Corkscrew
Updates…
Swamp Sanctuary
Along the
Boardwalk
March, 2010 www.corkscrew.audubon.org
Pennies will protect Panther Island
Pennies for the Planet is officially
underway and Corkscrew will benefit.
Aiming to get stu-
dents and youth involved
making a difference in
the environment, this
project is part of the Au-
dubon/Toyota
TogetherGreen alliance.
Last year, students na-
tionwide raised $26,000
to support three projects
selected from a pool of
Audubon endeavors.
This year, Panther Island
is one of three recipients
in the United States for Pennies for the
Planet funding.
At Corkscrew’s Panther Island,
money raised will be used to continue
battling invasive exotic vegetation such
as Brazilian Pepper and West Indian
Marsh Grass. Over 20 species of inva-
sive grasses are managed at Panther
Learn more about Panther Island: http://pantherislandadventures.blogspot.com/
Pennies for the Planet information: www.togethergreen.org/p4p/about.aspx
New life debuts in wet prairie as spring nears
During recent
fieldwork, Mike
Knight and Samantha
Follis encountered this
newborn fawn along
one of the firebreaks
adjacent to the wet
prairie.
Each year, many
well-intentioned people remove from
the wild what they believe is an aban-
doned deer fawn.
What people do not realize is that
fawns are not active enough to begin
traveling with their mothers until they
Volunteer Recogniton Dinner ~ Thursday, March 25 ~ 4:30-7:30 PM
Island. Some funding will also go to-
ward equipment costs and will also help
with the purchase and
maintenance of fire
equipment for prescribed
burns.
Additionally, some
of the funding will be
used to begin developing
educational programs at
Panther Island. These
programs will educate
people about how an
area changed for human
use can be changed back
to a natural state that bet-
ter supports wildlife and protects and
improves water quality in the water-
shed.
This program is not limited to
schools. Organizations including youth
groups, scouts, families, and other com-
munity organizations can get involved
to help conservation efforts.
are about two months
old. Even if a fawn
appears to be alone,
its mother is typically
bedded down or feed-
ing close nearby.
Newborn fawns
need to be fed every
few hours, so the doe
never strays far.
While the doe is away, the fawn’s
survival behavior is to stay very still
and hide from predators. The dappled
white spots on the reddish brown fur
make excellent camouflage.
Wood Stork nesting
The most recent survey flight on
February 11 found no Wood Storks or
other wading birds nesting at Cork-
screw. No sizeable foraging aggrega-
tions were observed either.
A very small nesting colony is lo-
cated south of Immokalee and another
on a mangrove island along the
Caloosahatchee River. Reports from the
Everglades also indicate very low nest-
ing numbers.
A possible reason for so little nest-
ing is the water levels that usually de-
cline and concentrate prey needed for
chicks have instead remained at a fairly
constant depth over the past few months
because of substantial periodic rains.
Bald Eagle nesting
After a successful nesting last year
where two eaglets were fledged, the
nest was largely destroyed, probably by
the fledglings testing their wings. How-
ever, it had been rebuilt by October.
During recent fieldwork, two white
fluffy chicks were seen in the nest.
Later, an adult was seen tending the nest
while two other adults flew nearby.
The nest cannot be seen from the
boardwalk and is not accessible to the
public, but the eagles can be observed
flying to and from the nest. The best
chance to see them is from the last
bench in the wet prairie.
Invasive Species Task Force
In October, Audubon of Florida
launched a new Invasive Species Task
Force to further the effort in the battle
against exotic invasive species that
plague our environment.
Audubon joined the Florida Inva-
sive Species Partnership with The Na-
ture Conservancy, National Park Ser-
vice, and Florida Wildlife Commission
in an effort to address the threat to na-
tive wildlife and ecosystems.
One goal is to engage volunteers
in providing greater monitoring, re-
sponse, and educational outreach. If
you are interested, please contact Mike
Knight (mknight@audubon.org).
 In Case a Visitor Asks
What happens to snakes, gators, and frogs during freezing temperatures?
SNAKES
Most snakes will try to find shelter
under a log or in a pile of dead leaves
and hibernate there. Water snakes have
an advantage because water helps miti-
gate the effect of the freezing tempera-
tures. In general, snakes are more sus-
ceptible to dying in prolonged freezes.
ALLIGATORS
During periods of extended cold,
alligators go into dens or stay beneath
the water for long periods of time,
sometimes days. Water at the bottom
of a lake doesn’t freeze and is warmer
than surface water or air. The gator’s
Dwarf Sundew, a carnivorous plant, blooms in
moist areas in the pine flatwood (February 9).
Oil spots not from cypress resin
We have been wrongly educating
the public! Those oily-looking spots
commonly observed floating on the
water surface are not the result of res-
inous oils from cypress cones falling
into the swamp.
They caused by bacteria called
chemoautotrophs that extract energy
out of various kinds of simple, energy-
rich inorganic compounds. In this case
the source of energy is ferrous iron.
Various species of iron-utilizing
bacteria make a living this way, leav-
ing in their wake a gelatinous precipi-
tate of iron hydroxide (oil spots) dot-
ting the surface of the water.
Along with plants, the bacteria
form the basis of the food chain.
metabolism and the heart beat slow and
it waits for warmer temperatures to
jump start its systems again.
FROGS & TOADS
Terrestrial frogs normally hibernate
on land. Spadefoot Frogs and other
frogs that are good diggers burrow deep
into the soil safely below the frost line.
Other frogs that are not adept at dig-
ging seek out deep cracks and crevices
in logs or rocks or just dig down as far
as they can in the leaf litter.
Treefrogs retreat to sheltered spots
near the water or settle into a cavity in
a tree or deep in leaves of a Tillandsia.
February Sightings
A Peninsula Ribbon Snake peers through leaves
by the observation platform spur (February 12).
Odds & Ends
Sex? Depends how hot you are
In turtles and alligators, environ-
mental temperature during a critical
period of embryonic development de-
termines whether an egg develops as
male or female. This thermosensitive
period occurs after the egg has been
laid, so sex determination is at the
mercy of the ambient conditions.
In many turtle species, eggs from
cooler nests hatch as all males, and eggs
from warmer nests hatch as all females.
The opposite is true for alligators.
Low temperatures result in females and
high temperatures (88º+) are usually
males. Between are both genders.
However, exosure to environmen-
tal pollutants like pesticides can totally
reverse the temperature effects.
These hibernacula (places for hi-
bernation) are not as well protected
from frigid weather and may freeze
along with their inhabitants.
But the frogs do not die; they have
a natural antifreeze. While ice crystals
form in such places as the body cavity
and bladder and under the skin, a high
concentration of glucose in the frog’s
vital organs prevents freezing.
A partially frozen frog will stop
breathing and its heart will stop beat-
ing. It will appear quite dead. When the
hibernaculum warms up, the frog’s fro-
zen portions slowly thaw and its heart
and lungs resume activity.
A female Common Yellowthroat forages in the
wet prairie grasses (February 2).
Invisible colors attract birds
Birds see a much wider range of
color than people do. They even have
colors in their plumage that are invis-
ible to the human eye.
Birds have four color cones in their
eyes, compared to three in humans,
which allow them to see the ultraviolet
part of the color spectrum.
Many female birds select mates
based on their bright color displays.
Scientists using spectroradiometers
to measure the extent of ultraviolet col-
oration have found that males in many
apparently monochromatic species –
those with similarly colored sexes –
have a display of bright ultraviolet col-
ors that females use extensively in their
choice of mate.

The White Ibis is a me-
dium-sized wading bird.
Adults are entirely white ex-
cept for black wing tips. The
face of the ibis is bare and
pink, blending into its long,
curved bill, which is pink
with brown at the very tip. It
has long pink legs, which
end with webbed toes. The
adults eyes are light blue.
When White Ibis are
ready to breed, their pink
face, bill, and legs turn a
bright tomato red, the tip of
the bill turns almost black,
and they develop red swol-
len pouches on their throats, almost as
if they had the mumps.
Immature ibis begin chocolate
brown with white bellies and eventually
molt to the all-white plumage, which
takes about two years to complete.
White Ibis are tactile feeders, prob-
ing in mud and swamp bottoms with
their long bills as they slowly walk
along. They can also pick insects off of
dry ground and are sometimes seen in
yards probing.
As soon as something touches the
bill, it snaps shut. Feeding by touch al-
lows them to forage in murky and
muddy water where waders that feed by
sight are much less successful.
Often ibis feed in mixed flocks, usu-
ally with Great Egrets, which has advan-
tages for both species. The egret, a vi-
sual hunter, will see food that the ibises
startle into moving, and because the ibis
have their heads down as they probe,
they can be alerted to possible danger
when the egret, whose head is almost
always up, calls out or flies off.
White Ibis live in wetlands of the
interior and in coastal marshes and
swamps, but they may fly out up to 15
miles a day from the roosting colony in
search of food. Nesting colonies are in
marshes, mangroves, and along lake and
stream edges.
Profile
White Ibis
Eudocimus albus
A study of White Ibis feeding hab-
its in South Florida, conducted in the
early 1970’s, found that 52% of the
weight of food was crayfish. Fish made
up 19% of the inland diet with the Sailfin
Molly being the most common prey.
Other food sources were dragonfly lar-
vae, apple snails, water bugs, and some
horsefly larvae. Newts and Pig Frogs
were the only vertebrates commonly
eaten, although they will take small
snakes. In coastal habitats, Fiddler Crabs
were the most common prey.
The White Ibis walk
slowly while foraging, occa-
sionally leaping over others
in the flock as it moves
across its feeding grounds.
They are highly sociable,
nesting, feeding, roosting,
and flying in flocks. In spite
of this, ibises defend their
small nesting territory. They
do this by jabbing and bit-
ing at rivals, as well as hold-
ing their opponent’s wing or
head in their bill.
White Ibis nest in large
mixed-species colonies.
Males arrive at the breeding
grounds first, preening and pointing their
bills towards the sky to attract a mate.
Pair formation in ibises tends to de-
pend on the amount of rain, light, and
available food rather than occurring at a
set time in a year. Nest building, how-
ever, tends to fall between May and early
June.
Colonies begin with the roost sites
of males, who form a sort of daytime
bachelor party. The females then come
and both male and female build the nest
nearby. The male brings sticks, reeds,
leaves and other plant materials to the
female who constructs a platform nest
in the crotches of trees and other woody
plants. Rarely do they nest on the
ground.
On average, 2-3 eggs are laid, both
the male and female incubate, and the
eggs hatch about 21 days after incuba-
tion begins. The nestlings are born with
their eyes closed and cannot stand, pre-
ferring to sleep for the first week of life.
They are easily overheated, so both par-
ents make sure to keep them guarded
from the sun with their wings. Both par-
ents feed the chicks regurgitated food,
and around six weeks after hatching, the
fledgling ibises first leave the colony.
They do not leave permanently until they
are at least four-fifths of the adult mass,
which takes about two years to achieve.