One thing that is pleasantly noticeable in the clean and pristine wilderness of the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge it the absence of pollution of all types. The  light pollution, noise pollution and 'people pollution' (trash) so common is our regular lives is rarely seen, heard or smelled in the Okefenokee Swamp.  

Until I attempted recording bird calls, I had no realization of how much noise surrounds us in every day life. Even in my "quiet" subdivision, I had a hard time getting a clean bird recording without the noise of leaf blower, barking dog or cars off in the distance. Except for the occasional airplane that passes far overhead, the noise of man's ingenuity is mostly absent. 

Until I got an overnight permit to stay at Big Water shelter, I had know real idea how dark "dark" could be, and how bright stars could shine. Without bright parking lots, shopping centers and cities shining nearby, the stars shine brighter in the Okefenokee Swamp. Those distant points of light, which are usually few and far between from an urban viewing point, were so many and so dazzling that even a cellphone camera could record them. 

And what a joy to paddle for miles and miles and never see a piece of discarded trash or floating plastic grocery bag. On my Saturday morning long runs through my home town, it seems the entire route is littered with trash, like a grotesque bread crumb trail leading to "civilization." Thankfully, it isn't that way in the pristine Okefenokee… and let's keep it that way! Remember to pack out everything you bring in. ​

The Stephen C. Foster State Park on Jones Island comprises a very small portion within the entire swamp. The park was named after Stephen Collins Foster (July 4, 1826 – January 13, 1864), known as "the father of American music." He was an American songwriter primarily known for his parlor and minstrel music; among his best-known are "Oh! Susanna", "Camptown Races", and "Old Folks at Home", which laments about a return to the Suwanee River, whose headwaters make their origin in the Okefenokee swamp. 
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           Way down upon the Swanee River,
                  Far, far away.
           That's where my heart is yearning ever,
                  Home where the old folks stay.
 
The State Park serves as a great base camp for daily swamp excursions. The campground is comprised of two loops of RV spots with electricity and water spigots. Though somewhat close together, each site is separated by thick brush and saw palmetto, and seems somewhat isolated from neighbors. ​

Alligators aren’t the only megafauna of the great Okefenokee Swamp! I’ve made several excursions to the Okefenokee, but have never had the privilege of spotting a bear. I get a bit jealous as I see iNaturalist observations of Black Bears lumbering through the Stephen C Foster campground, or in other places throughout the swamp.
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Most of my visits to the Okefenokee have been in March, and the bears may still be safely tucked away in hibernation dens at that time, which typically lasts from December to April. But on my May 2020 trip, I came across a long line of tracks on the Upland Pine Trail in the Stephen C Foster State Park. 

With their numbers declining because of habitat loss, the Okefenokee is truly a refuge for this handsome ursine inhabitant. The Okefenokee affords them some remote location to get far from their human predators as possible. They are often not seen, as I can attest, more than their signs are discovered. Claw marks on trees and prints in the swamp mud are often the only evidence found of the Black Bear by most Okefenokee visitors.
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Bears have a varied diet, but are reportedly a major predator of alligator eggs. They are a true omnivore and feast upon the abundant floral and faunal inhabitants in the swamp ecosystem. And, of course, they love honey! They often got the blame for tearing up the managed hives of the swampers that once lived in the Okefenokee. 

It can remain in the grass stage for years, but once the root base is established, it will rapidly take off into the “bottle brush” stage – a four-foot tall, branchless seedling that resembles a cobweb duster. It may stay in this stage for a period of time, but can adequately take in needed sunlight by staying above the lower scrub and vegetation.
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After about 30 years from germination, the Longleaf Pine stands tall and nearly branchless up to the crown, resembling a green topped telephone pole. Mature stands of Longleaf Pine are essential habitat for the Red-cockaded Woodpecker.

​Skimming all throughout the Okefenokee are the gorgeous Odonata. The dragonflies adorn the swamp with their vibrant greens and blues. In the heat of the day, when most of the birds hide and the alligators sink in the cooler waters, the dragonflies are constantly buzzing about. If your camera’s autofocus is worthy, and your skill at tracking fast moving critters is even more worthy, you just might catch a flight shot. Not me… for now, I’m happy to get a photograph if one stays on a perch long enough! 

​Despite their innocent looks, and harmless alighting upon an extended finger, dragonflies are voracious carnivores! In fact, their insectivorous habits gave them the name odonata, which is Greek for “toothed”. And I suppose cannibalism isn’t out of the question, as I have once sat and watched a darner devouring another dragonfly head first.  Strange Lives of Familiar Insects claims a dragonfly can ingest their own body weight in 30 minutes. 

But in a dog-eat-dog world, sometimes the predator can become prey...

Each Okefenokee morning, the signs of the night creatures are evident throughout the swamp. From tracks in the mud, to watery trails through the sphagnum moss, and down to the delicate details, a careful inspection reveals much about the inhabitants of the swamp.
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As the orange glow of morning passes over the Okefenokee uplands, numerous webs glint and glisten across the grasses as the sun rises. Their delicate designs are highlighted by the descent of morning dew that adds crystalline droplets to each strand of the web.  But the finespun designs will disappear as they tatter in the afternoon heat. Their delicate beauty passes away… until re-spun as darkness settles once again.  

"A man who has spent his entire life in and near the Swamp describes the setting of Gannet Lake as follows: From this lake one can look across a five-mile stretch of prairie and see the large green lily leaves floating around and the magnificent white bonnet lily blooms, which look as white as snow, shaded by the green leaves, and can also see trees here and there draped with long wisps of gray moss, all making one of the most beautiful landscapes ever been held by the eye of man.”  

- Excerpt from the 1926 History of the Okefenokee Swamp by AS McQueen and Hamp Mizell; page 50.

