12/11/11 Native Spider Lilly Plants and invasive Water Hyacinths

I took a walk out into the swamp I live on and planted 14 native Spider Lilly Plants. I also pulled 14 Water Hyacinths from shore.

It felt good to put as many native into the swamp as exotics I pulled out. I don't have any Spider Lillies around my house but I see big patches of them down stream from me.

11/16/11 Cuban Anoles

Today I caught 2 Cuban Anoles at Back to Nature and 2 more at home. I also found one tiny Cesar Weed at home. All Cuban Anoles were Florida Snapping Turtle food.

11/13/11 Tallow, Taro and Air Potatoes

Today I led a University of Central Florida Eco-Advocates and Eco-Action team to fight the exotics in Jay Blanchard Park in Orlando. We took out 90 Taro plants, 2 big Chinese Tallow Trees adn 1 Air Potatoe vine. We took out some litter also.

Although we worked hard today I have just scratched the surface of the invasion in this park. The best park of today was having everyone grab the base of this one Chinese Tallow tree at the same time. We piled upon eachother and all together ripped that invasive SOB right out of the ground roots and all.

11/12/11 Cuban Anoles and Cesar Weeds

While visiting Back to Nature Wildlife Refuge I took out 2 Cuban Anoles (Anolis sagrei) and 20 Cesar Weeds. I got another sagrei at my house when I got home.

11/4/11 Cesar Weeds, Taros and Tallows

I returned to Lake Mills Park today. Eco-Action is cleaning the lake of litter and I'm on land fighting the war on exotics. I took out 21 Taro plants from the shoreline, 50 Cesar Weed Plants (again every one I could find) and 1 Chinese Tallow Tree.

10/10/11 Lake Mills

A did a walk though and took out 14 Cesar Weeds (which was every one I could find) and 1 mid sized Chinese Tallow Tree. I used my "Puller Bear" to rip the Chinese Tallow out of the ground roots and all.

Big Econlockhatchee River Water Hyacinth Hunt

     I headed out mid morning and disturbed a huge flock of White Ibis birds. There was about 40 of them and they expolded with wings flapping and duck like calls. Due to the river being very flooded I had to wade out to my canoe and pull it up from underwater. I went out and found the recent flood has brought with it thousands of Water Hyacinths. I collected 101 of them and three Chinese Tallow Trees.
     Pulling out a tree while blancing in a canoe is a real test of skill. If you think of the most skilled canoeists in the world, the volunteers from Eco-Action.net are better.

17 less Cuban Anoles from UCF

     This kind of blurry action picture is two of my baby Box Turltes attacking a baby Cuban Anole. Of the 17 Cuban Anoles (Anolis sagrei) I caught on Friday 10/14/11, two were babies and fed to my four Box Turtles. The other 15 will be fed to my Florida Snapping Turtle. Yes this is how I spend my Friday night, hunting exotic invasive species.

100 Air Potatoes from Jay Blanchard Park

As fall cools things down, exotic/invasive hunting begins again. I teach a Yang Style Tai Chi Class in Jay Blanchard Park (See Meetup.com then East Orlando Self-Defense Group). As I was waiting for class to begin I picked off 100 Air Potatoes. I'll take them home and burn them.

My new Cuban Anole eating machine

           This Florida Snapping Turtle spent all day Tuesday with me. It came to work with me, went to a UCF Eco-Advocates meeting with me, then in the evening a Florida Native Plants meeting. It behaved so sweetly the whole day. It spent hours with its head in my arm sleeping through the meetings.
     I tell people, "Don't be decieved, when this thing eats its not pretty." Tonight (Wednesday) I fed it six Cuban Anoles and one dead Finch from the animal hospital I volunteer at.
    Note in this picture this Florida Snapping Turtle is very swollen. I cured this water retention, a skin infection it had and a bad smell too. It is doing much better now.

Three Anolis Sagrei and a Feral Cat

     There are so many Cuban Anoles here in Orlando you can catch them by hand. Just on my walk from my car into work this morning I caught three. All three will be fed to some rehabbing animal at the Wildlife Hospital.

     I released ten Doves and one Sparrow for the hospital yesterday. I went inside my house for one minute, came back out to make sure they had flown away and a feral cat had showed up out of nowhere. I was unable to catch the cat, but I did scare the whiskers off of it.

     (Update) I after finding a pile of Dove feathers on my front porch I declared war on the feral cats in my area. I finally did catch this Dove killer with a "Have-a-heart" trap baited with cat nip flavored food. Just FYI I I do have a permitt from the goverment to catch domestic feral cats.  I think the goverment should put a reward out for every cat you can bring in, dead or alive.

Blanchard Park

Before my self-defense class I took out 11 Cesar Weeds and found a new infestation of Japanese Climbing Fern.

Big Tree Park

     I met some friends at Big Tree Park in Sanford Florida the other day. I was suprised to see a fair amount of exotics in this very well kept park. I just couldn't help but jump the boardwalk fence and rip out four fifteen-foot Chinese Tallow Trees. There was Cesar Weed and Air Potatoe there also, but only in small forms.

