Tag Archives: pets

Biting News at Peck’s Lake

Ed and I disagree on a number of things, but we are always in agreement about our pets! We had decided to take them with us for an overnight in the trawler at Peck’s Lake. 

I laughed and smiled. It was a beautiful and very cold day. I was so glad Ed had some time off. We were both having such a good time until I looked at the alert that came up on my phone…

“Ed you’re never going to believe this. There is an insurrection in Washington D.C.. A sea of Trump supporters are attempting to break into the Capitol.“

It was January 6, 2021 and I knew for Ed this brought back terrible memories. In the 1960s Ed’s family had emigrated from Argentina to the United States to escape a series of military coups. 

Ed and I spoke for hours about the situation in the United States. Not much could be more depressing. Having Luna and Okee with us took off the edge. Before we all went to bed, Ed and I promised to get up tomorrow and enjoy Peck’s Lake. Peck’s Lake, as most all of us know, lies within the Jupiter Narrows and once was an inlet to the sea. Yes, historic maps show that many times the Atlantic has breeched this shoreline, most recently twice in the 1960s. The ACOE filled in this gap and today Nathaniel Reed Hobe Sound National Wildlife Refuge sits on these sands. You can reach this place by boat or a long walk north from Hobe Sound Beach in Martin County. If you like to canoe, you can put in at Cove Road. Peck’s Lake is one of 560 U. S. National Wildlife Refuges and lies in Martin County. Birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, and fish call this refuge home. 

A long walk along the beaches on the Atlantic side of the refuge is incredible, probably one of the only desolate beaches to be found on all of Florida’s east coast. Certainly, the area doesn’t look too different from 1696 when Jonathan Dickinson was escorted by the Ais Indians north.   Tooling around on the Jupiter Narrows side, Ed and I encountered wonderful things and weird things. We witnessed many osprey nests; we saw an otter surface and dive alongside an oyster covered mangrove forest, we also saw seagulls eating from a strange looking, large-eyed fish carcass. When I called Indian Riverkeepeeper, Mike Connor to find out what this cut-up was he said it was a swordfish! Ed and I threw the fish back into the water and seagulls dove for it from every direction.-Below: Osprey nest. Above: Ed drives dingy with trawler, Adrift in background at Peck’s Lake-Look! An otter! -Swordfish head floating. Very strange! -Seagulls dive   When Ed and I got home that evening, we also experienced no seeums or sand fleas and it was torture! 

“Are you getting bitten?” Ed asked coming into the cabin.

“Not really. Let me go outside and check.”

By the time I had been outside for thirty seconds, my hair was full of sand fleas and I was slapping and scratching myself everywhere at once. 

“Unbelievable! It’s been a long time since I felt them! When I was a kid growing up in Sewall’s Point and Stuart they were here!”

Ed and I ran inside and  barred the door as the tiny creatures made their way through anyway covering the lights of the cabin. Ed and I ate by flashlight that evening and Okee and Luna thought they were in heaven. Ed and I didn’t even think about the state of the world, we were too busy scratching…

Videos: 1. Cove, Peck’s Lake; 2. Mangrove Tour, Jupiter Narrows, Peck’s Lake

*Pets stayed on boat. They are not allowed in the wildlife refuge 🙂

*Thank you to my mother who shared to old add about sand fleas from First National Bank, forerunner of Seacoast. 

 

 

Non-Native Species Along the Indian River Lagoon

Common orange rat snake and Knight Anole in a life or death struggle, Sewall's Point. (Photo by Nina B, 2014.)
Common red rat snake and knight anole fight to the death on the back porch, Sewall’s Point. (Photo by Nina Barsik, 2014.)

I believe that all animals are God’s creatures and I try to be kind to every single one, even snakes, lizards and ants. I drive my husband crazy, and he rolls his eyes if I scold him for killing a fly,  but I have been this way since I was a kid. All of the animals are my friends. I always wanted to be Snow White and have the birds land on my shoulder and talk to me. So far, the cardinals in my yard sometimes come close when I put out their sunflower seeds, but that’s about it.

Upon seeing this photograph yesterday, I wanted to share because if nothing else it reminded me that we are not the only ones fighting for our lives here along the Indian River Lagoon!

This photo, taken in Sewall’s Point, is of an red rat snake, a native, and a knight anole, a non-native, that according to the Florida Wildlife Commission has lived and bred in our area for around ten years. I have had  both species  in my aquarium at one point or another if they were injured to rehabilitate;  from what I was told, these two in the photograph were in a very healthy death grip, until one “won” of course….

By the way, in case this photo  freaks you out, snakes are great natural pest control of especially rodents; they will not attack a well cared for “Fido,” so please don’t kill them.

As afar as the knight anole, non-native species are not a problem unless they start to take over native  species to the point that the entire eco-system radically changes. For instance, many of you may be familiar with lion-fish which are now invading the lagoon and according to Harbor Branch Oceanographic kill/consume about 67 % of all life around them; or pythons in the everglades eating, deer, panthers, and alligators and now becoming the top predator. This is a problem… At the end of the day, it is usually humans that bring the animal into the non native area by releasing pets.

The Florida Wildlife Commission defines non-native animals as “exotic” saying:
“Exotic species are animals living outside captivity that did not historically occur in Florida. Most are introduced species, meaning they have been brought to Florida by humans. A few of Florida’s exotics arrived by natural range expansions, like cattle egrets which are native to Africa and Asia but flew across the Atlantic Ocean and arrived in Florida in the 1950s. Several common nonnative species, like coyotes, armadillos and red foxes, were not only introduced by humans but also spread into Florida by natural range expansions.”

So let’s know our environment, please be kind to all animals,  and let’s all help nature’s balance by not releasing exotic pets into the wild along the St Lucie River/Indian River Lagoon.

Who won? I knew you were wondering about that…the snake!

Florida Wildlife Commission/FWC: (http://myfwc.com/wildlifehabitats/nonnatives/exotic-information/)

FWC Knight Anole: (http://myfwc.com/wildlifehabitats/nonnatives/reptiles/knight-anole/)

FWC Red/(Orange) Rat/AKA “corn snake” Snake:http://myfwc.com/wildlifehabitats/imperiled/profiles/reptiles/red-rat-snake/)

_______________________________________________________

2-11-15:  Just to follow up and note how small the world is– as well as how much can happen through social media… a Harvard Professor and Curator of Herpetology, at the Museum of Comparative Zoology, at Harvard University, Johathan Losos, saw this IRL blog post above on the invasive Knight Anole and native Rat Snake fight in Sewall’s Point. He then got in touch with me, spoke to the woman at whose home this occurred, and  published his own blog post for his Herpetology community. Read his blog here! Thank you Dr Losos! (http://www.anoleannals.org/2015/02/09/knight-anole-vs-red-rat-snake-who-will-win/)