Moccasin Lake Nature Park

On November 6th, our class took a field trip to Moccasin Lake Nature Park. Moccasin Lake is a manged environment and a hammock community. When we visited it was around 80 degrees and there was only a 30% cloud coverage. We saw an abundance of various animals and plants while walking on the trail.

They had a building that had different types of frogs, turtles, snakes, and lizards in it.

 They had huge bird cages where they kept various different types of birds who had been hurt and are being rehabilitated.

This is one of the birds, it was a black vulture. They said that he was the oldest black vulture left!

They also had a bald eagle. (he was my favorite.) He had a amputation and was moved to Moccasin Lake from Bush Gardens. 

 

 

There where many different types of plants in the park. They ranged from Laural Oak, Cat brier, Maples, Wax mertals, Water Oak, and even Ceaser weed( a hitch hicker plant).

The park had a small pond and a lake. We saw a few birds and an alligator swimming on the far side of the lake.

Here is a picture of the small pond.

 

This is a picture of the far side of the lake where the alligator was swimming. 

 

The park also had peacocks that roamed around witch i thought was cool because we have yet to see peacocks at any park we have visited before.

They even had a white one!

Wall Springs Park

Weather- 78 degrees F, 70 % cloud cover

Our class made the trip to the managed Wall Springs Park to view karst topography, specifically the spring that gives the park its name. The spring was utilized in the past as a therapeutic pool for sickly people, with advertised "special healing powers", and then as a sort of amusement swimming area. Now Pinellas County owns it and it is basically a boardwalk that surrounds the spring opening. Now you just stare into it and watch it release water. 

Here is one of the placards placed by the county parks department, telling the history of Wall Springs Park.

 

 

 

The boardwalk surrounding the spring.

 The spring is an artesian well, and is fed from the Floridan Aquifer. Its flow of water averages 7,045 Gallons Per Minute, and during the time I was there I definitely saw its flow increase. The water went from covered by algal growth to relatively clear in about a half-hours time. Water discharged from springs are a constant temperature, and Wall Springs isn't any different, the water temperature stays at a constant 74 degrees F.

From the spring the water flows through a bayou, and out to the Gulf of Mexico.

 I hopped down off the boardwalk and took the pH of the spring water. The pH was 7, which is proper for spring water.

Below the surface you can see the nifty limestone that is indicative of karst topography.

 

 

 Some of the plant life immediately surrounding the spring included several Cedar Trees, Cabbage Palms, and Cat Tails. There are more natural Florida plants a little further away from the spring, and I am sure eventually they will move to right next to the spring since the area is no longer a managed landscaping area.

There was a lot more that we were supposed to view at this park, but unfortunately a majority of the park is currently fenced off so that the county and build a new overlook tower to replace the one that burnt down several years ago.

Ducks seem to enjoy the spring, and the old people visiting seem to enjoy corrupting the ducks with bread offerings.

Wall Springs Park

On October 30, we took a field trip to Wall Spring Park. The weather was 77' F with about 80% cloud coverage. This park consist of 210 acres and is manged. This park was once used as a spa and bathing center, but now is home to many species of animals and plants. Some animals spotted were ducks and tilapia. Plants such as the cabbage palm, ferns, pine trees, and beauty berry were see along the trail.

Wall Spring park is a fresh water spring that has an aquifer present. The spring water looked  slightly dirty and cloudy, however the pH was 7 and the salinity was 0.

Wall Springs Park

Wall Springs Park

Date: 10/30/14

Weather: 77 degrees Fahrenheit, 50% cloud coverage

Wall Springs Park is a maintained area where the class was able to view a natural Florida Spring. Although we didn’t get to walk through as much of the park as we would have liked to, we did learn about the history of the park as well as observe a handful of plants and animals near the spring. The spring used to be a health spa for people to bathe in, but this is no longer allowed because it is harmful to the ecosystem. Water from the spring can flow up to 7,405 gallons per minute and the average flow per day is 4.2 million gallons!

  

The photo within the image was one of the earliest photos taken of Wall Springs. The bath houses were replaced with a board walk and the pool no longer exists. Below, is an image of what currently surrounds the spring. The floating vegetation that lies on top of the water is called duckweed, a flowering plant. Where the water was clear, we were able to find Mullet and Tilapia swimming around.

Victoria Millman

    

Wall Springs Park

For our latest field trip, we visited Wall Springs Park. It was around 79 degrees and had about 82% of cloud coverage. Wall Springs Park is a manged environment that was once a healing spring. Wall Springs park is now a Pinellas County Park and no swimming is aloud in the spring. Most of the park was closed off because they where re-building the lookout tower that was burned down last year. Even though we did not get to explore the rest of the park we got to see many plants and animals that inhabited the spring.

 

 The clarity of the spring varies. When we visited, the spring was obviously not very clear. Even though the spring was not the cleanest at the time, it had a abundance of fish (tolopia and mullet) swimming in it. There was also a few ducks that where swimming around. The PH of the spring water was 7 and the salinity of the water was 0.

                        The water within the circular area, is the source of the spring and aquifer.

 The two pictures above talk about how the spring used to be a healing spring and it even had bath houses on the back side of it. The second picture tells and illiterates how the center of the spring resembles a women's head.

We saw a variety of plants. They ranged from Beauty Berry, Cat tail, Pine trees, and algae, and cabbage palm.

 

Wall Springs Park

 Wall Springs Park
 77 degrees F
90% cloud coverage
 managed area

     On October 30, 2014, our field biology class visited Wall springs park in Palm Harbor, FL. While we were there we learned about the history of Charles Wall and when the spring was established into a state park (1988). The source of the spring is an aquafer that flows 0-7,405 gallons of water per minute. We also came to the conclusion that the spring is mostly a grazing type food web.
     While viewing the spring we discovered that the water's temperature was 74 degrees, the salinity was 0, and the pH was 7. The fish we recognized in the water, underneath the coat of algae, were tilapia and mullet.
     After viewing the spring we ventured out towards the bayou. On the way we identified different vegetation such as wax mertles, ferns, cattails, golden rod, beauty berry, and cabbage palm. When we reached the bayou, we learned that the salinity was 13, and the pH was 5.5.

 Layer of algae covering

 The mouth of the spring

 Panoramic of the algae covering

Cabbage Palm

Wall Springs

On Thursday October 30th, 2014 the class to a trip to Wall Springs Park. The Cloud cover was rather heavy about 60% with a chance of rain. The field Trip was cut short because half of the park was closed. We viewed the spring but the rest of the of the water was covered in algae.

Algae Covered area

Wall Spring

Cattails