My Green Army

     I haven't been out of action. But I've been away from blogging. I've begun a big project that is going very well. I volunteer at Back to Nature Wildlife Refuge. We raise many young animals including Blue Jays, Opossums, Crows, Box Turtles, Raccoons, Gopher Tortoises, Grey Cat Birds and many more. We often raise these animals from very young, we teach them what food is. When ever I find a Cuban Anole on the property I feed it to one of the baby animals. I'm teaching them to grow up and go out Cuban Anole hunting! I'm teaching native animals to go out and hunt exotic invasive species.

     It is also good to get these animals off of baby animal food and into a more natural hunting diet. BTN does not keep the animals, we rescue them, raise them, rehabilitate them, then release them.  

Cesar Weeds (Urena lobata)

     This is my log of efforts to rid Florida of exotic and invasive Cesar Weed. This plant is a catagory II invasive plant under the Dept. of Environmentl Protection. It takes over low level forest and crowds out every other plant. I collect these plants and take them home and burn them. You can't use them as fertilizer unless you mulch them to the smallest peices, because you will be planting their seeds.
     It took my years to rid my 5 1/2 acre property of them, now I've branched out to all of Central Flroida.

2/6/11
     I have been fighting the worst Flu I've ever had. For the first time in days I felt good enough to drive to the store. So I also stopped by Lake Mills and pulled out 70 baby Cesar Weeds. Just doing that made me tired and I had to stop and rest. There is no adult plants here and I got 90% of the newest baby ones.
     Once I get over this Flu, I know this will be the year I rid several Orlando parks of every last Cesar Weed.

1/22/11
     I went with my friend Sara today to join in on the Great Air Potato Raid 2011. Along with Air Potatoes we took out 281 Cesar Weeds.

Snake Plant, Mother's Tongue, African Bow String (Sanservieria hycinthoides)

1/24/11
     These are Sanservieria hycinthoides, also known as Snake Plants, or Mother's Tongue, or African Bow String Plants. Today in my quest to rid my property of exotic invasive plants I pulled out 123 of these African Bow Plants. Some broke off and may regrow, but you can see in the bottom picture I got most roots and all.

Update 3/13/2012
      Just a few of these Snake Plants have come up around my house. But I'll be pulling them out and burning them soon.

Air Potato Vine (Dioscorea bulbifera)

1/22/11
     I went with my friend Sara today to join in on the Great Air Potato Raid 2011. We went out with Seminole County and collected 111 Air Potatoes. We also collected some litter including a half full bottle of Vodka. In the picture Sara has the biggest Air Potato I've ever seen. Many people said they have found even bigger ones in other places.
    The organizers and volunteers both said they collected more last year. I take this as a good sign that the problem is getting better. Several organizations joined in with today's Air Potato raid.

1/14/11 Highway 50 Recreation Center

     I've visited this park briefly before. But recently I looked at it on Mapquest.com and saw there was a lot of it I hadn't seen. So today I returned to the HWY-50 Rec Center and really explored. There was a lot of land there including paved paths, streams, swamps, a baseball field (where I took the top picture of the only invasive Japanese Climbing Fern I saw there and which I'll have to come back for) playgrounds and entries to adjoining apartment complexes.
     I found Brazilian Pepper everywhere. It is quite bad here. This is the closest Brazilian Pepper I know of to my house. There was a few Air Potatoes on the ground also.
     I found an arrow (see bottom picture) which I kept. There was lots of recyclable garbage and lot of balls I'll come back for, especially around the apartment complexes.
     There was a group of seedy looking people in one area which made me uncomfortable. At lease there was no dogs. I was not armed in any way because I didn't realize how large the park was.

1/13/11 Goldenrod Park and the Mystical Forest

     I found a new park today. It was a strange little park, mostly parking lot, with rows of Sable Palms and other trees. I think this park used to be larger and has been chopped away at by local businesses. Two Hawks were loudly calling and the air was freezing cold. On one end of the property I found a Brazilian Pepper Tree which I ripped a branch off of to burn later. (see top two pictures). Now that I know what Brazilian Pepper looks like and smells like I see them everywhere. I used to think there were only a problem down in the everglades. If you tear open a leaf it has a strong "Pine sol" smell.      Later I went to my Mystical Forest and collected 10 big Air Potatoes. I made a pyramid out of them.

1/12/11 Return to Blanchard Park, A Brazilian Pepper Tree and my Laundry.

     I came back to survey Blanchard Park and found the wall of Cesar Weeds to be leafless. Recent frosts have stripped them bare and now I can see just how extensive the invasion is (see top picture). I'd love to burn them if I could. It is still freezing and I have arthritis, so I fought to pull off 100 Air Potatoes from the recently frost burned vines (bottom picture) and 4 Cesar Weeds until my hands couldn't take it any more.
     Later I went to eat dinner and remembered there was a Brazilian Pepper Tree near by. I ripped off a branch to bring home to burn.
     I think I saw Turk's Turban there also. If it is it would be the first time I've seen Turban loose in the wild. I need to see it have flowers or seeds before I can be sure.
     Then I went to do my laundry at the laundry mat. They know me there and tonight let me have the key to their back dumpster to pull out the cardboard and empty laundry soap containers. Now my five recycling bins are full of other people's beer bottles, soap containers and cardboard.

