Keep your camera ready as you boat past gallinules, anhingas and, of course, hungry ospreys and herons.
By ADELE WOODYARD
Published July 3, 2005
TALLAHASSEE - Florida has long been a birdwatcher's haven - John James Audubon came here in the 1830s to study birds for his renowned collection of paintings. But you don't need a birder's formal list to enjoy the critters almost close enough to touch at Wakulla Springs State Park.
About 10 miles south of the capital, this wildlife sanctuary spreads over 4,700 acres of woodlands.
To help visitors see birds and other wildlife around the Wakulla River, a 3-mile narrated cruise is offered daily. The open boat chugs past turtles sunning on half-submerged cypress logs, the occasional deer on shore andalligators slowly raising their heads to view the boat.
But water birds, busily billing for food amid the green and yellow marsh grass, seldom look up.
Passengers typically hang over the sides, cameras at the ready. They snap pictures of purple gallinules with bright red beaks and of anhingas spreading their wings to dry. A female anhinga's head and long neck gave rise to the nickname snakebird.
A yellow-crown night heron perched in a bush is a less-common sight. Usually nocturnal, these herons may try to hide behind a cloak of gray and black feathers - as if they were shrugging their shoulders.
No boat ride would be complete without seeing at least one osprey dive for a fish or watching an elegant great blue heron, standing straight and still, plunge its beak in as a meal swims by.
American egrets, on their stilt-like black legs, typically ignore gators drifting past.
According to the guide, these birds so common to Florida are joined during the winter by migrating waterfowl such as the American widgeon, the hooded merganser and the American coot.
The large spring itself is located in a pre-Ice Age sinkhole considered one of the world's deepest freshwater springs. Aquatic caves and miles of underground tunnels are still being explored.
Along the way, the tour's guide relates how Hollywood first made use of Wakulla Spring in the 1940s, when Johnny Weismuller and Maureen O'Sullivan were filmed here in Tarzan movies. But while producers also used the location for Airport 77 (shot in 1976), the clear waters were central to the cult-favorite Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954).
Now, visitors can leap into the spring from the tall observation tower by the shore or just drift over it in glass-bottom boats during 30-minute rides. Snorkeling is allowed in restricted areas.
History, recent and really old
The 45-minute narrated river tour ends near the slight hill on which sits the Spanish-style Wakulla Springs Lodge with its red-tiled roof. Historians say that about 12,000 years ago, Paleo-Indians camped on the spot now occupied by the lodge. They hunted mastodons, giant sloth and other ancient mammals whose fossilized bones litter the bottom of the 180-foot-deep spring bowl and underwater caves.
Built in 1937 by financier and land baron Edward Ball, the lodge is on the National Register of Historic Places. It now includes a restaurant and 27 rooms. The lobby has a huge fireplace, arched windows, marble floors and hand-painted cypress beams -and the only TV set in the building.
It also contains the stuffed remains of "Old Joe", an 800-pound, 11-foot alligator that once watched over swimmers from a sand spit on the far edge of the spring.
Shot to death by a poacher in 1966, the gator dropped to the bottom of the spring, where the killer - believed to be after its valuable hide - couldn't reach it. Divers eventually brought up the body to be displayed behind glass in the lobby.
For park visitors who prefer to see nature at their own pace, horseback riding is available, as are rental canoes and kayaks on the spring-fed Wacissa River. Like Wakulla Springs, it is part of the vast St. Marks Wildlife Refuge that borders Apalachee Bay.
The refuge is winter home to hundreds of species of migrating birds, as well as nesting ground for such Florida waterfowl as ibis and limpkin - brown birds speckled with white spots.
Along the Wacissa, a red blaze on a tree marks the entrance to the Slave Canal. According to Jefferson County history, the artificial extension of the river was named for the slaves who built it during the mid 1800s.
For several years the plan was to increase boat traffic by connecting the Wacissa and Aucilla rivers. But the difficulty of excavating through limestone ridges, and the growing use of railroads, ended the project. Now it's a fine place for a picnic in the woodlands.
Freelance writer Adele Woodyard lives in Tarpon Springs.
If you go
GETTING THERE: To reach Wakulla Springs State Park from the Tampa Bay area, head north on Interstate 75 or U.S. 19, turning west on U.S. 27/98 through Perry. At Newport, take S.R. 267 west toward the town of Wakulla and on to the park entrance at intersection with State Road 61.
THE PARK: Florida's state parks are open from 8 a.m. to sunset every day of the year, although some park museums, visitor centers and historic sites may be closed two days per week, usually Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
The park system's daily entrance fees, where charged, are $4 to $5 per carload for up to eight passengers. Pedestrians, bicyclists and passengers in vehicles displaying annual entrance permits are $1 each person.
The price for either of Wakulla's narrated boat tours is $6 for adults, $4 for children 12 and younger.
THE LODGE: The lodge rents 27 guest rooms year-round. All are on the second floor, which is accessible via elevator and stairs. Rates range from $85 to $105 per night. Reservations are recommended; call (850) 224-5950.
