 Okefenokee Photography by William Wise. A nature photo journal exploration of Georgia's Okefenokee Swamp, the Land of Trembling Earth, one of the largest blackwater swamps in North America. The alligators, birds, snakes and wildlife of Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge and Stephen C Foster State Park. -- "What a wildly wonderful world, God! You made it all, with Wisdom at Your side, made earth overflow with your wonderful creations." Psalms 104 The Message  Okefenokee Swamp landscape panorama of Chesser Prairie. Blue sky and clouds over Neverwet Golden Club plants and water lily pads. Cypress houses and hammocks on the horizon. Canoe paddling trail through the National Wildlife Refuge, Georgia, USA. An excerpt from Suwannee River, Strange Green Land by Cecile Hulse Matschat, 1938. "The prairies – the swamp folk’s name for the open flooded marshes – are filled with a tropical luxuriance of water plants and resemble wide grassy meadows. They are dotted with wooded islets, commonly called ‘houses’ because they have enough dry land to furnish camp sites for the hunters of deer, bear, wildcats, raccoon, otter, and other small animals that live in the swamp. Maiden cane growls in dense green masses three or four feet high, and there rice rats and Florida water rats, together with the bittern, make their nests. Katydids sway on the green tips in the sunshine and dive from them into the cool water. Gators travel over the prairies from one pool to another, through acres of white and gold water lilies, beds of cream-white arrowheads and bluish pickerelweed. They are often the swamper’s trail blazers; the boatman finds easier poling down the lanes that the gators have opened through the thick reeds and water plants.” Page 34 Cecile Matschat’s work published in 1938 by the Literary Guild of America is full of colorful stories of the Swampers that lived in the Okefenokee, exciting folklore encounters with bear, boar and cannibal alligators, as well as scientific descriptions of the flora and fauna of the great swamp. It a worthwhile purchase if you come across a used copy of this collectible out-of-print treasure of Okefenokee literature.
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Okefenokee Photography by William Wise. A nature photo journal exploration of Georgia's Okefenokee Swamp, the Land of Trembling Earth, one of the largest blackwater swamps in North America. The alligators, birds, snakes and wildlife of Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge and Stephen C Foster State Park. -- "What a wildly wonderful world, God! You made it all, with Wisdom at Your side, made earth overflow with your wonderful creations." Psalms 104 The Message  Okefenokee Swamp prairie ecosystem. Landscape panorama of Chesser Prairie. Blue sky and clouds over Neverwet Golden Club plants, cypress trees, Spanish Moss and water lily pads. Canoe paddling trail through the National Wildlife Refuge, Georgia, USA. The swamplands and marshes of Georgia and Florida are similar in appearance: vast, wide, flat, void of defined travelways, and extremely hot and humid much of the year. Dead-end runs and a lack of landmarks were a much greater hazard before the days of satellite GPS. This excerpt from Clifton Johnson's 1918 narrative called The Everglades, is typical of swamps like the Okefenokee:
Johnson, Clifton. (1918). "The Everglades". From Highways and Byways of Florida. New York, NY: The Macmillan Company. https://etc.usf.edu/lit2go/70/florida-essays-and-poems/4358/the-everglades/ Okefenokee Photography by William Wise. A nature photo journal exploration of Georgia's Okefenokee Swamp, the Land of Trembling Earth, one of the largest blackwater swamps in North America. The alligators, birds, snakes and wildlife of Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge and Stephen C Foster State Park. -- "What a wildly wonderful world, God! You made it all, with Wisdom at Your side, made earth overflow with your wonderful creations." Psalms 104 The Message  Kayak trail directional sign in the Okefenokee Swamp, Georgia USA for Chase Prairie, Grand Prairie, Prairie Lakes and Chesser Prairie. Canoe paddling trail through the National Wildlife Refuge, Georgia, USA. Suwannee River Recreation Area.  