The WFSU Ecology Blog
  • Home
    • About
    • EcoAdventures
      • Kayak and Canoe Adventures
      • Hiking
      • Wildlife Watching
    • Observations From the Field
      • White Pelicans Visit Dr. Charles L. Evans Pond in Tallahassee
      • An April Walk at Ochlockonee River WMA
      • Nesting Raptors at Honeymoon Island State Park
    • WFSU Public Media Home
  • Documentaries
    • In Their Words: Black Legacy Communities in North Florida
    • EcoCitizen Show | Seasons in South Tallahassee
    • Red Wolf Family Celebrates First Year at the Tallahassee Museum
    • Roaming the Red Hills
    • Oyster Doctors
    • Testing the Ecology of Fear
    • EcoShakespeare
    • Stories from the Apalachicola
    • Classic WFSU Ecology Documentaries
  • Habitats
    • Estuaries
      • Oyster Reef
        • The Effects of Predators and Fear on Oyster Reefs
        • Apalachicola Oyster Research
        • Animal Species in a North Florida Intertidal Oyster Reef
        • Oyster Reef Ecology | On the Reef
      • Salt Marsh
        • In the Grass- Salt Marsh Biodiversity Study
        • Plants and Animals of a North Florida Salt Marsh
        • Salt Marsh Ecology | In the Grass
      • Seagrass Bed
        • Predatory Snails, and Prey, of the Bay Mouth Bar Seagrass Beds
      • In the Grass, On the Reef Glossary
    • Waterways Big and Small
      • Aucilla/ Wacissa Watershed
      • Apalachicola Basin
        • Apalachicola Bluffs and Ravines | Virtual Field Trip
        • The Age of Nature Screening & Discussion | The Future of the Apalachicola
        • Apalachicola River and Bay
        • Apalachicola RiverTrek | Kayaking, Camping, & Hiking the River Basin
    • Longleaf Pine & Fire Ecology
  • Backyard Habitat
    • Backyard Blog
      • My Year in Bugs: the 2022 Backyard Blog
      • Backyard Ecology Blog | 2021
      • Backyard Blog November/ December 2020
      • Backyard Blog September/ October 2020
      • July and August 2020 Backyard Blog
      • Backyard Blog June 2020
      • Backyard Blog May 2020
      • Backyard Blog April 2020
      • Backyard Blog February and March 2020
      • Backyard Blog January 2020
      • Backyard Blog October through December 2019
      • Backyard Blog September 2019
      • Backyard Blog August 2019
      • Backyard Blog July 2019
      • Backyard Blog June 2019
      • Backyard Blog May 2019
      • Backyard Blog April 2019
      • Backyard Blog March 2019
      • Backyard Blog February 2019
      • Backyard Blog January 2019
      • The Backyard Bug Blog 2018
    • Backyard Flora and Fauna
      • Bees of North Florida and South Georgia
      • The Seasonality of Bees (and Bee Plants) in North Florida
      • Woody Vines of North Florida
      • Flies of North Florida are More Diverse than You’d Think
      • The Case for Weeds, Our Unsung Florida Native Plants
      • Devil’s Walkingstick: Your New Favorite Thorny Pollinator Plant?
      • Florida Native Milkweed | Tips for Growing Your Monarch Friendly Garden
      • Mistletoe | A Parasite for the Holidays (But Maybe We Like it Anyway?)
    • Florida Friendly Seasonal Planting Guide
    • Pollinator and Gardening Posts
    • Gardening Web Resources
Kayak and Canoe Adventures
RiverTrek 2021: Five Days on the Apalachicola River
Lower Lake Lafayette: Kayak Tallahassee’s Hidden Swamp
Chipola River Paddling Trail | The Ovens and...
Kayaking Bald Point | Adventure on a Living...
Wacissa Springs Adventure | Kayaking a Wild Florida...
A Geologist’s View of the Apalachicola River |...
Upper Chipola River Kayak Adventure | Ghosts &...
Tate’s Hell & the Apalachicola River Delta |...
Kayak Scouting Mission on the Ochlockonee Water Trail
Merritt’s Mill Pond | Kayaking and Spring Caves

