Driving the perimeter

After an uneventful day working the Gateway VC yesterday, I was looking forward to filling all the pamphlet boxes at the scattered entrances to Alligator River NWR this morning.  There are about 13 boxes to check on, and I usually do them in a set order.  Today I decided to live on the wild side and reverse my driving course.  I did chase up one bear in my travels today, but since I got kind of a late start and had to fill the vehicle with gas before I left, I was surprised I saw even one.

Each of the entrance roads had plenty of swallow-tail butterflies flitting about, but today I was able to get a shot of one of the yellow ones.

Almost all of the gazillion swallow-tails that are around right now are of the black variety, so I spent a little time tracking this guy down.

As I made my way to the furthest point in my route today, I noticed a large bush (or short tree) just about bending over with these ripe berries.  They kind of reminded me of Elderberries, but appeared a little larger than the ones I’m familiar with in upstate New York.

I’m thinking it won’t be long before either the local bears or migrating thrushes and robins take advantage of this bounty.  If I had known for sure what they were, I’d have been tasting a handful myself. 

We had quite the torrential downpour, once again, last night that resulted in about another two inches of rain for the area.  That meant all the streams and water ditches were brimming with rushing water this morning.  One of the roads follows along one of these ditches, and the water was pouring through the water control structure.

Because of all the tannin in the water, it looks like bubbling root bear to me.  That dark water was very helpful during prohibition for the residents of Buffalo City.  If they heard the government guys were coming, the bootleggers would just sink the barrels of whiskey in the streams and canals, and evade being caught.

As I approach each of the entrance boxes, I usually drive down each of the roads to just check things out and see if anything needs repair or is out of order.

What I found down Point Peter Road today just disgusted me.  A mile into the refuge was a huge debris pile.  Apparently some one had dumped a whole load of tar paper, boards, and insulation along the side of the road and down into the creek.  The county landfill is located just a couple of miles down the road.  I don’t understand what possesses some people to take their construction garbage and dump it on public lands.  What an eye sore this is, and that asbestos can’t be good either.  I sure wish the folks that did this could be caught and made to walk the refuge for a year picking up other peoples thoughtless garbage.

Thanks for stopping by… talk to you later,  Judy