Okefenokee Swamp prairie ecosystem. Landscape panorama of Chesser Prairie. Blue sky and clouds over Neverwet Golden Club plants, cypress trees, Spanish Moss and water lily pads. Canoe paddling trail through the National Wildlife Refuge, Georgia, USA.  Okefenokee Swamp prairie ecosystem. Landscape panorama of Chesser Prairie. Blue sky and clouds over Neverwet Golden Club plants, cypress trees, Spanish Moss and water lily pads. Canoe paddling trail through the National Wildlife Refuge, Georgia, USA.  Okefenokee Swamp prairie ecosystem. Landscape panorama of Chesser Prairie. Blue sky and clouds over Neverwet Golden Club plants, cypress trees, Spanish Moss and water lily pads. Canoe paddling trail through the National Wildlife Refuge, Georgia, USA. Okefenokee Photography by William Wise. A nature photo journal exploration of Georgia's Okefenokee Swamp, the Land of Trembling Earth, one of the largest blackwater swamps in North America. The alligators, birds, snakes and wildlife of Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge and Stephen C Foster State Park. -- "What a wildly wonderful world, God! You made it all, with Wisdom at Your side, made earth overflow with your wonderful creations." Psalms 104 The Message  Alligator tail showing tall epidermal scutes scales. Alligators have a powerful laterally compressed tail that helps them swim. Some people eat alligator meat. American Alligator photographed in the Okefenokee Swamp National Wildlife Refuge, Georgia USA. An alligator is a whole lot of tail! Full of muscle and strength, the tail makes up half of an alligator’s total length and is designed for efficient swimming. The tail is laterally compressed (which means it is taller than it is wider) and is topped with tall crests of epidermal scales. This design means it can efficiently propel itself through water… sometimes quite rapidly! The tail moves in a wide, serpentine, side-to-side swishing and a trail of wake and small whirlpools follows a quickly swimming gator.The frequency of undulations increases the velocity of the alligator. The tail is the primary motor and rudder. According to studies, it is the “main propulsive effector of surface-swimming.” In fact, while swimming, the limbs are primarily folded along the alligator’s side and contribute little to the thrust and steering. Fish, F. E. (1984). "Kinematics of undulatory swimming in the American alligator" (PDF). Copeia. 1984 (4): 839–43.  An American Alligator`s feet are covered in scales and have sharp claws. Alligators have five partially webbed toes on both front legs and four webbed toes on the back legs. Alligator feet have been used as good luck charms for magical powers. American Alligator photographed in the Okefenokee Swamp National Wildlife Refuge, Georgia USA.
Okefenokee Photography by William Wise. A nature photo journal exploration of Georgia's Okefenokee Swamp, the Land of Trembling Earth, one of the largest blackwater swamps in North America. The alligators, birds, snakes and wildlife of Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge and Stephen C Foster State Park. -- "What a wildly wonderful world, God! You made it all, with Wisdom at Your side, made earth overflow with your wonderful creations." Psalms 104 The Message
An excerpt from Suwannee River, Strange Green Land by Cecile Hulse Matschat, 1938.
Cone shaped Bald Cypress tree knees covered in green moss in a dark swamp. Taxodium distichum and Taxodium ascendens have knees from the roots for stability in wetland habitats. Photographed on the Middle Fork Suwannee River red canoe trail in the Okefenokee Swamp National Wildlife Refuge, Georgia USA.
"In the weird, hobgoblin world of the bays there is perpetual twilight. Even at midday, with a brilliant sun overhead, only an occasional ray pierces the thick green roof of the jungle, spotting the brown water with flecks of gold and lightening the blue of the iris that blooms in the marginal shallows. The bottle-shaped trunks of these cypresses, often twelve feet in diameter at the base and a scant two feet in diameter above the swelling, where they begin to tower symmetrically toward the sky, gleam in tints of olive, silver, violet, and odd greens and blues. Their dark roots protrude above the surface of the water, either arched like bows or in groups of knees. Seeing this malformed forest in the strange green light, one might expect it to be the home of gnomes, with beards and humps." Pages 30-31.
