Pat’s Wildways: Lunar influences

By now, everyone around Fernandina has noticed the exceptionally high tides that are flooding some of our streets. Downtown along Front Street always floods during these “king tides,” but this time even parts of our main thoroughfare, Eighth Street, were flooded by Alachua and Broome streets.

Most everyone knows that this is due to the combined effect of a line-up of a full moon, the sun, and Earth, but this time it coincided with a nor’easter that drove tides nearly two feet above regular predictions. Even if the controversial and expensive “sea wall” is ever built along our downtown, it won't help unless it covers the whole length of the island. Water will just flood around and get trapped behind it — a waste of our money to build it partially, at least in our own generation.

And it’s not only we humans and our infrastructure that are affected by these king tides. The wildlife we share our world with feels its impacts too. Driving around the island, I found it interesting to see flocks of white ibis — both mature white ones and immature darker ones — visiting the newly formed puddles on the streets. Ibis feed largely on small prey, including insects, and when some areas get flooded, the insects rise to the surface, making easy meals.

Other birds influenced by exceptionally high tides are the clapper and king rail that live, mostly invisibly, in our saltwater wetlands. These birds have a narrow profile (“thin as a rail”) to enable them to move through the marsh spartina grass that is the most dominant plant surrounding us. When king tides flood out their habitat, these birds move to the edges where they can still walk around. It is at these times that we sometimes see “Sneaky” as Bucko and I have named the resident clapper rail and its kin that sometimes cross the pavement of Heritage River Road.

Unfortunately for these marsh-living rails, it is now hunting season for them — and they are easier than normal to see and shoot. Hunters here in Florida call them “marsh hens” and, with a permit, they are legal to hunt between Sept. 1 and Nov. 9 this year, with a limit of up to 75 birds per hunter each season. Hopefully Sneaky and its kin are beyond reach. Here in Florida, the “hunter’s moon” that was full earlier this week is aptly named if you are a marsh hen hunter.

Luckily, by the time this set of king tides reached our shores, the sea turtle nesting season is about over. Flooding can kill turtles in the nest, but most have hatched and returned to the sea by now. The same is true of the breeding birds on various sandbars around us. Nature has a way of timing things to lessen the damage to wild populations.

The hunter’s moon we just witnessed has astrological and mystical meaning for believers too. This full moon is said to represent a cosmic change leading into winter. It is a time to let go of negativity and outmoded attachments and to focus on renewal. Astrologically, the hunter’s moon is a pull between the moon in Taurus and the sun in Scorpio, with all kinds of meaning to those who believe and study this. Mystical ceremonies often honor this transition.

Since it is happening near Halloween, it adds more salt to the fire, so to speak, salt being a key part of mystical ceremonies. Halloween is a celebration stemming from Samhain, a Celtic festival that marks the end of the harvest season. Halloween is sometimes recognized as a spiritual “liminal” phase when the physical boundary to the spirit world dissolves. The effects of the hunter’s moon magnify this effect.

Have a Happy Halloween, everyone, regardless of your beliefs. It is a good time to recognize the onset of winter, a time to let go of old negativity and to prepare for the restoration that winter brings. And don’t forget the candy!

Pat Foster-Turley, Ph.D., is a zoologist on Amelia Island. She welcomes your nature questions and observations. patandbucko@yahoo.com