Channel Apple Snails (Pomazea insularum)

     1/9/11
     Today I arrived early for an Eco-Action Canoe River Clean Up at Econlockhatchee Road and Harrell Road. This is part of the Little Econlockhathee River. I came to take pictures and work the shore line on foot. Right away I noticed another irrisponsible Pit Bull dog owner sitting with his dog off a lease. I quietly walked back to by car and strapped on my fighting knife. The owner put the dog on a lease when he saw me coming back.
     I worked for two hours before the group arrived (I had to leave early to teach a class). I Picked up bunch of beer cans and blown in plastic bags.
     I picked up 88 Air Potatoes and one big Cesar Weed plant.
     I noticed an exotic and invasive type of snail called the Island Apple Snail (Pomacea insularum) shell all along the river bank, then I saw the tell tale pink egg cases along a wall. The native snails have small white egg cases while the exotic ones have large pink egg sacks. I couldn't get to the eggs because they were out of reach and I didn't have a canoe with me. But Eco-Action will get them. From all the empty snail shells, I see that something, maybe Limpkins, are eating the invasive species. I have no problem with that as long as the exotics (like Talapia fish and Armoured Catfish) are not a danger to the birds that eat them.
     I feel at peace sometimes, just unwinding Air Potato vines from some native tree. Or slowly collecting recyclables off the shore bank. There is something meditative about putting an environment back on the right track.

1/5/11 Mystical Forest

     I returned to the Mystical Forest and picked 50 Air Potatos off of the vines. The vines are leafless or burned from recent frosts. If I'm going to keep collecting these Air Potatos I need to find a way to destroy them.
     I made a Air Potato snake. :)

1/4/11 Mystical Forest

     There is a odd stretch of very low elevation woods, sandwiched between a shopping center and a highway. It is the most wild mix of exotic/invasive and native plants and animals I've seen yet. The large trees here are completely covered with some kind of vine. It is an island of last hope for native Golden Orb Spiders and native Green Anole Lizards. From the elevation I suspect these woods are often under water, yet I have not seen any swamp plants here yet.

     I have been here several times before to protect Green Anoles and kill Cuban Anoles.

     Today I collected 19 large and small Air Potatoes from the outskirts of this woods. I have a foot injury right now from my Hapkido class. So I could only slowly walk around. I have an active life and injures are often part of my day.
     It will take me years to clear these woods of exotics. But that's ok. These kinds of giant projects give my life meaning. It is this type of never ending goals that subconsciously promote longevity. "I can't die I haven't returned these Magical Woods (and twenty other parks) to a native state yet."

So far I know this wooded area has the following exotics:
Cuban Anole Lizards
Air Potato Vines
Paper Mulberry Trees
Japanese Climbing Vines
Litter from Humans

I've also seen the following natives:
Green Anole Lizards
Blue Tailed Skinks
Red Shouldered Hawks
Golden Orb Spiders
Passion Vines
Beauty Berry Bushes

1/2/11 Holiday Initiative X, Return to Bridge Out

     I returned to the Big Econlockhatchee to clean up after other people's New Years celebrations. While other people are at their churches this Sunday morning, I'm out here protecting Florida's native eco-systems. I had to postpone my main clean up due to a large dog barking at me. I carry a survival knife for dogs. The owner showed up and at my request put the dog on a leash.      I picked up most but not all of the beer bottles and cans that were thrown all throughout the bushes. I don't drink alcohol but I have three recycling bins full of beer bottles. I also picked up several can rings (see the bottom picture), these things are very dangerous to animals. I always cut the rings open before putting them in my recycling bin.
     I found one Air Potato and an old Trot Line that was tied to a Cypress Knee.

1/1/10 Holiday Initiative VIIII, The Big Econlockhatchee River "Bridge Out" I

    
     I started off this year on the Big Econlockhatchee River down the street from my house. An area known as "Bridge Out" by my Eco-Action family. I was Cesar Weed hunting, but recent frosts have knocked all the leaves off the plants. So I have no way to identify them.
     So instead I pulled out four bags of beer bottles and cans. That was about half of what was out there. I may go back tomorrow to finish the job. (See top picture)
     Not to far into the woods I found a dead Wild Boar. Wild Boar are an exotic and dangerous species here in Florida. One less Boar is a good thing.
     I did catch one Cuban Anole lizard and two Air Potatoes also.

12/31/10 Holiday Initiative VIII, Seminole Environmental Center and Orlando's Azalea Park

     I went with my friend Sara to the Environmental Studies Center in Winter Springs Florida. There was long trails there with bins for Air Potato Vines. There was lots of Cesar Weeds along the trails and also some Japanese Climbing Ferns. I didn't see any Chinese Tallow.

     Later I found Azalea Park in Orlando (There is another Azalea Park in Winter Park). While exploring the park I took out 7 Cesar Weeds 14 Air Potatoes and an arm full of the vines. I did notice Turk's Turban there also but I'm thinking they may have put it there on purpose. I may pull it out anyway because it is such and invasive pest. (See the above picture of the Air Potato leaf).