Vintage style illustration of a marsh rabbit's globular style nest. These nest are very hard to photograph since they are excellently camoflauged in the swamp!
Hidden in plain sight, the marsh rabbit builds a fortress of secrets. Deep in the Okefenokee, it weaves globular nests of dried grass directly onto the floating peat - masterfully camouflaged and accessible only by watery trails. A true swamp architect! #SwampSunday #Okefenokee #WitchSky #Nature
Screen capture photo from video of marsh rabbit / swamp rabbit swimming. From PBS "Nature" S38E14: Remarkable Rabbits, 4/8/2020/
The marsh rabbit is the swamp’s quietest triumph. Unlike its dry-land cousins, this elusive trickster has mastered both worlds. Building grass nests on floating peat and diving into blackwater to vanish from sight: a land animal with a water soul!
#SwampSunday #Okefenokee #Nature #WitchSky
Wood cut style digital illustration (mine) of a swamp hare and an american alligator.
The marsh rabbit is the ultimate swamp trickster. Unlike its dry-land cousins, this "phantom" swims and dives to outwit the alligator. It’s a classic battle of wits where the small and clever always finds a way to stay one hop ahead of the jaws. #SwampSunday #Okefenokee #Folklore
In 2017, the West Mims Fire consumed over a 133,700 acres in the Okefenokee Refuge. Photo from U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Fire Managment Division, taken at the GA / FL line.
Peat fires aren’t always a threat; they are a necessary "Ruin and Renewal". By clearing brush and keeping waterways open, they maintain the swamp's vital balance. Nature heals itself if we stop industrial interference with its cycle. #SwampSunday #Okefenokee #ProtectTheSwamp
Photo of: Carphephorus odoratissimus (syn. Trilisa odoratissima) common name vanillaleaf. Photo By Alex Abair - https://www.inaturalist.org/photos/170536845, CC BY 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=179636786
Among the 200+ herbaceous plants in the Okefenokee is the fragrant "Deer's Tongue" [Carphephorus odoratissimus]. Its leaves were once a prized addition to tobacco mixtures, a small, aromatic secret hidden among the carnivorous sundews and pitcher plants. #SwampSunday #PlantLore #Okefenokee #HerbLore
Pie-billed Grebe, P. p. podiceps, summer plumage By Dori - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=9617312
The Pied-billed Grebe is often called the "water witch" because she disappears underwater so quickly, leaving only her head visible. In the pickerelweed, she is a master of the "now you see her, now you don’t" swamp magic. #SwampSunday #NatureLore #Okefenokee #Folklore
Photographer: Robert R Leahey, Photographed in May 1957. Georgia's best-known traditional storyteller was fishing guide Lem Griffis. Griffis entertained visitors to his fish camp outside Fargo with well-honed whoppers such as a tale, called "Odd Insects," told to Kay L. Cothran: "See that honey a-sittin' up there on the shelf? Well, I crossed my bees with lightnin' bugs so they could see how t' work at night, an' they make a double crop o' honey every year." Stories about hunting and fishing, colorful characters of the past, and memories of growing up on one of the "islands" in the Okefenokee still abound in the region, but few could tell a tall tale like Lem Griffis.
For years, fishing guide Lem Griffis was the swamp's "unofficial Charon," guiding outsiders like filmmaker Jean Renoir through the blackwater. Known for "well-honed whoppers," he once claimed he crossed his bees with lightning bugs so they could work at night!. #SwampSunday #Folklore #Okefenokee
Enjoying putting my feet into the dark tannic waters that abound in S Georgia!
Sailors once carried barrels of amber-colored swamp water, praising its "mystical" ability to stay fresh. Ironically, the tannins from tree bark that dye the water like Coca-Cola also act as a natural purifier, keeping bacteria from growing. #SwampSunday #Okefenokee
Illustration based on Foxfire Book plant / healing lore. Shows a mud poultice taken from the ground of the plant you were "stung" by.
Got a "sting" from a swamp plant or orchid? According to Foxfire lore, the cure is right under your feet. A cool "mud poultice" of swamp clay or clean peat draws the "fire" out of the skin. Nature provides the bane and the blessing in the same boggy soil. #FolkloreThursday #Foxfire #Okefenokee
Illustration made to show the peat islands / hammocks of the Okefenokee Swamp.
