Day 5 2/2/15 Ding Darling

Ding Darling entrance 

Day 5 saw a early start, 6.00am. The weather in the morning was foggy, light showers but humid but 8.00am onwards the sun came out and remained hot for the remainder of the day. 
7.05 bottlenose dolphin en route to Ding Darling, it was swimming. 

Ding Darling wildlife refuge. 

'Land, water and vegetation are just that dependent on one another. Without these three primary elements in natural balance, we can have neither fish nor game, wild flowers nor trees, labor nor capital, nor sustaining habitat for humans.'

- Jay Norwood Darling

Jay Norwood Darling

Jay Norward Ding Darling was born in Michigan in 1876. Darling was a very talented artist with a specialty for cartoons. He joined the Des Moines Register in 1906, from then on he signed his cartoons Ding, as it came from combing the first initial of his last name with the last three letters. 

His cartoons where known for their humor and politics. The cartoons where in 130 newspapers on a daily basis. 1934 he was named the best cartoonist. 

Darling had a passion for politics and conservation, he was worried the effects pollution and hunting was doing to the survival of the wildlife. He was a keen hunter and fisherman, so he used his cartoons to get the message across to the people that regulations that govern the sports needs to be looked and changed. 

In 1934, the President at the time, Franklin Roosevelt invited Darling to lead the United States Biological Survey, which also has the U.S fish and wildlife service. He fought for more money to be spent on conservation and protection of wetlands, after a battle he managed to secure $17 million dollars. He set up the Migratory Bird Conservation Commission. 

One of Darling cartoons. 

First Duck Stamp, Darling drew. 1934

Darling started the Federal Duck Stamp program. This is issued when a person wants to hunt. The money raised from the purchase of duck stamps goes towards conservation and the preservation of the land. 

The J.N. 'Ding' Darling National Wildlife Refuge and neighboring islands were responsible for creating a refuge on Sanibel Island. The land was donated by worried citizens that it might be built on. It has been under protection by the U.S Fish and Wildlife Service since 1945, but in 1978 it was renamed in Darling memory and honor. 

We walked round the refuge with a guide, Judy, explained the history and the behavioural habits of the birds. We saw a large array of birds and other wildlife. 

8.30 White pelicans 

White pelicans feeding 

8.30 Great Egrets
8.30 Reddish Egrets performing a canopy dance
8.30 Snowy Egrets 
8.40 Blue heron 
8.55 Crab in the water 
8.56 Anhinga flew in and landed in the tree
9.00 Osprey 
9.05 horseshoe crab shells 
9.05 Roseate Spoonbill
9.15 Black tree crabs 
9.20 Black rat snake 
9.30 Young horseshoe crab 

Cormorant 

9.30 Fiddler crabs
9.30 Mangrove crabs
9.40 Roseate Spoonbill 
9.40 Greater yellow legs 
9.55 Brown anole
10.00 Mullets 

Abbie holding a horseshoe crab shell
and  showing it to the group 

View from the observation tower 

Brown anole 

Black tree crab 

Black rat snake 

After the walk around, we went back to the Visitors centre and watched a video, this was going over what Judy had already told us. We had a little time spare before we where due back at the coaches, so we walked along trail. We saw a alligator, racer snake and a rat snake. These were all hard to spot due to their camouflage.

We went to Barefoot beach in the afternoon, which is a 10 minute walk to Vester. On the beach we saw brown and white pelicans and gopher tortoise.


In the evening we had a big surprise, manatees came into Vester, a female and a calf. A few of us went in the canoes but this seemed to stress them out and kept going out of view. Seeing the manatee was a definite highlight of the whole trip. amazing!

Dingdarlingsociety.org,. N.p., 2015.

Day 4 1/3/15 Lovers Key

Day 4 saw a little lay in, until 8.00am. The weather today was..... sunny and hot. 
Today we went to Lovers Key, only a 15 minute drive from Vester. 

