Scrub-jay at Lyonia Preserve
It is barely daybreak when Joan Jarvis and I reach the trailhead at Lyonia Preserve. Hues of tangerine and toast seep into the morning sky as we head up the sand path into the 400 acres of oak and rosemary scrub, a critical habitat for the Florida scrub-jay. The land here once looked like most of the undeveloped patches around Deltona, dense thickets of tall sand pines choking out the undergrowth. But in 1994, Volusia County Land Acquisition and Management launched an aggressive habitat management project to restore this hillside to an environment friendly to the scrub-jay—removing the tall sand pines and allowing the short oak scrub to re-establish itself. Build it, and they will come.
According to Randall Sleister, Habitat Management Supervisor for Lyonia Preserve, “When we started the restoration, there was a single scrub-jay family living on a nearby golf course just north of the site. The scrub-jays have been breeding here for six years now. During our last survey in 1998, we counted 88 birds. We now estimate the population to be over 100.”
Lyonia Preserve has become Central Florida’s top site for birders seeking the Florida scrub-jay. More than four miles of trails crisscross the preserve, with a 2.1-mile circuit of three color-coded loops the easiest route for hikers to follow. Starting off on the Rusty Lyonia Trail, Joan and I keep to the outside of the loop, switching off to the Red Root Trail. The trail is a soft blinding-white sand, winding through a forest of scrub oaks – myrtle oak, Chapman oak, and sand live oak – only three to seven feet tall, a perfect environment for the Florida scrub-jay. Bald patches of open crystalline white sand snake between the trees, broken up by clumps of aromatic Florida rosemary. The soft needles of scattered young sand pines bow towards the ground,
As we reach the first wetland, we hear the persistent calls of the eastern towhee, another feathered resident of the scrub. A cedar waxwing perches on a rotting stump. The sky slowly turns to blue as the first rays of sunrise peep over the distant trees. As we turn a corner, Joan and I both notice a plump bird sitting well up in a sand pine. “That’s it!”
The scrub-jay is Florida’s only endemic bird—found nowhere else in the world. By all accounts, it’s also one of Florida’s more elusive birds. With scattered populations of three to ten individuals on numerous small tracts around Central Florida, searching for a Florida scrub-jay is a treasure hunt.
I get out my camera. I’ve never seen a Florida scrub-jay before, and even in this not-quite-perfect light, I feel a need to snap a picture. Another bird pokes around in the underbrush, but flies off as we approach. We continue our hike. As the trail climbs a tall rise, Florida rosemary grows along both sides. Dark-leaved silk bay begins to appear along the trail. The leaves are a dark shiny green on top, with silky-haired red undersides. If you crush one, it emits the aromatic smell of bay leaves used in Italian cooking. This tree is a close relative, but endemic to Florida scrub.
At the next trail junction, we continue straight, heading forward on the Blueberry Trail to the south end of the preserve. On the trail’s high point, fifty feet above sea level, we look down to a panorama of the preserve, across a vast wetland. Standing ankle-deep in water, two distant sandhill cranes consult each other, their haunting cries carrying across the scrub. As we descend to its shore, the cranes leap for the sky, gliding overhead in perfect formation as they continue their rattling squawks. The short sand pines around us, reminiscent of Christmas trees, become perches for scrub-jays, one after another. We stop and watch.
The Florida scrub-jay is a friendly bird, and when feeling no threat, almost tame. Within a few moments, a whole family appears, seven scrub jays regarding us curiously from their eye-level perches in small sand pines and oaks. Each pair mates for life, raising its family with the aid of helpers, birds with no mating attachment (children of the pair), who delay their own breeding for the sake of helping raise a family. Families travel together across a territorial spread of 25 acres. Weaving a nest of scrub palmetto fibers and oak twigs, each family raises one or two groups of three or four hatchlings each year. Starting out with a brownish-white coloration, the young birds stay with the family for at least a year. The availability of the perfect habitat limits the total population of Florida scrub-jays, as each family is extremely territorial, uninterested in migrating.
Reaching the intersection with the Red Root Trail, I have a hunch. “Let’s turn here.” We walk up the little-used cross trail, and within moments, scrub-jays appear all around us—two, four, eight. Most perch on the slender oak branches, cocking their heads like parrots, sizing us up. Several scramble through the bushes, intent on finding more acorns. As I pull out my camera, I discover that they’re too close for the telephoto lens. I put on a macro lens, and as I lift the camera up to take a picture, a scrub-jay lands on it, fussing.