Cecile Matschat’s work published in 1938 by the Literary Guild of America is full of colorful stories of the Swampers that lived in the Okefenokee, exciting folklore encounters with bear, boar and cannibal alligators, as well as scientific descriptions of the flora and fauna of the great swamp. It a worthwhile purchase if you come across a used copy of this collectible out-of-print treasure of Okefenokee literature. Okefenokee Photography by William Wise. A nature photo journal exploration of Georgia's Okefenokee Swamp, the Land of Trembling Earth, one of the largest blackwater swamps in North America. The alligators, birds, snakes and wildlife of Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge. -- "What a wildly wonderful world, God! You made it all, with Wisdom at Your side, made earth overflow with your wonderful creations." Psalms 104 The Message  American Alligator with vertically elliptical pupil staring from swamp water and lily pads. Wildlife photography from the Okefenokee Swamp National Wildlife Refuge, Georgia USA. Although a work of fiction, the description of the Okefenokee Swamp in Louis Pendleton's novel is quite accurate! An excerpt from the 1895 adventure novel, In the Okefenokee: A Story of War Time and the Great Georgia Swamp:
Pendleton, Louis. In the Okefenokee: A Story of War Time and the Great Georgia Swamp. United States, Roberts Brothers, 1895. Okefenokee Photography by William Wise. A nature photo journal exploration of Georgia's Okefenokee Swamp, the Land of Trembling Earth, one of the largest blackwater swamps in North America. The alligators, birds, snakes and wildlife of Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge and Stephen C Foster State Park. -- "What a wildly wonderful world, God! You made it all, with Wisdom at Your side, made earth overflow with your wonderful creations." Psalms 104 The Message  Alligators have large external ears that can hear above water and sense vibration under water. The ears are covered by a watertight ear flap seen as a slit just behind the eye that the alligator can open and shut. Bony plates inside the skin, called osteoderms or scutes, make the skin very tough and hard. Large alligator photographed in the Okefenokee Swamp National Wildlife Refuge, Georgia USA.  An American Alligator`s feet are covered in scales and have sharp claws. Alligators have five partially webbed toes on both front legs and four webbed toes on the back legs. Alligator feet have been used as good luck charms for magical powers. American Alligator photographed in the Okefenokee Swamp National Wildlife Refuge, Georgia USA.  An American Alligator`s body hide is covered in watertight scales. Alligators have bony plates inside the skin, called osteoderms or scutes, make the skin very tough and hard. American Alligator photographed in the Okefenokee Swamp National Wildlife Refuge, Georgia USA.  An American Alligator`s body and tail is covered in scales. Alligators have bony plates inside the skin, called osteoderms or scutes, make the skin very tough and hard. American Alligator photographed in the Okefenokee Swamp National Wildlife Refuge, Georgia USA.  Okefenokee Photography by William Wise. A nature photo journal exploration of Georgia's Okefenokee Swamp, the Land of Trembling Earth, one of the largest blackwater swamps in North America. The alligators, birds, snakes and wildlife of Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge and Stephen C Foster State Park. -- "What a wildly wonderful world, God! You made it all, with Wisdom at Your side, made earth overflow with your wonderful creations." Psalms 104 The Message DAY 2 - THE RED TRAIL Eastern Phoebe songbird perched in a cypress swamp. Sayornis phoebe breeds in North America. Birding wildlife photography from the Okefenokee Swamp National Wildlife Refuge, Georgia USA. Being our only full day for this three-day excursion, we paddled up the Middle Fork Suwannee River (red trail). I wanted to show David some of the beautiful, darker, greener areas of the cypress swamp. • Friday, October 23, 2020  Bald Cypress tree buttress with Spanish Moss in blackwater swamp with lily pads. Nature photography from the Okefenokee Swamp National Wildlife Refuge, Georgia USA.  