The wind was brisk but died down as soon as we started paddling on a warm winter night, to see the sun set and the moon rise over Banks Lake, our mini-Okefenokee just west of Lakeland, Georgia.
![[Banners, Sunset, Moonrise]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2021-12-18--banks-lake-full-cold-moon-pictures/2021-12-18--many.jpg)
Russell even saw an osprey nest. Continue reading
Category Archives: Birds
Winner: Within These Walls Contest 4 2020-05-02
The winner of Within These WWALS number 4 is: Deanna Mericle.
She gets a packet of WWALS picture notecards from the WWALS online store.
The underwater plant is:
Eel grass, Zostera marina.
![[1 Plant]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2020-04-27--quiz4/1-plant.jpg)
Nope, not wild rice, Zizania aquatica, which usually sticks up above water.
Florida State Parks does say both occur in the subject stream.
The bird is: Continue reading
Winner: Within these WWALS #2 2020-04-18
The winner of the second Within These WWALS contest is…
Shirley Kokidko, of Pearson, Atkinson County, Georgia!
She got a packet of WWALS photo notecards for Swamps and Springs from WWALS charter board member emeritus Bret Wagenhorst.
Because all these plants and animals are found in the Okefenokee Swamp, headwaters of the Suwannee River.
Remember to send a comment to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers about the titanium strip mine proposed near the southeast corner of the Swamp.
![[Map: Floyds Island middle of Okefenokee Swamp]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2020-04-13--wwals-quiz/map-floyds-island.jpg)
Map: Floyds Island middle of Okefenokee Swamp
on the WWALS Suwannee River Wilderness Trail map.
The proposed Twin Pines Minerals Mine site is towards the lower right.
Quiz #4 will start shortly, but first, here are the answers to Quiz #2.
Name the flower: Continue reading
Air Force Accidentally Bombs Florida –People.com; Happy Fourth of July!
Maybe Moody AFB forgot the bombs were supposed to burst in air, and the pyrotechnics were meant as Fourth of July fireworks.
A BDU-33, U.S. AIR FORCE PHOTO BY AIRMAN 1ST CLASS EUGENE OLIVER
“There is a safety investigation that is ongoing to see what caused it,” an air base spokesperson tells PEOPLE. “We’re also trying to look into any lessons that we can learn from it and mitigate the situation to prevent it from happening in the future.”
The spokesperson says the investigation’s results will be released after it is finished.
That’s according to Char Adams, People.com, 3 July 2019, Air Force Accidentally Bombs Florida in Botched Training Exercise Continue reading
Moody dummy bomb report from Suwannee Springs –WCTV 2019-07-02
Will Moody AFB find the dummy bombs an A-10C Warthog dropped near Suwannee Springs the other day?
![[Sometimes they do and sometimes they don't]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2019-07-02--wctv-moody/2019-07-03-17:54:32--ss.jpg)
Sometimes they do and sometimes they don’t
Moody AFB said sometimes they search for them, and sometimes they don’t, depending on an ongoing safety examination.
![[Location Map]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2019-07-02--wctv-moody/2019-07-03-17:50:50--ss.jpg)
That is as reported by Emma Wheeler, WCTV, 2 July 2019, Moody jet hits bird, drops 3 dummy bombs over N. Florida.
She also interviewed me.
What else is in it? What are the pyrotechnics? What kind of environmental damage could it cause? We don’t really know. We’d like to know.
Continue reading
![[Doesn't encourage people to get on the rivers]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2019-07-02--wctv-moody/2019-07-03-17:53:56--ss.jpg)
Doesn’t encourage people to get on the rivers
Dummy bombs dropped by Moody AFB near Suwannee Springs 2019-07-01
If you see this, don’t pick it up, call 229-257-4146 (Moody AFB), or 911.
![[BDU-33, 22.5 inches long, blue, 25 pounds, do not handle]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2019-07-01--moody-afb-bomb/bdu-33.jpg)
Photo: Moody AFB: “The BDU-33 is a 25-pound training munition used to simulate the M1a-82 500-pound bomb. It is approximately 22 and a half inches long and is blue in color. Although the training munition is inert, it is equipped with a small pyrotechnic charge and should not be handled.”
