Florida Panhandle Wildlife Excursion to St Marks NWR, St George Island and St Vincent NWR

Took a spur-of-the-moment trip to the panhandle to visit some of our favorite wildlife areas.  I called this one my "pilgrimage to the saints" since we went to St. George Island, St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge and St. Vincent National Wildlife Refuge.  Our primary goal was to venture out to St. Vincent NWR (an unoccupied NWR that can only be reached via boat) to catch a glimpse of the endangered red wolves there.  The US Fish and Wildlife Service runs a breeding program there for the wolves, we hoped to see one of these rare canines in the wild.



 Ran into these three Canadians on one of the bayous. They are eight months into a kayak trek from Montreal to the Yucatan--with another eight months to go. Epic. Their trip blog is at defigofetch.com

Gorgeous sunset near St. Marks Lighthouse

First stop; St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge, always a favorite and a sure things for seeing great numbers and varieties of birds. We were not disappointed on this trip, spotted great numbers of waterfowl.



Beautiful shot of a Vermilion Flycatcher courtesy of photographer George Lee.  He was flying around near a marshy area on the road into St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge.  Saw him three days in a row.

St. Marks has an abundant white-tailed deer populations.  These guys were as curious about us as we were about them.

Unfortunately, despite extensive trekking through the interior of St Vincent, we did not see any red wolves, but we did see plenty of wolf tracks--encouraging evidence of their presence on the island.

 

Plenty of gators out sunning on this late Spring day



...and not eager to get off the trails, had to gingerly tiptoe around them!



Eastern Diamondback rattlesnake, also not eager to move.



....but he finally crawled away.



Great egret posing



Unfortunately, never spied the endangered red wolves, but saw plenty of wolf tracks like these.  Looks like a return trip is needed!