View from the bridge- searching for manatees

Lovers key is one of 4 barrier islands, Black Island, Long Key, Inner Key and Lovers Key. The only way of accessing these islands was via boat, so ;legends suggests if couples wanted to spend some along time, this is where they would head to, hence the name lovers key. A road was built in the 1960s to connect the islands to the mainland.During the alterations the mangrove forests where altered severely.  During the 1980s the landowner wanted to drain the land and build homes and businesses but fortunately the owner found out it was illegal to change the land, so the land was donated, the Islands where merged with Carl. E, Johnson state park. In total there is 1616 acres of conserved land.  Black island got its name from a pirate called Black Augustus who had been caught but then later escaped and Black island was his home until he died, so legend has it. 
Two sections were drained; a barrier island and a beach. 
Lovers key has an ecotone which is an intermediate between 2 habitats/ecosystems, marine into land. It is very important for mating. 

Gopher tortoise

Lovers key are home to keystone species; gopher tortoise, they hold the ecosystem together by digging tunnels and this is used for a refuge to small animals during wild fires.
The State of Florida are in the process of restoring the land by removing the invasive vegetation and allowing the native plants grow. The land was previously set up by artesians which supplied fresh water but these where abandoned when the construction work was due to commence. The islands are now used as recreation uses for example, swimming, canoeing and other water based sports. 


Arrived in Lovers Key. 
9.27  black vultures on post in car park. x2

9.34  grey squirrel

9.50  grackle – flying around in the air
9.50 brown pelicans – flying around

9.55 mosquito fish

9.55 brown anoles

alligator chilling in the shade

9.55  Sea grape – tree, edible fruit

10.00  mosquito fish – swimming slowly, or being still

10.00  brown anole change a lighter colour

10.08  Zebra longwing butterfly  

10.14  grey squirrel – climbing tree, then jumping to the next tree.

10.16  Prickly pear cactus

10.20  Eastern screech owl – perched in a hole within a tree – resting

10.21  strangler fig surrounding tree

10.22  small jellyfish, looks like a small plastic bad – seen from the viewing platform at the waters edge. 

10.22 school of small fish, grey, black stripe on top with whiteish head.

10.26  conch,  in shallow water surrounding viewing platform

10.26  Gumbo lumbo tree – red bark peeling off

10.31  Grey nicker bean 

10.32  Gopher tunnel

Eastern screech owl having a snooze

10.33  Orange barred butterfly

10.35  Gopher tortoise next to tunnel visible, facing the tunnel.

10.14  Gopher tortoise, in burrow, rear end visible, moved slowly, head visible, backed back into the hole out of sight. Location – off path in shade of trees.

10.56  black vulture flying over water
11.00  alligator 

11.10  Dragonfly – yellow/ orange, only underside visible

11.10 buzzing noise in bushes it could be crickets

11.19  strangler fig

11.22  white ibis, perched on mangroves

11.25  Needle fish – long blue needle like fish, medium size, black stripe on back.

11.30 Julia butterfly 

11.41  blue heron 

11.44  Several juvenile alligators

Brown anole

11.45  Great southern white butterfly

11.50 Bees

11.55  Fish jumping out of water – sign of hunting or dislodging parasites

12.00  brown anole near water

12.14  black racer snake 

We walked around the reserve for a couple hours, finding many animals and plants.
After lunch we went onto the beach for a while, it was amazing, definitely what we needed to cool down from the heat. We saw a wide range of wildlife, horseshoe crab shells, which had been eaten by raccoon's, brown pelicans and great blue heron. These birds in particular where obviously used to humans, as they allowed you to within touching distance before they flew or moved away.

ahhh watch out!

Lovers Key Beach 

When we returned from Lovers Key, we went into the canoes. This was a great opportunity to up close to some of the wildlife and to get a closer look at the mangroves.  We saw a wide variety of birds especially the osprey.  We thought we saw an alligator, but got to scared and paddled away. The water was surprisingly shallow, so we could see the bottom and the array of oyster shells. It wasn't only us on the water, it was very popular with boat owners, so we had to be careful and get out of their way. 

