*** This cache is part of the Taking Flight GeoTour. Anyone can claim this cache, but to be eligible to receive a Taking Flight GeoTour prize tag, geocachers must complete the activities in this survey for at least 12 caches on the tour.***
Welcome to Neal Preserve!
At the entrance to Neal Preserve, you will see several longleaf pine tree snags. A snag is any dead or dying standing tree. Most people might think that these tall spikey tree skeletons are an eye sore, but it turns out that they have a critical role to play in Florida’s natural environment. Snags are a very important habitat component, providing food and shelter for a variety of different creatures. They can develop cavities which occur naturally or can be created by wildlife as homes, provide perching and rest spaces on their dead limbs, and can be host to insects that other creatures can eat. Snags are used for nesting, shelter, and feeding sites by over 85 species of North American birds as well as some amphibians, reptiles, and mammals too.
Red-bellied woodpeckers in a palm tree snag. Photo by Linda O'Connor-Levy
For insect-eating birds like woodpeckers, snags are a buffet! The birds hammer into the wood with their beak, pulling out beetles and ants that thrive in the wood and create small cavities. The insects that live within the tree are usually feasting upon the dead wood, preventing the insects from instead turning to live trees as a food source. The exterior of the tree provides food too - lichens that grow on the dead trees also are a food source for plant-eating animals.
Woodpeckers will also create cavities in snags for roosting. Other birds, such as wood ducks and screech owls, can use these holes when the woodpeckers leave. Woodpeckers are primary cavity nesters, animals that can create their own holes in snags. Secondary cavity nesters are those which use old abandoned holes that were created by primary cavity nesters. Wood ducks, screech owls, kestrels, swallows, and flycatchers are all local secondary cavity nesters. The bark of the tree itself can be a home. Bats may live in the spaces under bark in standing dead trees or a careful observer might find an insect or a frog under the bark. Larger birds of prey, such as bald eagles and ospreys, often utilize snags as a nest site by constructing their home in the upper branches of the dead tree.
The snags at Neal Preserve were intentionally left at the site by land managers in order to provide habitat and serve the local wildlife community. You can save a snag too! If you have a dead tree in your yard or on your property consider leaving it in order to benefit the local wildlife. If you have to take it down, you can install nest boxes for cavity-nesting birds. Just remember that while these boxes will provide more nesting options they cannot totally replace the wildlife value of an intact snag.
Visit the sites along the Taking Flight GeoTour (TFGT) and learn about Manatee County's wild spaces and the amazing feathered friends that live in them. Along the way, you will be challenged to become a citizen scientist, a preserve ranger, a detective, a historian, an excellent geocacher. Caches are located in birding hot spots throughout Manatee County's publicly accessible conservation Preserves. Each one highlights a specific bird species or aspect of bird life providing you with opportunities to learn more about these creatures and what we can do to help them survive. Caches also focus on protecting the region's waterways, bays, natural watersheds, and habitat areas for many of our area's feathered friends.
The Taking Flight GeoTour launched August 20, 2012 and includes 18 caches within Manatee County.
To be eligible to receive a Taking Flight GeoTour prize tag, geocachers must complete the activities in this survey for at least 12 finds on the tour. Keep this survey open in your browser, only click submit when at least 12 finds have been completed. Survey responses will be automatically sent to Manatee County staff. Prize tags can be redeemed on Saturday mornings from 9am - 12pm at The NEST at Robinson Preserve located at 840 99th St NW, Bradenton, FL 34209. If you are unable to collect your prize tag in person, please contact ecoevents@mymanatee.org to arrange for your tag to be sent in the mail. Tags will be available while supplies last.
Thank you for assisting with the Taking Flight GeoTour: