Over the years, many have traversed the mystique of these historical wetlands by day, an untamed womb of primal intrigue deep in the Everglades wilderness 30 miles from Naples. Now, with only two more monthly night tours left, you can also experience the extraordinary forest and wildlife of the Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary by the light of the moon.
Photo by Nori St. Paul/Citizen Correspond
Marco Island resident Bob Gurnitz and Naples resident Rich Piper, who are both part of the Everglades Astronomical Society, set up telescopes for planet and star gazing during a recent night walk at Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary. Nori St. Paul/Citizen Correspondent
The Blair Audubon Center off of Immokalee Road has vastly improved its once a month night walks that have been offered for about five years. This past October, the 2.25-mile rustic boardwalk started sliding visitors serenely into a world of intrigue using themes that come to life at night like no other. The new themed once a month programs and excursions, says the Blair Center’s director, Rebecca Beck, have been a huge success.
“Our first ‘After Hours’ event in October exceeded the visitor count for the whole year of night walks before that,” Beck said. “The former walks didn’t have a theme, and required reservations and a fee over and above regular admission. The new programs are included in regular admission, and you don’t need reservations.
“And really, there is so much more to do than the guided boardwalk tour, like relax and listen to the live music, attend a program, peruse the art or nature store, and sometimes even explore the stars and planets with experts and telescopes from the Everglades Astronomical Society.”
Visitors traveling along the boardwalk at Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary at night can be seen carrying flashlights thanks to this time exposure taken by Waddy Thompson.
And, says Beck, the upcoming summer night events offer a completely new nocturnal wilderness perspective.
On a recent “After Hours” guided tour, starting when the sun was not yet low at 5:30 p.m., about 150 visitors mingling in different small groups enjoyed choosing from a kabob of different activities that lasted until the moon and stars were the only illumination over the sanctuary’s 13,000 acres of wetlands. Some visitors arrived for just the guided walk; the theme was migrating birds. They were not disappointed.
About 30 minutes into the cypress and wetlands first of several boardwalk tours, with plenty of daylight left, Bonita Springs resident Anne Rolton, 26, was with a group and caught a rare sighting in some high trees of two barred owl chicks being fed by two adult owls. Rolton spoke over the sounds of a forest awakening with its night creatures, sounds that are both primal and penetrating.
“We come out here a lot, but this is the first ‘After Hours’ we’ve done. It is really amazing. We’ve already seen loads,” said Rolton, a Florida Gulf Coast University employee in the marine sciences department.
Phil Nye, a boardwalk volunteer at the center for the past 18 years, said the owl sighting was “magnificent.”
Photo by Nori St. Paul/Citizen Correspond
Bonita Springs resident Anne Rolton, 26, a regular to the Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary, enjoys her first After Hours boardwalk tour. Nori St. Paul/Citizen Correspondent
“In all of my years here at the Sanctuary as a volunteer, tonight’s sighting is right up there at the top, seeing two baby chicks and two adults at once,” said Nye, a retired Naples resident.
The evening before, an employee spotted a Florida panther. The group of quiet owl watchers were surprised when another volunteer rushed up and loudly whispered, “There’s a bobcat right over this way.” Most of the crowd walked briskly to the other end by an overlook at a lagoon teeming with alligators, egrets and wood storks, and more, to try and catch sight of the wild, elusive feline stalking the banks.
Beck emphasizes that the boardwalk is safe for such sightings. “There’s not really anywhere else as unique as this on earth, where you can explore subtropical wilderness into the dark and be safe.”
The themes range from winter solstice to bats (with acoustic bat monitoring), reptiles and summer solstice, to mention a few. The thick forest, sunsets, moonrise and stars offer alluring and scenic photographic, nature and bird watching backdrops, in a wilderness that brings out a deep primal experience. And is good for you.
According to studies, there are many mental, physical and spiritual benefits to spending a certain amount of time in nature, including reduced blood pressure and increased positivity that can reportedly last for up to a week. Children have been shown to demonstrate benefits as well, such as better focus in ADHD sufferers.
Waddy Thompson captured this incredible image during a recent after hours walk along the boardwalk at Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary.
Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary is in the heart of the Corkscrew Watershed, and is part of the western Everglades. It is home to the largest remaining virgin bald cypress forest in the world (approximately 700 acres), which is the site of the largest nesting colony of federally endangered wood storks in the nation. Corkscrew also provides important habitat for numerous other federal and state listed species, including the Florida panther, American alligator, gopher tortoise, Florida sandhill crane, limpkin, roseate spoonbill, snowy egret, tricolored heron, white ibis, Big Cypress fox squirrel and the Florida black bear. Several rare plants are also found here, most notably the ghost orchid.
For more info, visit www.corkscrew.audubon.org
IF YOU GO
After Hours at Corkscrew Swamp
Where:Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary & Blair Audubon Center, 375 Sanctuary Road West, Naples
When: Friday, June 21: Summer solstice and Friday, July 12: Moths, fireflies and ghost orchid
Cost: $12 per adult; $6 for college students with ID; $4 for children 6 to 18 years old, and free for Friends of Corkscrew members and children younger than 6.
Information: 239-348-9151or http://corkscrew.audubon.org/
Something else: It is suggested that participants bring a red light, or cover their flashlights with red cellophane before using them on the boardwalk. The use of red light reduces the loss of your night vision which occurs when using a white light.