Being entirely honest with this post this was my least favorite field trip this semester only because I have taken it so many times prior. I have to say though that every time I have been there I have seen something new that I didn't see the time before. One year when I went to the Corkscrew Swamp I was lucky enough to be there when the extremely rare Ghost orchid was in bloom, it was kind of disappointing though because the guide talked it up soo much and then when he finally showed it to us I was expected this flower to WOW! me, it didn't. It was a plain white flower, not what they built it up to be .
On this trip to the swamp though I did learn about the endangered Wood Stork and that the sanctuary is working on on bringing their numbers back up. Progressively the number of storks that are breeding are increasing.
What I did not enjoy on this field trip was being guided, as I have heard much of what I was told previously in other classes. All about the watershed and how the swamp is a vital piece of our regional watershed by helping to move the water and further filter it. Also all about the different ecosystems we were passing through as we walked through the different elevations. Some of the ecosystems we encountered were the pineflatwoods, they were the highest and driest and the cypress dome which was lower in elevation and higher in water level. We also walked across a boardwalk that took use through a wet prairie(see below).
For this field trip I would have enjoyed it much more if I had been allowed to simply walk, look, and listen. Take my time, look at what I wanted for as long as I wanted. Being as I already had the background on the sanctuary I think I would have gotten more out of the trip if I had just went out on my own and just observed.
Observation is my favorite thing to do, I often catch myself staring at someone or something just trying to figure out why it is doing what it is doing or maybe how it is doing what it is doing. I felt that on this field trip we were rushed, it was a whirl wind tour with massive amounts of information being thrown at you. I feel like I would have gotten more out of the trip had I been given more time to just look, listen, and ponder.
I would most defiantly visit the Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary again, I find it to be extremely relaxing when you have the time to stroll through it. Also the less people you go with the more likely you are to actually see something living!! We did though, on our class field trip, manage to see some wildlife. We saw a Lubber Grasshopper, a Pig Frog, and also some juvenile alligators.
-http://sofia.usgs.gov/virtual_tour/images/photos/corkscrew/css_boardwalk.jpg
-http://www.naplesnews.com/photos/2006/jan/26/4823/
-http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www2.stetson.edu/~pmay/woodruff/ranagry.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.stetson.edu/~pmay/woodruff/frogs.htm&usg=__Qzd1cQpcCnq0yMbqzqXh3x1IFA=&h=582&w=800&sz=83&hl=en&start=0&zoom=1&tbnid=RwyCtesd84bcIM:&tbnh=141&tbnw=187&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dpig%2Bfrog%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26biw%3D1259%26bih%3D564%26tbs%3Disch:1&um=1&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=970&vpy=80&dur=203&hovh=191&hovw=263&tx=159&ty=110&ei=20T-TMbcMML68Abj1tDpBw&oei=20T-TMbcMML68Abj1tDpBw&esq=1&page=1&ndsp=18&ved=1t:429,r:5,s:0
-http://bugguide.net/node/view/8811
-http://www.bluechameleon.org/Reptile%20&%20Amphibian%20Photography.htm
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