Hydrophyte Volume 22 Issue 1 - January 2018

The South Florida Aquatic Plant Management Society

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Special Training Issue

Highlights The Anhinga, Anhinga anhinga Native Plants & Installation - What is Mitigation Everglades... Swamps, Seminoles and Settlers Why We Manage Aquatic Invasive Plants

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President’s Message

Dear SFAPMS members, Happy New Year! I hope this message finds you and your families happy and healthy. As we enter 2018, the South Florida area continues to grow substantially with construction of new homes and of course, new waterways with these developments. In Palm Beach County, there will be nearly 10,000 new homes built within the next 5 years. Construction continues to accelerate in Dade and Broward Counties as well.

With this new construction, there will be many opportunities for expanding the aquatics market.

The best way to acquire convenient CEU's and keep up with all of the most current information in the aquatics industry is by attending a SFAPMS meeting! Please stop by, as we always have interesting speakers, relevant topics and many times host free coffee and lunch. Join us this year at one of our meetings:

Board Members - 2018 Officers 2018 Scott Jackson, President (561) 402-0682 scott.jackson@syngenta.com Linda Wolonick, Secretary/Treasurer (954) 370-0041 linda@expertbizsolution.com Norma Swann, Immediate Past President (334) 741-9393 norma.swann@alligare.com Board Members 2018 Rose Bechard-Butman (954) 519-0317 rberchardbutman@broward.org James Boggs (352) 521-3538 Hughie Cucurullo (305) 224-3562

boggsj@helenachemical.com hcucurullo@avcaquatic.com

Andy Fuhrman (954) 382-9766 afuhrman@allstatemanagement.com

February 22, 2018 Holy Cross Hospital- Broward

Lyn Gettys, PhD (954) 577-6331

lgettys@ufl.edu

June 28, 2018 Green Cay Nature Center-Palm Beach

Rory Roten (321) 890-4367

roryr@sepro.com

September 27, 2018 Sunset Community Center-Broward Best of luck in 2018 and we hope to see you soon!

Dharmen Setaram (407) 670-4094

dsetaram@landolakes.com

Steven Weinsier (954) 382-9766 sweinsier@allstatemanagement.com

Regards, Scott Jackson, President SFAPMS

The Francis E. “Chil” Rossbach Scholarship Fund Funds from the scholarship are used to help defray costs for students taking classes related to the study of aquatic environmental sciences or related areas. The scholarship is open to anyone, and all are encouraged to apply. Applications will be accepted throughout the year and the scholarship awarded when a suitable candidate is found. Money raised by the Society during the year partially goes to fund this scholarship, the intent of which is to promote the study of aquatics.

For an application, please go to www.sfapms.org.

Cover Photo: Allstate Resource Management

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Training Module - Can’t We All Just Get Along?

No continuing education credits are available for this training module, it is purely for training purposes.

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Training Module - Can’t We All Just Get Along?

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Training Module - Can’t We All Just Get Along?

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Training Module - Can’t We All Just Get Along?

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Training Module - Can’t We All Just Get Along?

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Training Module - Can’t We All Just Get Along?

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Training Module - Can’t We All Just Get Along?

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The Anhinga, Anhinga anhinga What’s in a Name?

By Steve Carbol Newcomers to Florida often marvel at the strange appearance of one of our most iconic and common wetland birds - the Anhinga. Most quiet freshwater and brackish waterbodies in Florida host at least one resident Anhinga but despite being such a familiar and ubiquitous site, the bird has a bit of an identity crisis. Its unusual appearance and behavior has inspired several colloquialisms including “snakebird”, “darter” and “water turkey”. The Anhinga’s common name stems from a Brazilian Tupi Indian word for “devil bird”, an evil forest spirit, and points to the bird’s habit of somberly perching in waterside trees with its dark bedraggled wings ominously outstretched.

Like its relatives, pelicans and cormorants, the Anhinga is supremely adapted to an aquatic lifestyle in Florida’s swamps and marshes. With big fully webbed feet, stubby legs and a long protruding tail, the Anhinga is awkward on land and walks with an ungainly waddling gait. However, all that clumsiness vanishes when the bird takes to the water.

The Anhinga is dressed in fully wettable feathers and has dense bones that allow it neutral buoyancy underwater.

After literally tripping over its own feet on land, once submerged, the Anhinga transforms into a graceful agile Photo by Greg Lavaty

hunter.