Abbie and I canoeing at Vester Field Station

Group of us returning to base after an afternoon in the canoes at Vester Field Station

At approximately 22.50 NASA launched a rocket, to send supplies to the space station, even though we were hundred miles away we could still see it. It was like a small ball of light heading into the sky. This was a great to experience witnessing a rocket launch.

Rocket launch. 

Day 3- 28/02/15 Disney Wilderness Preserve

Day 3 bought the long journey to Vester field station, so we where up at 6.30am for breakfast and packing. The weather still hadn't improved, in fact it had become worse. So it came to 8.00 and we all bundled into the mini buses and set off. The journey was about 4 hours, so we made a detour a stopped at the Disney Wilderness Preserve

8.13 - Grey squirrel (At the Best Western Space Shuttle Hotel) sitting on a fence
8.35- White tailed deer   (en route to the Disney Wilderness Preserve )
8.35- Turkey (en route to the Disney reserve)
8.38 Black cows (en route to the Disney Wilderness Preserve ) grazing
8.55 Black cows (en route to the Disney Wilderness Preserve ) grazing
9.00 Reddish egret (en route to the Disney Wilderness Preserve ) flying
9.20 Horses (en route to the Disney Wilderness Preserve ) grazing

Bit too neat. 

Upon arriving at Disney Wilderness Preserve , all we could see was pristine areas and neatly cut trees, I was thinking this a bit too neat and tidy to be a wildlife reserve.





The preserve is 11,500 acres located close to Kissimee. The preserve is home to over 1,000 species of animals and plants, the preserve is a very important area of the Everglades as it contains 3,500 acres of restored wetlands. These wetlands are essential as they catch the rain, replenish the ground water and filter the nutrients. The main area of the preserve is 8,500 acres of cattle ranching. The Disney wilderness preserve work alongside the Nature Conservancy and the State of Florida, the Walt Disney Company bought the land to help make up for loss of land and wetland lost to the creation of Walt Disney World. 3,000 extra acres were added in 1995 by the Orlando Aviation Authority to make up for the expansion of the airport. 

The lake where the alligator was observed

The preservation of the reserve has managed to remove invasive plants by controlled fires and manually removing the plants. This land was used for logging and ranching a lot in the past decades and it has now been lovingly restored to near perfection.  

10.00 Tropical sage

10.00 Carolina wild petuina

10.00 Florida paintbrush

10.00 Yellow jessamine 

10.00 Coontine

10.00 Spotted beebalm

10.00 Carolbean

10.00 Shiny blueberry 

10.00 Smallflower pawpaw

Very wet!

10.00 Chapmans goldenrod 

10.00 Adams needle 

10.00 Obiongleaf twinflower 

10.10 Waterlilies 

10.20 Alligator 

10.30 Bobcat scat - with hair 

11.16 Northern mockingbird and American crow

The weather suddenly went from light rain to really heavy rain, so we had to abandon and go back to the minivans. Everyone was soaked through. My jumper had turned me blue!

The rest of the day consisted of travelling down to Vester. We stopped on the way down for lunch, I had a Wendy's, it was like a nicer Burger King. I managed to accidentally through my drink all over Abbie, luckily it was a bit disaster.  

By the time we arrived at Vester the weather still wasn't brilliant but it was improving gradually. We unpacked the vans and headed straight to the supermarket, Publix. This reminded me of a Waitrose. It was a little more expensive than I remembered, so I stuck to the real basics and chose items that would keep me satisfied for the longest. 

The evening turned out to be great fun, we all stayed out on the veranda socializing, getting to know everyone, we ended up playing beer pong (without the beer), which was a real laugh, a great ice breaker. 