One of those A-10 Warthogs we see flying overhead all the time dropped three of those dummy bombs yesterday, at a location that sounds very near Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park. Just as well this didn’t happen last week while we had 300 people paddling on the Suwannee River downstream.
Moody A-10 dropped object reported, By 23d Wing Public Affairs , 23d Wing Public Affairs / Published July 01, 2019. Continue reading
Cattle, sinkholes, and digups vs. Sabal Trail: Janet Barrow 2017-11-20
Sabal Trail apparently doesn’t know cattle.
The pipeline company claimed they know restoration, but that’s not what the ground looks like now, with sparse vegetation and erosion. They say they love wildlife, but they drove off a heron and who knows what else. They’re driving down property values. What are those bubbles? Which milepoint is which, anyway? Janet Barrow lives in Marion County, but she also reports on Citrus County. For 54 pages, with a summation.
For the rest of FERC Accession Number 20171120-5026, “Comment of Janet L Barrow under CP15-17, et. al.; A Citizen’s Supplemental Information Regarding Sabal Trail’s October, 2017 Monthly Report” on the WWALS website, follow this link.
-jsq, John S. Quarterman, Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®
You can join this fun and work by becoming a WWALS member today!
Eric Draper from Audubon Florida to FL State Parks
Noah Valenstein, formerly SRWMD, now FDEP Secretary, has appointed Eric Draper of Audubon Florida to head Florida State Parks. The same Eric Draper who twice endorsed Sabal Trail in writing, and did nothing to stop Sabal Trail from drilling under the Suwannee, Santa Fe, or Withlacoochee (South) Rivers, nor under the Suwannee River State Park that he will now oversee.
Walton Outdoors, Blog, 2 November 2017, Audubon Florida’s former executive director Eric Draper now director of Florida State Parks,
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Florida Department of Environmental Protection Secretary Noah Valenstein today announced three key appointments to DEP’s leadership team, as part of its continued focus on the protection of Florida’s prized properties through the management of Florida’s world-renowned state park system and land acquisition and conservation. Eric Draper will join the DEP team as the Director of Florida State Parks, effective Nov. 28, and Callie DeHaven will serve as Interim Director of the Division of State Lands effective Nov. 27, subject to Governor and Cabinet confirmation. David Clark, who has previously served as Director of State Lands and has been acting Deputy Secretary of Land and Recreation, has officially been appointed Deputy Secretary.
Aerial west across FL 200, down Withlacoochee (South) River, across Sabal Trail Marion County drill site, and Halpata Tastanaki Preserve. Photo by Jim Tatum on WWALS Southwings flight 7 February 2017.As Florida State Parks Director, Draper will Continue reading
Anhinga Trek on the Georgia Southern Rivers Birding Trail
Sites in WWALS watersheds include Paradise Public Fishing Area (PFA)
at the headwaters of our Withlacoochee River,
Reed Bingham State Park on our Little River,
Grand Bay Wildlife Management Area (WMA) upstream from our Alapaha River,
and
Stephen C. Foster State Park at the headwaters of our Suwannee River in the Okefenokee Swamp,
all on the Anhinga Trek of the
Southern Rivers Birding Trail.
You can buy a license for any of these parks or WMAs from the state, and you can also see anhingas and other fascinating wildlife on our water trails.
Or come along on upcoming WWALS outings: Continue reading
Boating with Gwyneth on Lake Lewis and the Alapaha River 2015-05-25
Update 2015-05-17: Upcoming events.
Memorial Day Monday, Gwyneth Moody of Georgia River Network will be down from Athens to see some sights on the Alapaha River Water Trail (ARWT). You are invited to boat among the birds at 9AM on Lake Lewis with WWALS and Gwyneth, to discuss the ARWT over lunch at Puerta vel Sol in Nashville, GA, and then to paddle upstream on the Alapaha River from Berrien Beach at GA 168. Continue reading