Weeden Island Preserve Fieldtrip

This week I took my class to the Weedon Island Preserve in St. Petersburg. The class is a seminar, an interdisciplinary overview of the Humanities with Florida as a unifying theme. My students are freshmen in the University Honors program at the University of South Florida, St. Petersburg. This fieldtrip to Weedon Island was a chance to escape the classroom for an afternoon, and a chance to visit a place that is both a valuable natural resource and a valuable cultural resource. The Preserve is managed by Pinellas County Parks, and offers nature trails, interpretative exhibits, historic sites, Indian mounds, kayaking, birdwatching, educational programs, and more.

The design on the exterior of the museum is inspired by a prehistoric culture that flourished here a couple of thousand years ago, the Weeden Island culture, known for its elaborate pottery. This particular pattern would be Weeden Island Punctate, basically made by poking wet clay with the end of a reed or stem. The Weeden Island culture was found along the gulf coast from Tampa Bay northward and westward into southern Georgia and Alabama.

Jesse Fewkes of the Smithsonian Institution named the site and the culture in the 1920s when he excavated the site. He was also, unfortunately, responsible for a spelling error. Archaeologists refer to the Weeden Island culture and the Weeden Island site, and Weeden Island pottery. That's Weeden with three e's. But the name of the island is actually Weedon Island, with two e's and one o. Technically speaking, the island's name originally was Weedon's Island, with a possessive apostrophe s. In the 1890s the island was a wedding present to Blanche Henderson and Leslie Weedon, a Tampa physician. The couple and their family used the island as a weekend retreat. A twist to the story is that Leslie Weedon was the grandson of Frederick Weedon, known to historians as the doctor to Osceola while the Seminole leader was imprisioned in St. Augustine. When Osceola died, Dr. F. Weedon prepared his body for burial, but for some reason kept Osceola's head separate.

Further Reading: The Weedon Island Story (pdf)

Nature Photos from Pasco County

Here are a few photographs from a recent visit to Key Vista Environmental Park and the Anclote Gulf Park, including (in no particular order) an anhinga, pine trees, a brown pelican, a jellyfish, a pipefish, a fiddler crab, blazing star, and birds on powerlines.

Pygmy Rattlesnake

A couple of weeks ago I pulled into my mother's driveway and noticed something laying on the concrete. At first I thought it was a unusually large earthworm, then perhaps a young snake. Carefully, I gave the snake a nudge with a stick, and indeed, it was deceased. Perhaps a lawnmower encounter. Not long ago we'd had to gently eject a young black racer the cat brought into our breakfast nook, but this driveway snake had spots, so that wasn't it.

Since the snake wasn't hurting anything, the question of its parentage became a mystery deferred. Until this week when Eva at The Flying Mullet wrote about her first encounter with a pygmy rattlesnake. Fortunately -for the snake - her story had a better ending.

Lemon Tree

Between summer seabreeze storms and blazing 90+ degree temperatures, I've been attempting to keep my backyard from turning into a set for The Jungle Book. Turns out we aren't the only ones living here.

It's hard to tell what kind of frog this is, with just the eyes peeking out of the PVC pipe that used to be a stake for the lemon tree.

Another guest has moved on, leaving her old clothes behind. I'll have to watch out, or she'll come back and leave the kids for me to feed.

Giant Swallowtail

Upper Tampa Bay Park

The Upper Tampa Bay Park offers a wide range of outdoor recreational opportunities, from canoeing and fishing to hiking and picnicing. This public park is located at the very northern end of Old Tampa Bay, where Double Branch empties into Mobbly Bay.

Tampa Bay is an estuary, and in Upper Tampa Bay Park you can see this clearly for yourself, from the open bay waters, to the mangroves and marshes, and on up stream to inland creeks. In just a short walk on the Eagle Nature Trail (yes, named appropriately for the birds that live around here), you can experience several different environmental settngs: hardwood hammocks, freshwater marshes, salt barrens, mud flats, saltwater marshes, and mangroves. Shallow waters close to shore teem with young fish, while their larger brethern lurk in deeper waters, dodging the lures and bait of fishermen. Creatures you might encounter include fiddler crabs, deer, bobcats, racoons, snakes, and birds. And lots and lots of lizards rustling in the palmetto leaves.

The park is very well laid out, and manages to combine nature trails, a canoe/kayak launch, a nature center / educational building, picnic pavilions, playground, sand volleyball court, restrooms, and convenient parking without seeming like everone is falling over each other. This is a popular place for school field trips. The nature center includes live animals (turtles, snakes, and a bee hive) as well as interpretive displays. One panel explains how the park came to be, deriving from the 1960s Bay Port Colony development and environmental review of dredge and fill permits (You can click on the photo below for a larger view).

Entry is free, but donations are welcome and are used to pay for improvements such as the canoe launch. Remember to take and use insect repellant to ward off mosquitos and noseeums.

Paddle and Path

From today's mailbox, an announcement --

New Paddle Website:
Paddle and Path is an informative source about exploring Florida's trails and waterways. Conceived by a couple of University of South Florida (St. Petersburg) Florida Studies grad students, Paddle & Path features links to all things kayaking, canoeing, backpacking and outdoor; while at the same time sneaking in a little Florida history.


In Paddle and Path, you can find information on hiking and paddling events statewide, and recommendations of paddling gear and guidebooks. There's also essays and short articles from established and up-and-coming Florida nature writers. I was a grad student along with Nevin and Edward, and I've paddled down some Florida rivers with them, and I'd do it again. I'm excited about their new venture, and hope you will be, too.