Nature.org,. 'The Disney Wilderness Preserve | The Nature Conservancy'. N.p., 2015. Web. 2015

Day 2- 27/02/15 - Wildlife Reserve, Merritt Island

The alarm rang at 6.30am, Abbie and I didn't want to move from our comfy beds. After a few minutes Abbie made the first move.
The weather was chilly, windy and rainy.
Breakfast was ready for 7.00am. There was a selection of food; fruit, cereals, sausages, toast and a pancake machine, it was inevitably that everyone went straight for the pancakes and maple syrup.

Pancakes and maple syrup!

As we made our may to Merritt Island we saw a range of wildlife and vegetation.; palm trees, lakes and trees in lakes.
8.35- Red Shouldered Hawk- it defecated whilst flying.
8.50 - Osprey building a nest
8.55 - stuffed bald eagle, northern flakier, gray catbird, screech owl, indigo snake, bobcat, gopher tortoise, raccoon and coral snake.
9.00- american alligator and hawksbill sea turtle






The Merritt Island is a barrier island of the coast of Florida. There was 16,000 acres of salt marsh. The salt marshes are home to mosquitoes, they lay their eggs in the dry mud. In the 1920s hundreds of ditches were dug to control the mosquitoes but unfortunately this didn't help solve the problem due to the fact of continuous maintenance and the low tidal amplitude in the are, so the experiment was pulled. During the 1930s impounding was thought to be a good way to control the mosquito populations, the water loss due to evaporation became too much so this was all abandoned.

Great blue heron

In the 1940s a Swiss chemist, Paul Hermann Müller came up with a product to control the mosquitoes; DDT, (dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane) a chemical pesticide. By the 1950s the life cycle of the mosquitoes had broken down, there was water all year round that saw fish living in there all year round, so the fish ate the mosquito larvae however by the mid 1950s resistance started to occur and there were concerns about what this chemical was doing to the environment. Brevard County in 1954 renewed the importance of impounding, not long after other counties by the lagoon followed. 1959 around 3,200 ha of wetlands had been impounded and 16,200 ha by 1970s. The impoundements were built at the high water mark and some of the impoundments were connected by the estuary. Many were flooded all year round by some let go of their water during the fall and the winter. 

One of the impoundments

Anhinga 

Impounding does have an effect on the environment. The water quality has degraded which is a great concern, isolation of habitat which is important for sport and fishing during the most crucial times in the animals life cycle, removal of the productive marshes and the disturbance to the free flowing nutrients and organisms between the wetlands and lagoon. In some impoundments nearly all of the plants were removed due to the water level being too high. Over flooding removed the herbaceous halophyte,salt tolerant cover from some of the marshes. Black mangroves were eliminated from some impoundements due to their short pneumatophores,above-ground roots which can't deal with the lengthily high water levels. All of these effects resulted in the total wipe out of some vegetation in some impoundements, and the replacement of the natural high marsh vegetation which included the black mangroves and red mangroves. Impounding also had a negative effect on the wildlife the diversity of fish decreased, the majority of the species that disappeared where transient, so spent time in the mangroves and the marsh lands. 

The water quality and soil chemistry also decreased in some of the impoundments, the dissolved oxygen decreased sulfide increased. Where the impoundments had flooded, some had become more freshwater than salt water. 
During the 1960s experiments took place to flood the impoundement to try to reduce the mosquito populations during the major times of the year- May through to October, this seemed to have good results. The rest of year, the water in the impoundments gave rise to the tides and culverts where installed. Flooding was controlled to allow water flow between the estuary and the marsh and to to prevent damage to the vegetation. 

Rotational Impoundment Management (RIM) has proved to be a very successful technique to minimize the effects of mosquitoes. The most substantial benefit of hydrological manangement it allows the movement of transient fish into marsh all year round.  Where the vegetation has vanished by over flooding, by simply restoring the tides via culverts and keeping a watch on the water levels the vegetation started to grow back. The management of water capabilities in connection with RIM have also allowed the manipulation of water levels to control exotic and upland vegetation in some impoundments,especially in the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge.