“Look at this!” Joan laughs. A scrub-jay landed on her perfect coiffure. “Guess I should have worn a hat!” The birds are unexpectedly large, eight inches tall, and so bright and colorful it’s like having a flock of parrots surrounding you.
Within moments, another scrub-jay is on my hat, picking at the button in the middle, assuming it’s an acorn cap. I’m about to shake my head to encourage it to fly away when we hear a shrill shrweep from the bushes. At the sentinel’s warning, all of the scrub-jays melt back into the scrub, shuffling across the forest floor in search of acorns, insects, and lizards. During the acorn season, each family will gather a cache of acorns, as squirrels do, to feed themselves during the leaner times.
We retrace our steps back to the outside of the loop. Further along, at the intersection of Red Root Trail and the Rusty Lyonia Trail, another friendly family of scrub-jays comes out of the bushes. Some of them hop across the bright white sand path. Others rustle in the brush, turning over leaves, looking for insects. A few land on our heads, then settle back in the oak branches. Since we’re so close to the beginning of the trail at the Deltona Library, it makes me wonder if these birds are habituated to human presence—and if someone has been feeding them. Sure enough, as Joan and I make our way back to the trailhead, we pass a family with a bag of peanuts.
While feeding encourages the bird’s bolder actions, the Florida scrub-jay has a natural curiosity about its surroundings, and will come out of the forest to investigate. At the Archbold Biological Station on Lake Wales Ridge, scientists studying the Florida scrub-jay do hand-feed them on occasion to make it easier to examine and band the birds. During the breeding season, March through May, the scrub-jays tend to keep to themselves, so Sleister has coaxed reluctant birds out of the woods with a few unsalted peanuts. But in general, feeding the birds is a bad idea. Sleister discourages visitors to Lyonia Preserve from feeding the scrub-jays. “It gives them a false sense of the carrying capacity of the land, and people feed them things that a scrub-jay simply shouldn’t eat,” like the birdseed I saw one young couple handing out on a recent morning.
THE PLIGHT OF THE SCRUB JAY
Ranging from north Central Florida to north of the Everglades, the Florida scrub-jay needs scrub habitat to survive. “Eliminate scrub and you eliminate scrub-jays,” says Dr. Glen Woolfenden, a researcher at the Archbold Station near Lake Placid and a prime authority on the Florida scrub-jay. “About 90% of the original scrub habitat of Florida has been converted to human uses such as housing developments, citrus and pastures.”
Due to the long suppression of fire in Florida, climax sand pine forest covers much of what’s left of Central Florida’s scrub. In a climax forest, bark peels off the sand pines, showing off the creamy ivory color and smooth texture of the wood. As they near the end of their lives, fifty to ninety years, the trees lean. Sand pine forests are one of the more unusual natural communities in Florida, relying entirely on fire to regenerate. The closed cones of a sand pine may become embedded and overgrown by bark rather than fall to the ground and sprout. When fire sweeps through the sand pines, it quickly climbs the pines’ low dead branches. In the 1933 novel South Moon Under, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings depicts the fury of a fire in the sand pine scrub— “dry pine-tops burst into flames with a roar. Balls of fire jumped thirty feet at a shot.” Like popcorn, the cones burst in the flames and release their seeds, regenerating the forest.
With the building of roads and housing development, walls of fire no longer sweep across the sand pine scrub. As a result, habitat restoration requires either a clear-cut of the sand pine forest or controlled burns every 5 to 15 years. According to Dr. Woolfenden “If a cleared patch of scrub is big enough, if it is not surrounded by unused habitat, such as forest, and if it is not too far from a source of individuals, jays will come to occupy it about three years after a fire.”
At Rock Springs Run State Reserve, habitat restoration meant clear cutting old stands of dense sand pine forest, similar to the undeveloped lots scattered throughout the Deltona area. When the forest becomes dark and dense, the scrub jays are robbed of their primary food source—acorns. “It takes three to four years for the scrub jays to move in after a restoration,” said Greg Walker, biologist at the Wekiva Geo Park. “But in the meantime, they use that area for foraging.”
