Earth Day Nature Festival

On Earth Day weekend, the Nature Center invited a few friends to come and celebrate nature.  We had Amelia Island Sea Turtle Watch, Wild Amelia, Jacksonville Zoo, Forestry Service and Catty Shack Wildlife Sanctuary just to name a few.  All the tables were beautifully set with their own way of promoting Earth Day to our guests. With the steel drum band and snow cones we were set to go for a great party! Enjoy the pictures and hope to see you all next year for this fun occasion! 

Sea Turtle Watch

Wild Amelia

Who wants to celebrate with a giant Giraffe?

Jessica with a Timicuan! 

Useful game for all to learn!

Nature Center Earth Day learning table 

Jacksonville Zoo with the famous screech owl 

anyone for a baby alligator?

face painting :)

Heron vs. Snake

Yesterday we had a crazy start to our birding tour.  In the pond behind the nature center, we saw a Great Blue Heron trying to eat a big snake!  It was a southern water snake, about 4-5 feet long.  It was wrapped around the heron's bill, and the heron was trying to shake it and dunk in under water, but the snakes head kept popping back up.  Not sure if the heron was shaking it to kill it or to get it off it's bill.  We watched for a while, but then went on to see other birds (including two male painted buntings!).  Christina kept checking on it for us, and she saw it get the snake down its throat only to have it come back up again.  We're not 100% sure what the end result was, but we think the heron bit off more than it could chew and the snake got away.  I've seen a heron eating an eel during one of our kayak tours, but nothing like this nature battle before! 

Tanner and Tuesday

Omni-Amelia Island Plantation has a new mascot!  Meet Tanner the Turtle. Tanner loves to meet our guests and helps read stories during Tales with Tanner at the nature center. He also gives out treats by the pool and beach.  On Tuesday, he helped to rescue a baby raccoon that was found all alone nearby.  Way to go Tanner! Tanner thought that his new little friend, who a guest named Tuesday, might have fleas or ticks, and recommended a bath.  The poor baby's face shows you what he's feeling!

Tuesday felt much better after the bath, though.  Here he is all dry and fluffy.  Although we hated to see him go, we thought it would be best to hand the little guy over to the Wildlife Rescue Coalition in Jacksonville.  They got him hydrated but are still having a little trouble getting him to eat.  Sometimes it just takes time for them to realize that even though it's not from Mama, it's still good! 

Crab Grab is back at Walker's Landing!!!

Walker's Landing is now open! After a long winter this part of our property is now back open. These are some shots of Crab grab on our brand new docks. With the opening of the park we can now do our kayaks on property again also. This crab grab was a slow one but with warmer weather moving in so should the blue and stone crabs. While we use the old method of crabbing on our tours we still let the kids have some fun with nets and catch different creatures around the docks. Come visit the nature center to see some of our new animals we have collected so far on our tours.

Beautiful Bugs



Last week I saw this beautiful moth.  It was hardly moving, so I brought it back to the nature center to ID and so it wouldn't get stepped on.  When I opened my hand to look at it again, it flew up high into a tree.  Turns out it is a Giant Leopard Moth.  I didn't know we had such beautiful moths, besides the Luna Moth, which is a bright green. 

Tent Moth Caterpillar

The next day I saw some "bugs" with pretty patterns, so I thought I'd photograph them, too. 

Tussock Moth Caterpillar

Tussock Moth?

That just got me on a  roll, and since I almost always have my phone with me I've been taking photos with it of all of the interesting "bugs" I see.  Then if I don't already know what it is, I try to look up the identification.  Not easy when there are thousands of species in Florida! 


Multicolored Asian Lady Beetle pupa

Eastern Carpenter Bee

possibly Acrea Moth (Salt Marsh Caterpillar)?

Crablike Spiny Orbweaver (crab spider)

Squash Bug laying eggs

You can have fun and learn a lot just by observing the small critters around your neighborhood like these.  Kids love to learn about them, too.  A good idea is to keep a nature journal with drawings or photos and observations.  Good resources I've used are Audubon Guides to Florida Nature (there's an app for that, of course!) and also the website bugguide.net.  Maybe while the kids are looking for Easter eggs, they can see what else spring has brought!