A Day in the Life: Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary Visitor

Binoculars in hand and a refillable water bottle in her pack, Pamela Telis will get her bar code scanned on the admission desk and makes her method out into the Sanctuary. This was her first time visiting throughout fall migration.

“I come to Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary for the birds, a minimum of that’s what I inform myself,” says Telis. Telis vividly recollects her first go to together with her mother within the spring of 1993: Wooden Storks had been nesting, they usually noticed wading birds galore. Each activate the boardwalk introduced one other flash of coloration of their binoculars. “We each cherished the chance to be inside an old-growth cypress wetland, appreciating the serenity and peace it provided,” she says. “I’ve by no means forgotten how I felt that first time underneath the enormous cypress timber, as if I had entered a primeval forest.”

Hailing from the Jacksonville space, Telis has returned to the Sanctuary many occasions, marveling at the way it continues to evolve — the place nature appears to be really in management. Watching from afar as “progress and progress” edge into Southwest Florida’s pure areas, she acknowledges and appreciates that Audubon’s dedication to this distinctive place is more and more necessary.

Throughout Telis’s November go to, issues appear fairly quiet: The water stage is decrease than she remembers. As she sees fewer birds, she decides to easily be current in every second, letting Corkscrew inform her what her go to might be. Up forward, a uniformed naturalist factors one thing out to different guests: An Anhinga is perched in a tree over the water, preening and seemingly posing for the cameras. One barely wants binoculars to understand this view. Within the distance, a Purple-shouldered Hawk calls to alert all to its presence, whereas a handful of small birds carry out acrobatic maneuvers within the treetops above. Beneath, a raccoon household scampers by means of the shallow water underneath the boardwalk and into the forest. Then, one other sound from deep within the swamp will get everybody’s consideration: the rumbling bellow of an American alligator!

“I particularly loved the vegetation, timber, and the tranquil surroundings on this journey,” she says, focusing her sight at eye stage and down beneath to soak up the ferns, moss, and flowering bushes, observing tiny particulars on a downed log. She felt rewarded by the scenes that she usually wouldn’t discover or would look previous. And naturally, the birds she did see had been relished.

After strolling for slightly greater than two hours by means of pine flatwoods, moist prairie, freshwater marsh, and old-growth bald cypress forest, she returns to the Blair Customer Heart, the place she learns extra concerning the Sanctuary and its work earlier than perusing new merchandise within the nature retailer.

“It’s onerous to search out phrases to elucidate why I go to at any time when I’m in Southwest Florida — I’m drawn to it,” says Telis. “I do know of no different place fairly prefer it, particularly in my very own state.”

Practically on daily basis of the 12 months, Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary guests can take pleasure in an escape from life’s pressures, a reference to nature, and a memorable expertise. However what’s much more necessary for a lot of is the data that the value of admission and different purchases made on the Sanctuary are an funding in a world-class nonprofit group that’s working to enhance the standard of life for wildlife and folks.