A juvenile American Alligator showing detail of scales, integumentary sensory organs, vertically elliptical pupil. American Alligator photographed in the Okefenokee Swamp National Wildlife Refuge, Georgia USA. Upon our return toward evening, storm clouds began to gather over Billy's Lake. We could see sheets of rain pouring from the clouds off in the distance, but only received a light sprinkling as we toiled at the oars to get back to the Stephen C Foster State Park boat ramp.  A Pied-billed Grebe swimming among maidencane and Spatterdock Yellow Bonnet Lily Pads in the Okefenokee Swamp. Podilymbus podiceps, also called a dabchick, is a duck like water fowl. Wildlife birding photography on Billy`s Lake in the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge in Georgia, USA. Okefenokee Photography by William Wise. A nature photo journal exploration of Georgia's Okefenokee Swamp, the Land of Trembling Earth, one of the largest blackwater swamps in North America. The alligators, birds, snakes and wildlife of Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge. -- "What a wildly wonderful world, God! You made it all, with Wisdom at Your side, made earth overflow with your wonderful creations." Psalms 104 The Message  An American Alligator`s body hide is covered in hard, boney watertight scales. Alligators have bony plates inside the skin, called osteoderms or scutes, make the skin very tough and hard. American Alligator photographed in the Okefenokee Swamp National Wildlife Refuge, Georgia USA. All along its back - from neck to tail - the American Alligator is armored with bony scales called osteoderms. Also called scutes – derived from a Latin word meaning “shield” - these osteoderms are arranged in rows below the alligator’s thick, leathery skin. Each osteoderms is almost square-like and has a high ridge through the middle of the upper surface called a keel. The rows of keels are what give the alligator that “spiked” appearance. Not only do the osteoderms act as protective armor, but they also help with thermoregulation. The osteoderms are porous, and not solid bone. They are networked with blood vessels and can act as heat exchangers to warm up or cool down this “cold-blooded”, or ectothermic, reptile. Chen IH, Yang W, Meyers MA. Alligator osteoderms: mechanical behavior and hierarchical structure. Mater Sci Eng C Mater Biol Appl. 2014;35:441-448. doi:10.1016/j.msec.2013.11.024 Okefenokee Photography by William Wise. A nature photo journal exploration of Georgia's Okefenokee Swamp, the Land of Trembling Earth, one of the largest blackwater swamps in North America. The alligators, birds, snakes and wildlife of Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge and Stephen C Foster State Park. -- "What a wildly wonderful world, God! You made it all, with Wisdom at Your side, made earth overflow with your wonderful creations." Psalms 104 The Message  Cone shaped Bald Cypress tree knees covered in green moss in a dark swamp. Taxodium distichum and Taxodium ascendens have knees from the roots for stability in wetland habitats. Photographed on the Middle Fork Suwannee River red canoe trail in the Okefenokee Swamp National Wildlife Refuge, Georgia USA. There is no solitude like sitting in a dark cove within the Okefenokee Swamp. The dark water of the Suwannee River travels swiftly causing swirling eddies behind the stumps of cypress logged generations ago. Thick fetterbush and Tupelo form a tunnel overhead. Beams of dappled sunlight peak through the vegetation to illuminate the swamp details: dark shadows under cypress buttresses… brilliantly deep green mosses upon their knees… Bartram's airplant clinging to stems and trunks… whirligig beetles skimming the blackwater surface. Silence. Solitude. Swamp.  Cone shaped Bald Cypress tree knees covered in green moss in a dark swamp. Taxodium distichum and Taxodium ascendens have knees from the roots for stability in wetland habitats. Photographed on the Middle Fork Suwannee River red canoe trail in the Okefenokee Swamp National Wildlife Refuge, Georgia USA.
