It's hard to predict what weather awaits you on any given day on Amelia Island during the winter. At midday it could be nearly 80° - shorts weather. At night, though, even the warmer days cool down; sometimes way down. It's not uncommon for temperatures to freeze overnight, sometimes a few nights running. Rarely, surrounded by water as we are, do we get "hard freezes", hard enough to kill semi-tropical landscape plants. These cold snaps may be rare - sometimes even missing a year or two - but when they happen, some backyard plants that you've planted and nurtured and seen grow to great heights in a couple of years die, no matter how many blankets or plastic tarps you try to jury-rig over their branches.
Skimmers and Royal Terns can be found on area beaches during the winter
months. But most of the time, it's not too warm or too cold; it's absolutely perfect. Winter is the time to get out your walking shoes and hit the parks. For many winter wildlife species, your chances are best to see them if you walk about. You don't have to walk far. Walk the beach, any beach closest to your house will do. Sometimes it is the small things you feel like attending to, the cold wind in your face, the chilly salt-spray, the too-soft-for-comfortable-walking high tide beach. But when you look up from your internal discomfort, you just might see a flock of orange-beaked, orange legged, black-backed skimmers hunkered down facing the wind. These winter birds skim the waves for fish, then rest on our beaches, sometimes even lying down flat-out. Often the lighter colored orange-billed royal terns rest on the beach near the skimmers. You might also see a variety of brownish gulls and sandpipers, all in their non-descript winter plumage and difficult for even experienced birders to identify precisely.
Amelia's saltwater marshes are a good place to Looking out to sea as you walk the beach may yield another surprise during the winter. Often you will see splashes, sometimes dolphins feeding, sometimes brown pelicans or ospreys crashing into the water to catch a fish. But be sure to look closely - maybe that splash is really a spout. You might be seeing one of the rarest animals on earth, the endangered Northern right whale. Only about 300 of these behemoths exist, and many of them migrate to waters off Amelia Island and thereabouts to socialize and give birth during the winter months. If you do see a whale, you can help in protecting it by calling the Whale Hotline: 1-888-97WHALE. Once the sighting is confirmed, all passing ships in the area will be notified to be on the lookout, and avoid striking them - a leading cause of death for this fragile species. Sadly, an occasional dead right whale washes up on our beach - that's the usual way many of us see them.
Armadillos are a common sight at both Fort Clinch If you still have your walking shoes on, winter is a good time to visit the Egan's Creek Greenway in the middle of Amelia Island. From the access point behind the Atlantic Avenue Recreation Center, a short walk will take you into a restored saltwater marsh inhabited by many native species. Be sure to look at the ponds and freshwater ditches for wintering pied-billed grebes and other ducks and notice the woodpeckers, cardinals and jays in the neighboring trees. Winter is also the best time to watch for raptors - the hawks, ospreys, vultures and other birds of prey that live in our area. During winter these birds are getting ready for their breeding season, and can often be seen chasing each other or circling together. By late winter the resident osprey prey has usually staked a claim to their nest on a platform at the north end of 14th Street, unless great horned owls have gotten there first. If you are lucky you might even catch sight of a rare bald eagle, a species that has recently been making an inroad in our area. You might also take a walk through nearby Fort Clinch State Park or try the nature trail at Little Talbot Island State Park further down our chain of islands. The live oak and magnolia canopy along the paths are full of squirrels and birds, but they may be difficult to see. Armadillos are common, and easily located when you hear a rustling in the brush. In both parks, when you walk near the sand dunes on a warm, winter day, you might still be able to see gopher tortoises coming out of their burrows to enjoy the sun. No matter what wildlife your walk turns up, you are sure to enjoy the outing in nature on a mild winter day, with no bugs or drenching humidity to slow you down.
The white pelican, a cousin of our year-round brown pelican, If you are tired of walking, another good way to look for our winter wildlife is to visit the salt-marsh on the west side of Amelia and adjacent islands. You can easily gain access to the marsh by kayaking (Kayak Amelia 1-904-251-0016) or, if water sports are not your forte, you can take a comfortable two-hour boat trip through the marsh on Amelia River Cruises (261-9972). In the salt marsh channels during the winter, you are almost certain to see white pelicans. These cousins of our year-round brown pelicans are nearly twice their size and pure white, with black flight feathers, and only visit our area in the wintertime. If you are lucky, you might even see them herding fish into shore, a feeding pattern much different than the awkward dives of the brown pelicans. Although the white pelicans entertain us during the winter, during the rest of the year these birds inhabit freshwater lakes and streams in our country's Midwest and Western states. No matter how you decide to explore the winter wildlife of Amelia Island and its environs, there is sure to be something to enchant you. So, put on those hiking shoes, get in a kayak, or drive through the state parks and keep your eyes and ears open. The winter nature of Amelia Island is just waiting for you to discover it. Pat Foster-Turley is a Ph.D zoologist and resident of Amelia Island. Look for her weekly column "Wild Ways" in the Wednesday News-Leader.
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