There are in total 76 impoundments which are great for a wide range of wildlife, in particular wetland birds and migratory birds for example ducks come here for the winter season. When fall starts that is when the shore birds appear and make the mud flats their home. In the early days the marshes where salty but after water management it is now freshwater, it has seen an influx of fish; for example large bass. 

There have been some casualties; the loss of the dusky seaside sparrow being an example, it was perfectly adapted to the salt marshes by the height of the freshwater flooded the foraging sited killed the sparrow off. This wasn't the only species that suffered all the generalists and specialist species where all killed of due to the water height.   

The Atlantic salt marsh snake and the Banded water snake are close genetically, they interbred and the banded water snake flooded the Atlantic salt marsh snake with its genetics. 
The management of the impoundments can differ depending on what the diversity of vegetation and organisms are in them, have to look to see what components are essential to the animals and go from there. The dikers had been removed to encourage the native grasses to grow. The boards are used to keep the salty lagoon out but water evaporates and leaves the salt behind, increasing the salt concentration. 

In August 1963, NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) took over 140,000 acres of land but only requires 6,000 acres on a regular basis. In the past NASA would launch 3 shuttles a year, so it didnt have a big impact on the surrounding ecosystems. 
NASA has built a 60 acres solar farm. In total there are 35,000 panels which provides 60 megawatts of emission free power to 1,100 homes. There are some down sides to the solar farm; the soil disturbance caused whilst construction can never be restored. 

NASA has one of the longest runways in the world, 15,000ft in length and as wide a football field in width, on landing there has to be a watch on the birds, as the birds tend to fly or wonder down the runway, to prevent any fatalities there are 25 liquid propane cannons positioned in strategic places down the runway. 

10.02 - Black vulture 
10.10- Bald eagle nest collecting 
10.12- alligator swimming 
10.14- Kingfisher 
10.15- American coote and great blue heron 
10.20- Killdeer 
10.25 -tri coloured heron
10.30- pied billed grebe in the white mangroves 
10.32- ibis and snowy egret, white pelicans, common grackle sitting in a bush
10.35 White pelicans swimming x2 
10.35- Tri coloured heron standing in the water
10.36- Great blue heron and white ibis x2 
10.36 - Woodstork swimming 
10.45- Waterfowl and tri coloured heron
10.50 - Roseate spoonbill flying 
10.55- White ibis in winter plumage 
10.55- Tri coloured heron and white egret in the red mangroves
11.00-  woodstorks x2 (feeding)
11.00- Juvenile alligator about 3-6 years. 
11.05- Turns and blackskimmers 
11.05 - Anhinger the snake bird 
11.05- American cootes in a flock on the water
11.05 - Blue heron 
11.05- Anhinger drying its wings 
11.10- Reddish egret and snowy egret displaying territory behaviour
11.10 - White pelicans 
11.10 - Northern shovelers feeding. 
11.10- Glossy ibis
11.14- Woodstork 
11.15- American cootes in a flock of about 500. 
11.15- Reddish egret in white phase
11.30- Uplands containing pine and palm trees 
11.30- Songbirds and small mammals, hawks and falcons 
11.30- Brazillian pepper - controlled by fire every 3 years. 

Myself standing at the entrance of the KSC. 

palm trees are adapted to fire 
any change in elevation can cause new species
11.32- armadillo foraging 
11.35 armadillo 
12.45- Bottlenose dolphins en route to Kennedy space center 
16.20-  Bald eagle at the Kennedy space center 

After going around the nature reserve and seeing some interesting wildlife, it was time to be a tourist and go to the Kennedy Space Centre. As we entered, the car park was huge. The weather was still drizzling but that didn't dampen anyone's excitement. We were given our tickets and away we go. 


  We only had a few hours so Abbie, Carys, Kat and myself went on a coach tour of the premises. This was really interesting as I learnt so much interesting information. We went round and saw different launch pad and the crawler (what transports the rocket to the landpad). Seeing a real life space rocket was breathtaking, I knew that where huge but I didn't realize how huge they really where. 