Anhingas feed mostly on freshwater fish and an Anhinga hunting in clear shallow water is a memorable sight. Anhingas can often be seen swimming with just their sinuous necks and heads above the water, behavior which has lent them the moniker, “snakebird”. The Anhinga is a master stalker and swims slowly underwater, propelled by its big webbed feet. The seemingly leisurely approach of the Anhinga belies the whiplash speed of the bird’s attack as it quickly darts its serpentine neck forward to spear prey. It is this lightning quick hunting strike that lends the bird the alias of “darter”. Once a fish is impaled on its spear-like bill, the bird surfaces to swallow. With a toss of the head and a few acrobatics, the Anhinga flips the fish into the air and maneuvers it head-first for swallowing. Watching an Anhinga at lunch is a dramatic sight as the bird’s gangly rope-thin neck amazingly expands to choke down broad-bodied sunfish and cichlids whole. This feat is perhaps even more incredible when we consider that the Anhinga does not possess external nostrils and breathes solely through its epiglottis while gulping down prey.

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The Anhinga, Anhinga anhinga What’s in a Name?

Steve Carbol / Lake and Wetland Management After hunting, Anhingas must haul out of the water and clamber onto a perch to sunbathe and adopt their signature posture with spread wings and tail. The bird’s broad corrugated band-tipped tail feathers are the source of yet another Anhinga nickname - “water turkey”. Though they can fly with waterlogged feathers immediately after a dip, Anhingas are robbed of a good deal of body heat by the water and seem to be unable to thermoregulate as well as their cormorant cousins. As a result, they rely on the sun to warm their bodies and dry their saturated feathers after a swim. This reliance on sunlight and warm weather limits the Anhinga’s northward expansion and keeps them relegated to warmer coastal climes from southeastern North Carolina through the American southeast along the Gulf of Mexico south into much of tropical Central and South America.

Photo by Greg Lavaty

In addition to being skilled swimmers, Anhingas are also master aerialists. Exhibiting rhythmic hawk-like flapping at lower altitudes, Anhingas regularly utilize thermals to soar on their 3.7-foot wingspans to lofty heights of several thousand feet.

Year-round residents in Florida, individuals at the northern edge of the Anhinga’s range are migratory and join together to form swirling flocks hundreds or thousands of birds strong. When soaring in mixed flocks with vultures, hawks, storks and other birds, Anhingas are easily recognized at a distance by their distinctive cross-shaped silhouettes. The sexes may also be readily recognized at a glance by the male’s white shoulder blazes and black head and neck with females sporting lighter tan heads and necks.

Though the Anhinga’s population is reasonably secure on a global scale, the species is impacted here in Florida by human activities such as water pollution and discarded fishing tackle. We can do our part to support the Anhinga by controlling exotic plant and fish species, promoting healthy native fish stocks, reducing runoff and pollution and recovering all fishing line, hooks and lures. Anhingas benefit from clean, clear water that allows them to spot their aquatic prey, abundant waterside logs and snags to serve as sunbathing perches, and isolated tree islands to raise their fluffy white offspring in mixed rookeries with egrets, herons, spoonbills and other wading birds.

By preserving Florida’s unique aquatic

ecosystems, we can provide a secure future for one of our oddest and most emblematic wildlife species… regardless of which name we call it. **All Anhinga photos generously provided by Greg Lavaty. We failed to credit Greg in our last issue (Volume 21, Issue 4) for providing his wonderful photos of Black-bellied Whistling Ducks. Please see more of Greg’s outstanding wildlife photography

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http://www.texastargetbirds.com

and

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South Florida Aquatic Plant Management Family Photos

Wendy and John in front of Red Crush

Brian and Riley at Green Cay Wetlands

Justin and Maxine married October 2017

Colleen and Kevin at UF Fall Graduation

Submit your photos to Colleen Sullivan at CSullivan@allstatemanagement.com to be featured in the next Hydrophyte Magazine!

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2018 SFAPMS Calendar

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2018 Calendar of Events

2018 SFAPMS Board of Directors Meeting Dates

Florida Lake Management Society (FLMS) 2018 Conference

Thursday, February 8, 2018

TBA

Thursday, May 24, 2018 Thursday, September 6, 2018 Thursday, November 29, 2018

2018 General Meeting Dates Thursday, February 22, 2018 Thursday, June 28, 2018 Thursday, September 27, 2018

Florida Aquatic Plant Management Society (FAPMS) 2018 Conference Monday, October 15, 2018 Thursday, October 18, 2018

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