Okefenokee Photography by William Wise. A nature photo journal exploration of Georgia's Okefenokee Swamp, the Land of Trembling Earth, one of the largest blackwater swamps in North America. The alligators, birds, snakes and wildlife of Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge and Stephen C Foster State Park. -- "What a wildly wonderful world, God! You made it all, with Wisdom at Your side, made earth overflow with your wonderful creations." Psalms 104 The Message  Cone shaped Bald Cypress tree knees covered in green moss in a dark swamp. Taxodium distichum and Taxodium ascendens have knees from the roots for stability in wetland habitats. Photographed on the Middle Fork Suwannee River red canoe trail in the Okefenokee Swamp National Wildlife Refuge, Georgia USA. Excerpt from the 1875 Okefenokee Exploration by The Atlanta Constitution:
In 1875, The Atlanta Constitution published the dramatic headline: “We now announce to our readers, and the people of Georgia, that we are fitting up an expedition for a complete and thorough exploration of Okefinokee. The full details of the plan and expedition will be published soon – if they come out alive.” Over the next months, the paper released many exciting stories from the Okefenokee Swamp Okefenokee Photography by William Wise. A nature photo journal exploration of Georgia's Okefenokee Swamp, the Land of Trembling Earth, one of the largest blackwater swamps in North America. The alligators, birds, snakes and wildlife of Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge and Stephen C Foster State Park. -- "What a wildly wonderful world, God! You made it all, with Wisdom at Your side, made earth overflow with your wonderful creations." Psalms 104 The Message  American Alligator swimming submerged showing eyes, nostrils and transverse row of epidermal scutes above the water. American Alligator photographed in the Okefenokee Swamp National Wildlife Refuge, Georgia USA. Paddling upstream, against a slow but constant current, the canoe run gets darker. The senses are lured into believing that dusk has arrived. Little sunlight penetrates the thick vegetation. Barred Owls, typically creatures of the night, are calling aloud. Like skeletons draped in aged rags, the overhanging Cypress limbs become more and more covered with Spanish Moss, until practically nothing of the host tree is visible. But is isn’t yet much past noon! You glide along the river in silence. Then something big and rough brushes the bottom of the boat. No shape or figure can be seen in the tannin blackwaters. Is it just the rough bark of a fallen tree? Or the boney hide of a large alligator? • Middle Fork Suwannee River; Okefenokee National Wildlife Refug. Okefenokee Photography by William Wise. A nature photo journal exploration of Georgia's Okefenokee Swamp, the Land of Trembling Earth, one of the largest blackwater swamps in North America. The alligators, birds, snakes and wildlife of Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge and Stephen C Foster State Park. -- "What a wildly wonderful world, God! You made it all, with Wisdom at Your side, made earth overflow with your wonderful creations." Psalms 104 The Message Dark tannic waters reflect the upper world perfectly. The mirror-like blackwater displays inverted Cypress Trees and Spanish Moss without flaw. But the glassy dark waters obscure all that lies below the oxygen-rich world in which we reside. What goes about beneath that obsidian-glass surface? What strange fish or slimy siren? What giant crocodilian or slithering serpent just brushed underneath the kayak? What giant chelonian crawls about the floor of that black as night, water? What's behind the glass?  Reflection of a cypress tree and Spanish Moss in a blackwater swamp. Taxodium distichum and Taxodium ascendens are found in wetland habitats. Photographed on the Middle Fork Suwannee River red canoe trail in the Okefenokee Swamp National Wildlife Refuge, Georgia USA. Okefenokee Photography by William Wise. A nature photo journal exploration of Georgia's Okefenokee Swamp, the Land of Trembling Earth, one of the largest blackwater swamps in North America. The alligators, birds, snakes and wildlife of Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge and Stephen C Foster State Park. -- "What a wildly wonderful world, God! You made it all, with Wisdom at Your side, made earth overflow with your wonderful creations." Psalms 104 The Message  Hound Black Mouth Cur mix breed dog. Dog rescue pet adoption photography for local animal shelter. ©www.williamwisephoto.com Excerpt from Francis Harper’s Mammals of the Okefinokee Swamp, published March 1927:
 American Black Bear in Stephen C Foster State Park; Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge, Georgia. October 2020 ©www.williamwisephoto.com. Okefenokee Photography by William Wise. A nature photo journal exploration of Georgia's Okefenokee Swamp, the Land of Trembling Earth, one of the largest blackwater swamps in North America. The alligators, birds, snakes and wildlife of Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge and Stephen C Foster State Park. -- "What a wildly wonderful world, God! You made it all, with Wisdom at Your side, made earth overflow with your wonderful creations." Psalms 104 The Message Even if you don't have your own canoe or kayak, a stay at the Stephen C Foster State Park campground is well worth the while. Even on the short trails there is plenty of wildlife to see. And if you want to get out on the water to see the alligators, there are canoe rentals and tour boat treks.  When we came off the water back at Stephen C Foster in the evening, the Black Bear was again at the dead end of the parking lot near the boat barn. Not sure if it was the same individual as early in the morning, but likely. Obviously it was hanging around quite a bit as it prompted a sign to go up at the ranger station and I overheard several campers talking about it. |
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