RESTORATION ON THE COAST
I arrive on a cool, misty January morning at Brevard County’s Malabar Scrub Sanctuary, not far from the Indian River Lagoon. A damp chill saturates the air. I’d corresponded with the land manager, Zach Prusak, over several months, and he assured me that early morning was the best time to find their elusive scrub-jay population. As my friend Rich Evans and I slowly walk the sugar sand trails, the calls of birds echo between the sand live oaks—the persistent weep-weep of the eastern towhee and the wheezy fip-fip-fip of the blue-gray gnatcatcher. We turn off the Scrub Jay Trail to follow the Oak Leaf Trail into the scrubby flatwoods. In a transition zone between habitats, a boardwalk stretches over a tannic wetland. Here, perched in the oaks, two scrub-jays fuss at each other. It’s too early, the light too faint to highlight their brilliant blue feathers. Only their calls and their size give them away.
After a couple hours of hiking, we meet up with Zach Prusak to talk about this preserve, officially opening in April 2002. It’s obvious from the main entrance road that this was meant to be yet another housing development, increasing the southward sprawl of Palm Bay. “We were fortunate to get this property at a bankruptcy proceeding,” said Prusak. We discuss the surrounding neighborhoods, the push of the urban mass out to Malabar. “The neighborhood cats are likely to blame for the decline of our scrub-jay population,” said Prusak. “We had ten individuals when we took over the property, and now there are three. There is a bobcat living on site, but the cats that wander in from the surrounding houses—their owners don’t realize the damage they can do.”
Malabar Scrub Sanctuary is yet another piece in a patchwork puzzle of lands with restoration efforts to preserve the Florida scrub-jay. Three regions of Florida contain the majority of the bird’s population—the Big Scrub of the Ocala National Forest, the Lake Wales Ridge, and the coastal scrub of Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge. Florida scrub-jay habitat restoration efforts typically focus on land where scrub jays have been sighted in the past. According to Laura Lowery, Wildlife Biologist with the Ocala National Forest, “The longest distance a scrub-jay has been proven to move is nine miles, and they don’t like to move more than two miles.”
One question that nagged me about restoration efforts: if scrub-jays don’t like to move very far, how do they find these newly restored habitats? Dr. Woolfenden explained the concept. Scrub-jays that are ready to breed move out of their family’s domain to establish another, as each family vigorously defends its own territory. This dispersal of birds can be across habitats that are not perfect for the scrub-jay, but will do in a pinch. “Scrub-jays disperse well though poorly improved pasture land (with some shrubs and palmetto), golf courses, rural suburbs, and wide road shoulders. Scrub-jays disperse poorly through or over forests or over major expanses of water.”
Despite rampant development in Deltona, small populations of scrub-jays have persisted, leading to the dispersal into Lyonia Preserve. Says Randall Sleister, “I’ve lived in Deltona for 15, 16 years, and have seen remnant scrub-jays scattered through the area, hanging around dried-up lakes during the drought. There are some up by the Sterling Park Subdivision, and some by Howland, near the high school.”
Despite restoration efforts, the statewide population of the Florida scrub-jay continues to drop—only 10% of the original population remains, according to Audubon of Florida. Designated a Federally threatened species in 1987, the scrub-jay continues a slide towards extinction due to its small population size, fragmentation of habitat, and ongoing degradation of habitat. By 1993, during the last comprehensive statewide survey of the population, less than 10,000 birds remained.
“Loss of habitat to human uses is the major threat to the species’ survival,” says Dr. Woolfenden. “Management of the land we save for the species is the next most critical issue.”
With restoration efforts like those in Lyonia Preserve, Malabar Scrub Sanctuary, and others, we can only hope to offset a fraction of the damage done to this dwindling species by the rampant development of Florida’s scrub.
WHERE TO SEE A FLORIDA SCRUB-JAY
These Central Florida sites are compiled from suggestions in the Great Florida Birding Trail (East Section) Guide, developed by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, as well as the author’s own research into scrub-jay habitats in Central Florida. This is by no means a comprehensive list, but enough to enable you to enjoy the outdoors while searching for scrub-jays. To increase your chances of seeing a scrub-jay, arrive between dawn and 9 AM, when the birds are busy foraging. If you are approached by scrub-jays, please resist the temptation to feed or handle them.
BREVARD
Buck Lake Conservation Area: Hikers report scrub-jays throughout the scrub in this preserve, crisscrossed by old jeep trails. Off SR 46, west of Mims, east of the St. Johns River.