The flooded prairies and hammocks of the Okefenokee Swamp hold acre after acre of standing, dead wood. An abundance of snags (dead trees) means abundant woodpeckers. There are currently eight species of woodpecker found in the Okefenokee, and one formerly occurring species - the Ivory Billed Woodpecker - that is now extinct.
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The excavations of the Okefenokee woodpeckers creates suitable habitat and nest cavities for other birds and wildlife as well. Taylor Schoettle writes, “Without the Pileated’s carpentry, there would be few natural cavities large enough for wood ducks to rear their young. There is hardly a time when visiting the Okefenokee that this grand woodpecker is not encountered.” (A Naturalist’s Guide to the Okefenokee Swamp; Sea to Sea Printing and Publishing, 2002).

"​WE approached the savanna at the South end, by a narrow isthmus of level ground, open to the light of day, and clear of trees or bushes, and not greatly elevated above the common level, having on our right a spacious meadow, embellished with a little lake, one verge of which was not very distant from us; its shore is a moderately high, circular bank, partly encircling a cove of the pond, in the form of a half moon; the water is clear and deep, and at the distance of some hundred yards, was a large floating field (if I may so express myself) of the Nymphea, with their golden blossoms waving to and fro on their lofty stems. Beyond these fields of Nymphea were spacious plains, encompassed by dark groves, opening to extensive Pine forests, other plains still appearing beyond them."
   - Excerpt from William Bartram's Travels; Part II, Chapter VI

"From the buttress, the Cypress, as it were, takes another beginning, forming a grand strait column eighty or ninety feet high, when it divides every way around into an extensive flat horizontal top, like an umbrella, where eagles have their secure nests, and cranes and storks their temporary resting places; and what adds to the magnificence of their appearance, is the streamers of long moss that hang from the lofty limbs and float in the winds. This is their majestic appearance, when standing alone, in large rice plantations, or thinly planted on the banks of great rivers."
     - Excerpt from William Bartram's Travels; Part II, Chapter III

Splashes of yellow dot the Okefenokee landscape as wildflowers of the Bidens genus bloom in the spring and summer. I have seen them growing on the prairies, in shallow waters alongside Spatterdock, and in tussocks upon old stumps in the middle of the larger lakes. They are commonly called Beggars Ticks, Bur Marigolds and Tickseed Sunflowers.  They are a sun-loving wildflower and generally found in moist soils such as marshes, wet meadows and roadside ditches.

“Every cloud has a silver lining.” While I’m typically not one to use happy little inspirational poster quotes, this one held true for me in May 2020. The coronavirus shutdown of the entire world gave many of us weeks of free time as we isolated at home. I chose to take isolation to the extreme and made a second 2020 trip to the Okefenokee Swamp National Wildlife Refuge in Georgia.

There were only about twenty occupied campsites within the sixty-plus RV lots of the Stephen C Foster State Park. We all had plenty of room and privacy. And consider that us few campers were just about the only people within the Okefenokee’s 438,000 acres, that’s some serious social distancing!

As I suspected, visiting at a date further into the summer, the “environmental challenges” (as my daughter coined them) were greater than our usual early spring excursions. It was quite a bit more humid, the sun rose earlier, higher and hotter than in March, and the armies of gnats and flies were mustering their ranks in greater numbers. Because of the heat, most of the alligators were now spending the majority of the mid-day submerged in the swamp waters.
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Still, it is always a wonderful time to explore the Okefenokee. I concentrated a bit more on plants and “bugs” than in the past in order to contribute some diversity of Okefenokee observations to my iNaturalist Project and Okefenokee Blog. ​

From the broad, sweeping bird’s-eye-view, down to the smallest detail of living organism, the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge is full of beauty and charm. Perhaps alligators and snakes are the first thing conjured in the mind upon hearing the word “swamp”, but peace, solitude and fascination come to my thoughts.

My first visits to the Okefenokee were to photograph alligators and wildlife. Later, birds became the focus of my interest. And more recently, after several swamp excursions, the minute details of fern and twig, insect and web, lichen and flower have captured my attention. Even when not paddling through the swamp in my canoe, I am at home perusing through book after book about the habitats and ecosystem of the swamp.
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If you are fascinated by this natural world, you must make the Okefenokee Swamp a destination on your list of must-see parks. It is truly a place of beauty and charm! 

​"THE alligator when full grown is a very large and terrible creature, and of prodigous strength, activity and swiftness in the water. I have seen them twenty feet in length, and some are supposed to be twenty-two or twenty-three feet; their body is as large as that of a horse; their shape exactly resembles that of a lizard, except their tail, which is flat or cuniform, being compressed on each side, and gradually diminishing from the abdomen to the extremity, which, with the whole body is covered with horny plates or squammae, impenetrable when on the body of the live animal, even to a rifle ball, except about their head and just behind their fore-legs or arms, where it is said they are only vulnerable. The head of a full grown one is about three feet, and the mouth opens nearly the same length, the eyes are small in proportion and seem sunk deep in the head, by means of the prominency of the brows; the nostrils are large, inflated and prominent on the top, so that the head in the water, resembles, at a distance, a great chunk of wood floating about. Only the upper jaw moves, which they raise almost perpendicular, so as to form a right angle with the lower one. In the fore part of the upper jaw, on each side, just under the nostrils, are two very large, thick, strong teeth or tusks, not very sharp, but rather the shape of a cone, these are as white as the finest polished ivory, and are not covered by any skin or lips, and always in sight, which gives the creature a frightful appearance; in the lower jaw are holes opposite to these teeth, to receive them; when they clap their jaws together it causes a surprising noise, like that which is made by forcing a heavy plank with violence upon the ground, and may be heard at a great distance."
-William Bartram's Travels, Part II, Chapter V