Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge, Georgia. March 10, 2015. ©williamwisephoto.com

Tuesday, 6:29 PM – We failed to see any gators out on the swamp boardwalk, so before heading back to camp we decided to check the boat dock and canoe launch up the canal. Amanda called out, “GATOR!” as a ripple splashed in the middle of the boat bay. “It went under right there.” We watched and waited for a minute. When it resurfaced, our gator turned out to be a rather large soft-shelled turtle.

A little bit further on, the water stirred and swelled just beyond the “Danger, Alligators Present” sign. Again we waited. After a minute we spotted a foot-long scaled creature just below the surface. But it wasn’t an alligator. We had been tricked again, this time by a Gar.

Twice tricked, but not giving up while there was still some light, we decided to walk further down the canal. Out towards the swamp we spotted a dark object in the lane between the lily pads. By the v-shaped ripples breaking in front, we could see it was travelling rather quickly in our direction. Finally, a gator, and heading our way! I began snapping photos even though it was low light. It swam all the way in and circled the boat bay; quite comfortable in close association with the visitor’s office. As the sky darkened, I tried some low-light manual camera settings. Using the flash brought out some beautiful red-eyed gator shots that turned out to be my favorite photos from the entire week.

We later learned from the park staff that this was Sophie, the “resident gator.” She frequented the boat bay and had babies along the bank opposite the rental canoes. Each morning and evening for the rest of our trip we stopped to say hello to Sophie. She calmly patrolled the boat bay in the evenings and occupied a small opening or harbor in the lily pads during the day. Just behind her daytime resting spot was a ramp of loose dirt up the bank; no doubt a convenient ascent to her nesting site. Our final morning of the trip, we were finally able to catch a glimpse of one of Sophie’s babies crawling out of the duck weed.

During our 2019, paddling trip through the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge, we came across a unique...

Photographer: William Wise | iNat Observation: 21703998 - American Alligator; Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge, Georgia. March 15, 2019. ©williamwisephoto.com

During our 2019, paddling trip through the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge, we came across a unique alligator. It was on a cypress log just north of Billy's Lake. This big gator was missing the end of its upper snout. I suppose it could have been born with a deformity, but more likely it was injured in a fight with another gator. Its nostrils were missing and a good bit of scar tissue was built up along the edge. Several of the bottom teeth were missing as well. As it was sunning on a log, we pushed our canoe up for some closer photos. But as we crossed its comfort zone, it retreated into the water. We saw it again later in the day as we were paddling back to our camp at the Stephen C Foster State Park campground.

American Alligator, Alligator mississippiensis
Friday, March 15, 2019 at 12:56 PM EST
Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge, red trail East Fork Suwannee River
Coordinates: 30.83796, -082.34352

Photographer: William Wise | iNat Observation: 21703998 - American Alligator; Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge, Georgia. March 15, 2019. ©williamwisephoto.com

When one says, “swamp”, one of the first images related to the flora and vegetation of the habitat is, of course, the towering Cypress trees and flowing curtains of Spanish Moss. The next most common image of swamp vegetation is that of the “lily pad”...

© Photographer: William Wise | iNat Observation: 35934505 - American White Waterlily; Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge, Georgia. March 5, 2017.

Like shiny green dinner plates floating upon black water, the white, fragrant American White Waterlily, Nymphaea odorata abounds in Georgia's Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge (more abundantly on the eastern side). These verdant saucers are garnished with large, white, sweet-scented flowers. Not only is the American White Waterlily a picturesque part of the swamp, but it is an important part of the ecosystem. Wildlife such as Deer, beaver, and muskrat will eat the leaves and rhizomes; while the seeds are consumed by various waterfowl. The underwater parts of the plant also provide food and habitat for invertebrates, which are also sustenance for reptiles, amphibians and avian life.

I finally finished editing hundreds of photos from my October 2022 trip to the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge and cut a few in with some video clips of the five day excursion. Enjoy!

I’m privileged that I could donate one of my photographs to support the cause to protect the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge. A full page advertisement was purchased by the Okefenokee Protection Alliance using a photograph I took on the eastern end of Billy’s Lake in the Okefenokee on March 13, 2019. The ad was placed in the Atlanta Journal and Constitution on February 18, 2023. Go to https://protectokefenokee.org/ for more information and to support the Okefenokee NWR!

© Photographer: William Wise | iNat Observation: 29932812 - Green Heron along the Trembling Earth Nature Trail; Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge, Georgia. March 10, 2015.

In 1895, naturalist Bradford Torrey wrote of the Green Heron being at home in "watery woods", such as are found in the Okefenokee Swamp:

"The day was before me, and the place was lively with birds. Pine-wood sparrows, pine warblers, and red-winged blackbirds were in song; two red-shouldered hawks were screaming, a flicker was shouting, a red-bellied woodpecker cried kur-r-r-r, brown-headed nuthatches were gossiping in the distance, and suddenly I heard, what I never thought to hear in a pinery, the croak of a green heron. I turned quickly and saw him. It was indeed he. What a friend is ignorance, mother of all those happy surprises which brighten existence as they pass, like the butterflies of the wood. The heron was at home, and I was the stranger. For there was water near, as there is everywhere in Florida; and subsequently, in this very place, I met not only the green heron, but three of his relatives,—the great blue, the little blue, and the dainty Louisiana, more poetically known (and worthy to wear the name) as the 'Lady of the Waters.'"

• Torrey, Bradford (1895). A Florida Sketch-Book.