Canaveral National Seashore: Scrub-jay sightings just after the south entrance station, en route to Playalinda Beach. Follow SR 3 through Merritt Island NWR to the entrance.
Lori Wilson Park: Scattered scrub-jays in the coastal scrub. Along SR A1A in Cocoa Beach, south of SR 520. Park entrance is on the east side of the road.
Malabar Scrub Sanctuary: Several individuals scattered across a 400-acre tract ideal for scrub-jay families. Take I-95 exit 70, Malabar, heading east on Malabar Road to the fire station. Turn left into the community park, and follow the road to the sanctuary gate.
Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge: One of Florida’s larger scrub-jay populations, concentrated in the scrub between SR 3 near the Visitor’s Center and Kennedy Space Center. Stop at the Visitor’s Center and walk the short nature trail.
CITRUS
Citrus Tract, Withlacoochee State Forest: Restoration of habitat in the northern section of the forest should lead to sightings of individual scrub-jays. From SR 44, Inverness, drive west to the park’s northern entrance, TR-13. Drive south on the unpaved road about a mile to a clearing next to a concrete cistern, and follow the orange-blazed Citrus Trail northwest to the scrub area.
Potts Preserve: At least ten individuals living in the oak scrub along George Washington Pasture. Take SR 44 to Inverness; follow US 41 north to CR 581. Head east to the preserve’s western entrance, Dee Ranch Road. Follow the jeep trail 2 miles to the pasture; the scrub parallels the pasture on the left side of the road.
FLAGLER
North Peninsula State Park: Several scrub-jay families reside in the coastal scrub on the west side of the road. Located 6 miles south of Flagler Beach on SR A1A.
LAKE
Rock Springs Run State Preserve: At least five birds live in the scrub off Spear Road. After parking in the equestrian parking lot at the end of the paved road, walk down the sand road to the area around the canopied bench. Located off SR 46 east of Sanford.
Seminole State Forest: Scrub-jays reported along the East Spur (white-blazed) loop trail off the Florida National Scenic Trail, at SR 46. Hike in on the orange-blazed trail from the entrance.
MARION
Ocala National Forest: More than 750 scrub-jay families are scattered throughout the Big Scrub, seen anywhere where the oak scrub is head-high or shorter. Try a hike on a section of the Florida National Scenic Trail from the SR 19 trailhead east towards Alexander Springs, or on the new Yearling Trail, on SR 19 across from Silver Glen Springs.
Hàlpata Tastanaki Preserve: A new preserve established west of Ocala on SR 200, several miles west of SR 484. Look for the trailhead on the right. According to Southwest Florida Water Management District biologist Mary Barnwell, there are at least forty scrub-jays in the preserve, establishing “good, successful breeding.”
OSCEOLA
Disney Wilderness Preserve: Scrub jays sighted along the preserve’s entrance road.
POLK
Lake Kissimmee State Park: Visit scrub-jay families along the North Loop Trail, which crosses the entrance road through the scrub at the north end of the park. Located east of Lake Wales, off SR 60.
Lake Wales Ridge State Forest: Scrub-jays found at the entrance (King Trail Gate) to the Walk-in-the-Water tract, and in the short oak scrub at the entrance to the Arbuckle Tract. The Walk-in-the-Water tract sits off Lake Walk-in-the-Water Road, off SR 60 east of Lake Wales, across from Lake Kissimmee State Park; the Arbuckle Tract is outside of Frostproof. Follow US 27 to CR 630A, turn right on Lake Reedy Blvd., left on Lake Arbuckle Road. Forest entrance is on the right.
Tiger Creek Preserve: This lightly visited preserve managed by The Nature Conservancy is an excellent introduction to the Lake Wales Ridge scrub environment. You’ll find perfect scrub-jay habitat along the beginning of the Pfundstein Trail, just beyond a restoration area for cutthroat grass. Follow US 27 south of Lake Wales to CR 640 east, which turns into SR 17 through Babson Park. South of town, turn left on North Lake Moody Road, left on Murray Road, then left on Pfundstein Road. The preserve is on the left.
VOLUSIA
Blue Spring State Park: Scattered scrub-jays in the low scrub near the park entrance and campground. Located in Orange City off US 17/92.
Lyonia Preserve: More than 100 scrub-jays live on this 400-acre tract located behind the Deltona Public Library. Take I-4 exit 54 to SR 472 south. Turn right on Providence Boulevard, then right on Eustace Avenue.