In the Okefenokee, the land is alive. The Muscogee call it "Land of the Trembling Earth"—floating peat mats that sway underfoot. Local lore warns: never stand still too long. If you do, the swamp decides to keep you, pulling you down into the dark "shaking" muck. 🌿👣 #FolkloreThursday #Okefenokee
Photo Source: Okefenokee Adventures, nonprofit organization based in Folkston, Georgia. Text: In the Okefenokee, the Rose Pogonia is a floral warning. Lore says its fleshy roots are young snakes "sleeping" in the peat. Dig one up & you’ve disturbed a nest; pick the bloom & the mother cottonmouth will track the scent to find you. 🐍🌸 #FolkloreThursday #Okefenokee #PlantLore
In the Okefenokee, the Rose Pogonia is a floral warning. Lore says its fleshy roots are young snakes "sleeping" in the peat. Dig one up & you’ve disturbed a nest; pick the bloom & the mother cottonmouth will track the scent to find you. 🐍🌸 #FolkloreThursday #Okefenokee #PlantLore
Art depiction of: Down in the swamplands of GA, you learn from childhood to never follow the lights seen in & around the Okefenokee. Foxfire, aka will-o'-wisp or ignis fattus, dancing glowing lights of blue or purple hues, will surely trick you to your untimely death.
Down in the swamplands of GA, you learn from childhood to never follow the lights seen in & around the Okefenokee. Foxfire, aka will-o'-wisp or ignis fattus, dancing glowing lights of blue or purple hues, will surely trick you to your untimely death. #WyrdWednesday #Okefenokee #WitchSky #Folklore
The swamp's Okefenokee story continues.
If you are just tuning in:
Ep. 1 - bsky.app/profile/swam...
Ep. 2 - bsky.app/profile/swam...
Ep. 3 - bsky.app/profile/swam...
#wildlife #okefenokee #naturesky
Storytime. ⬇️
Cypress knees along the St Mary's River, Georgia. Photograph: The Swamp Wytch / R.M. Stanford
To walk among Cypress knees is to walk through a living cathedral. These woody protrusions anchor the trees in the shifting muck of the swamp, embodying a deep, grounded resilience. They are the bones of the wetlands, weathered and wise. They are the Ancestors. #SwampSunday #Okefenokee #Animism
Okefenokee giant pitcher plant (Sarracenia minor var. okefenokeensis D.E.Schnell) Photographer:Karan A. Rawlins, University of Georgia, Bugwood.org
Photo of Floating Bladderwort, Utricularia inflata. Photographer: Alan Cressler
Behind every sweet scent in the swamp lies a deadly secret. Pitcher plants and Butterworts don't just grow; they wait. Their energy is as cunning as their design—a reminder that in the Okefenokee, even the flora has an appetite. #SwampSunday #Okefenokee #WitchSky
Photos of Bald Cypress trees in a swamp, Georgia. Photo by Holt Webb from his book "Vanishing America"
Headless ghosts, colorful lights dancing around cypress knees, burial mounds for Giants... These are only a few of the tales from the Okefenokee Swamp. The dark, tannic water flows in my veins. #SwampSunday #Okefenokee #folklore #WitchSky
Photographer: Carlton Ward. All rights reserved by photographer. Ogeechee Tupelo on the Suwanee River near the GA/FL line. https://carltonward.com/art/ogeechee-tupelo-by-carlton-ward-jr https://www.instagram.com/p/BOpQbgTjrMu/?igsh=bmVkcnJrbXNkazc2
"In the beginning, there was only water and fog. Then, Hesaketvmesē—the Maker of Breath—blew the mists away to reveal the world." Every green shoot and blossoming tupelo is a reminder of that first life-giving breath. #Muscogee #Spring #Okefenokee #SuwaneeRiver #FolkloreThursday
Acrylic on canvas painting titles "Three Sisters" by Muscogee (Creek) artist. View their IG account at @starr_hardridge. This painting is on permanent display at the Philbrook Museum of Art.
