Today I attended the Southeast Florida Scrub Ecosystem Working Group meeting consisting of a field trip in the morning to the Indrio Savannahs to view the different types of land management going on there before packing up and going to the Oxbow Eco-Center for an afternoon of talks on scrub land management in St. Lucie County. I am attending the Working Group meetings to gain more awareness of the Florida scrub as I work on putting together my Florida Scrub-Jay program.

Very hot walking around the Indrio Savannahs in the sun. What shade there was did not help much.

Scrub habitat at the Indrio Savannahs. The area supports at least three Florida Scrub-Jay families.

At Oxbow Eco-Center, an exhibit of different types of animal bones and skeletons—including a human one–just in time for Halloween. This is a Bald Eagle skull. Note the giant beak for tearing apart its prey and the large, round ocular cavity that gives some idea why this raptor has such keen eyesight.

Looking down the business end of the Bald Eagle skull.

The deer skull seems a bit malevolent for such a gentle animal.

A Pigeon skeleton. Note the large sternum hanging down like a fin to which the flight muscles connect that power the bird in flight.