The main control building. Has the largest
American flag. 

The crawler. 

Launch pad.

Real rocket

Part of the rocket. 

Two spacesuits

On the coach tour we went to the apollo centre, here held the rocket (as above), various displays showing off suits, space buggies and many more. There was even a piece of the moon which we could touch, which was great. 

Touching a piece of the moon

After some lunch we headed back to the main site and we looked round the Atlantis centre, this held a simulation ride (which i didnt go on), informative videos and artefacts. It was great seeing and learning what it takes to get men into space and what they need to do to be able to survive. One of the great things was a slide. The video below is off Abbie and I going down the slide at the Kennedy Space Centre.

Atlantis from the outside

Suspended space suit

Myself with a model space rocket

Space rocket. 

One of many inspiration quotes. 

I glanced at my watch and it was 18.00 already, so we had to make a quick dash to the entrance to meet the rest of the group and have our debrief. We all had a group photo in front of the NASA ball. 

It was back to our mini buses and back to the motel for the last night. 

A group of us made the trip to Denny's Dinner, it was a typically american dinner, it was great to experience something different.





Connelly, Jorge. 'ENY648/IN192: Mosquito Control Impoundments'. Edis.ifas.ufl.edu. N.p., 2015. Web. 2015.
Nasa.gov,. 'NASA - Solar Farms At Kennedy Generating Power To Homes'. N.p., 2015.
Nbbd.com,. 'Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, Titusville, Florida - Black Point Drive'. N.p., 2015. Web. 2015.

Day 1- Starting our journey to America

 Day 1-  This is where the the Florida adventure begins.

Waking up on the 26/2/15 at 6.00am with 3 hours sleep, I was feeling excited but a little groggy. After getting my final items to pack I was ready to leave. The weather was miserable, it was a typical welsh morning, cold, misty and raining. By the time I arrived at Brambell I was drenched.

The coach journey began with a head count and a passport check, luckily everyone had remembered to pack their passports. The bus was full of hype, full of buzzing conversations and of course the millions of photos began.

Harry Rimmer and Abbie Lloyd -
something must of been funny

After a 2 hour coach ride we had reached our destination; Manchester Airport. The weather was still miserable. Checking in was surprisingly painless, everyone checked in quickly with no issues, the same happened with security. We then had about 2 hours to kill before we could start boarding, so it was time to wonder around the departure lounge, buying lunch, coffee and necessary sweets for landing. The time seemed to drag, we kept looking at the board hoping it would tell us what gate we where flying from. Eventually, hooray we had a gate and a plane! 

Our plane- yes a virgin plane! 

                                                                                                                          Abbie and I- airport selfie

After all the safety checks and announcements had finished, it was finally time for take-off!. We where due to take off at 13.10 UK time, I was feeling quite nervous. 3-2-1 and we were in the air. Not long after take off the first of many food and drinks carts were bought round. 

Fab lolly. YES!

Lunch- Beef Casserole with salad

Afternoon tea is served!

To fill 9.5 hours it was time to watch films; If I stay, The Boyhood and 22 jump street. 

Harry bought the card game uno, so a group of us sat playing that for what seemed like hours. 

Isaak, Harry, Abbie and myself

Owen, Abbie and I - Enjoying the flight

The time had come to prepare for landing; personal belongings away and seat belts fastened. We landed at 22.00 UK time and 17.00 American time. The next task had to get through American security and customs. This task ended up taking about 2 hours to get everyone through the queues. To make matters worse, it was boiling. After collecting our luggage and retrieving our vehicles, it was time to set of to the Best Western Space Shuttle inn, Titusville. This is where #TeamTim was born! (Harry Rimmer, Sarah Blanchard, Molly Riste, Livie Wiles, Katherine Richardson, Carys Leigh Williams, Abbie Lloyd, Nicole Barton, Owen Lynch, Jonny Stewart and myself).