In the heart of the Okefenokee lies a 'Terrestrial Paradise.' Muscogee legend tells of the Daughters of the Sun, beautiful women who rescued lost hunters on a vanishing island. A story of the swamp's hidden grace and the renewal of hope. #FolkloreThursday #Muscogee #Okefenokee #Spring #WitchSky
Okefenokee Swamp: the people, Renee Bodine/USFWS, Public Domain, https://www.fws.gov/media/okefenokee-swamp-people
Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge, USFWS, Public Domain, https://www.fws.gov/media/okefenokee-national-wildlife-refuge-2
The Okefenokee Swamp, "Land of the Trembling Earth", is home to myriad peat islands/hammocks that move & sway when walked upon. This is a landscape of rebirth & renewal, and now is a time of greening and blossom! #FolkloreThursday #Okefenokee #Spring #WitchSky
The song of a southern northern cardinal vs northern northern cardinal. Birds have regional dialects, and the cardinal’s is particularly pronounced, noticeable even to those with an untrained ear. #prattle #birds #naturesky #okefenokee
Fascism first causes, then thrives on, the chaos for which it presents itself as sole cure. -- William Gibson (@GreatDismal) ⬆ #Wisdom #Quotes #WilliamGibson #Chaos #Fascism ⬇ #Photography #Panorama #Okefenokee #Swam...
Fascism first causes, then thrives on, the chaos for which it presents itself as sole cure.
-- William Gibson (@GreatDismal)
⬆ #Wisdom #Quotes #WilliamGibson #Chaos #Fascism
⬇ #Photography #Panorama #Okefenokee #Swam...
#democracy #usa #gop #fascists
👉 Vote 'em Out!
Headstone / grave of the "Queen of the Okefenokee" - Lydia A Stone. This woman was a force to be recokend with! Standing over 6 ft tall, with a booming voice and strength to pick up a crosstie in her prime. Her grave is located in High Bluff Cemetery - one of my favorite places to visit.
A rare photograph / portrate of Lydia Stone
"Queen of the Okefenokee", Lydia Stone. She was at least 6ft tall, & became a very wealthy landowner during a time when women were not usually empowered. My father saw her once as a very little boy. He never forgot it. I love visiting her grave! #FolkloreThursday #Okefenokee #Heroine
Photo from the Okefenokee Swamp showing spanish moss hanging from cypress trees. Unknown photographer.
Spanish Moss is said to be the hair of a very old man who lived for ages after making a deal with the Devil. When he finally died, his hair draped over the trees.
#Okefenokee #SwampSunday #WitchSky
Photo of one of the small footpath boardwalks within the Okefenokee Swamp.
"To understand that the earth is wild, and that we are of the earth, and also wild: some of us are willing to feel this more strongly than others."
— Janisse Ray, 2020 essay "I Have Seen the Warrior: Crossing the Okefenokee" published in Terrain.org
#SwampSunday #Okefenokee
Photo By/Credit Dan Chapman/USFWS Lily pads at Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge. 02/20/2024
"What would the world be, once bereft of wet and of wildness? Let them be left, O let them be left, wildness and wet; long live the weeds and the wilderness yet."
—From “Inversnaid” by Gerard Manley Hopkins
#SwampSunday #Okefenokee
Photo from within the Okefenokee Swamp, Carol M. Highsmith Photography, Inc.; 2017. Shows a look within the blackwater swamps of the Okefenokee in rural South Georgia. Cypress trees and oaks line the canal's edges.
"There’s a famous pundit, a patriarch of the Incels, who sneers and says, as if it’s an insult, that witches come from the swamp. In a way, he’s right—witchcraft is born of the swamp. We witches come from the dark lagoon, bubbling and sulfurous." (1 of 3) #SwampSunday #Okefenokee #WitchSky
Digital image inspiried by this quote from the book "Suwannee River: Strange Green Land" by Cecile Hulse Matschat, published in 1938: ""In the weird, hobgoblin world of the bays there is perpetual twilight... Seeing this malformed forest in the strange green light, one might expect it to be the home of gnomes... As a matter of fact, it is inhabited by much more sinister personalities."
"In the weird, hobgoblin world of the bays there is perpetual twilight... Seeing this malformed forest in the strange green light, one might expect it to be the home of gnomes... As a matter of fact, it is inhabited by much more sinister personalities." #SwampSunday #Okefenokee #SuwaneeRiver
🌊 Read in #ERW how researchers have used stable water isotope and multiyear time series analysis to demonstrate the linkage of the Georgia–Florida #Okefenokee #Swamp and Floridan Aquifer ⌛📊
🔗 iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1...
#Enrivonment #Water #Hydrology #groundwater #aquifers #isotopes #USA
Join GIPL and the Georgia Water Coalition for Capitol Conservation Day on Feb. 26!
We're advocating for #datacenter accountability, #Okefenokee protection, and forever chemicals transparency.
They'll be breakfast, briefings, and meetings with legislators!
Register below! gipl.org/events/ccd26
