Florida Ecosystems Class Trip - Day 1

With vacations few and far between while in graduate school, my best chance of relaxing has been on what I have termed "education vacations."  My adviser has developed a set of three hour classes where the majority of class time is spent on location studying the local ecosystems.  Last spring we spent two weeks in Southwest Texas, visiting Big Bend NP, Guadalupe NP, and Carlsbad Caverns.  This year we are headed to Florida over Uk's spring break.  This is guaranteed to be a run-and-gun style trip in which we attempt to pack in as many ecosystems as the week will allow.  We might also wear out a few pairs of binoculars in search of such birds as the red-cockaded woodpecker and the rosette spoonbill.  My only request is a dozen oysters on the half shell eaten on a porch overlooking the ocean.

Day 1 was spent primarily surveying the varying ecosystems, both urban and rural, along three states worth of Interstate 75.  We pulled into Tall Timbers Research Station well after dark and hit the racks soon after.

Last years ecosystems crew on the highest peak in Texas