2009-10 Winter Tana Tour, A Day at the Bog

As I mentioned the other evening, Man and I found this neat bog over at 98/42 and Weeks Bay.  On the way over we drove through Magnolia Springs, discovered this magnificent display of live oaks.  The photo does not do justice to the beauty. There were several long blocks of these fabulous oaks.

We then drove over to the Weeks Bay Pitcher Plant Bog so we could walk the Kurt G. Wintermeyer Trail.  We had no idea where the board walk would lead us or what we would find.  It did not matter, we just let us lead us to those discoveries.

The Trail and Bog are part of the Weeks Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve.   I have only scratched the surface of their web site, so, if  you surf over, allow yourself some time!  You are going to need it.  The photos are wonderful.  Be sure to read the page About the Reserve.    And of course, you are going to want to visit this page just chock full of photos of the Wintermeyer Trail.   I said to myself, SELF, THAT is what you could see in a month or so.  Breathtaking.

(As of October 2018 the links I had used in this post have changed and have been removed.)

Because it is winter, everything is brown, we had to look quite hard to discover some of last years pitcher plants. By the way, pitcher plants are carnivorous plants.

Even more of a delightful surprise was what we found at the end of the boardwalk, ok, it was Weeks Bay and Fish River. However, Man and I got a bit of a science class while we were out on the dock watching the world go by, err, one fisherman go by in his rather small boat. A guy and a gal came out, they are part of a team studying water quality and other neat stuff about the water. There is a permanent water sampling station there, here it is, all this antenna looking equipment.

They also hand collect water, a very sophisticated affair, this collecting is.  The water was very muddy, I won't try to figure out or explain why, but, remember, we have had 20 inches of rain around here in December 09 and January 10.  You can learn more about this and see some neat graphics and much much more at this site, and if you visit the "O" Fish River Station you can see some of the readings.  Nope, ole Carol does not understand much of it, but, it is interesting to look at.

All in all, it was an interesting few hours. A time of respite.

Copyright 2010, CABS for Reflections From the Fence.
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