The WFSU Ecology Blog

  • Home
    • About
    • EcoAdventures
      • Kayak and Canoe Adventures
      • Hiking
      • Wildlife Watching
    • Observations From the Field
      • White Pelicans Visit Dr. Charles L. Evans Pond in Tallahassee
      • An April Walk at Ochlockonee River WMA
      • Nesting Raptors at Honeymoon Island State Park
    • WFSU Public Media Home
  • Documentaries
    • In Their Words: Black Legacy Communities in North Florida
    • EcoCitizen Show | Seasons in South Tallahassee
    • Red Wolf Family Celebrates First Year at the Tallahassee Museum
    • Roaming the Red Hills
    • Oyster Doctors
    • Testing the Ecology of Fear
    • EcoShakespeare
    • Stories from the Apalachicola
    • Classic WFSU Ecology Documentaries
  • Habitats
    • Estuaries
      • Oyster Reef
        • The Effects of Predators and Fear on Oyster Reefs
        • Apalachicola Oyster Research
        • Animal Species in a North Florida Intertidal Oyster Reef
        • Oyster Reef Ecology | On the Reef
      • Salt Marsh
        • In the Grass- Salt Marsh Biodiversity Study
        • Plants and Animals of a North Florida Salt Marsh
        • Salt Marsh Ecology | In the Grass
      • Seagrass Bed
        • Predatory Snails, and Prey, of the Bay Mouth Bar Seagrass Beds
      • In the Grass, On the Reef Glossary
    • Waterways Big and Small
      • Aucilla/ Wacissa Watershed
      • Apalachicola Basin
        • Apalachicola Bluffs and Ravines | Virtual Field Trip
        • The Age of Nature Screening & Discussion | The Future of the Apalachicola
        • Apalachicola River and Bay
        • Apalachicola RiverTrek | Kayaking, Camping, & Hiking the River Basin
    • Longleaf Pine & Fire Ecology
  • Backyard Habitat
    • Backyard Blog
      • My Year in Bugs: the 2022 Backyard Blog
      • Backyard Ecology Blog | 2021
      • Backyard Blog November/ December 2020
      • Backyard Blog September/ October 2020
      • July and August 2020 Backyard Blog
      • Backyard Blog June 2020
      • Backyard Blog May 2020
      • Backyard Blog April 2020
      • Backyard Blog February and March 2020
      • Backyard Blog January 2020
      • Backyard Blog October through December 2019
      • Backyard Blog September 2019
      • Backyard Blog August 2019
      • Backyard Blog July 2019
      • Backyard Blog June 2019
      • Backyard Blog May 2019
      • Backyard Blog April 2019
      • Backyard Blog March 2019
      • Backyard Blog February 2019
      • Backyard Blog January 2019
      • The Backyard Bug Blog 2018
    • Backyard Flora and Fauna
      • Bees of North Florida and South Georgia
      • The Seasonality of Bees (and Bee Plants) in North Florida
      • Woody Vines of North Florida
      • Flies of North Florida are More Diverse than You’d Think
      • The Case for Weeds, Our Unsung Florida Native Plants
      • Devil’s Walkingstick: Your New Favorite Thorny Pollinator Plant?
      • Florida Native Milkweed | Tips for Growing Your Monarch Friendly Garden
      • Mistletoe | A Parasite for the Holidays (But Maybe We Like it Anyway?)
    • Florida Friendly Seasonal Planting Guide
    • Pollinator and Gardening Posts
    • Gardening Web Resources
Ecology in Art & LiteratureEcology in Florida

Welcome Liesel Hamilton to the WFSU Ecology Blog!

by Liesel Hamilton January 11, 2023
by Liesel Hamilton January 11, 2023 0 comment
Click to subscribe to the WFSU Ecology Blog

Hi, I’m Liesel

I’m a third year PhD student at Florida State University studying creative writing and ecocriticism. I was raised in South Carolina and went to college in my home state before moving to Washington DC to pursue my Master’s degree in creative writing, and then down to Tallahassee for my PhD program. Currently, I live near Florida State with my husband and my dog, Dunder, named after a certain paper company, as I adopted him from a shelter in Scranton, PA.  

A damp Dunder on a hiking adventure. 

While most people know Washington D.C. for its marble monuments, I spent a lot of my time in DC in parks. Walking along paved multiuse pathways tracing the Potomac, I could see bald eagles feeding their young in weighty nests, or at Huntley Meadows, I could see migrating waterfowl like Northern Shovelers via a wooden boardwalk that cut through wetlands. My favorite place to go, however, was Shenandoah National Park—a two hour drive from the city—where I often saw bears on the paths that meandered up and down the park’s narrow ridge. Shenandoah has the largest concentration of black bears anywhere in the United States—there’s about 1 bear per square mile—and on almost every trip to Shenandoah, I would see a bear, sometimes a mom and cubs. At times, I miss the mountains and intense orange and yellow autumns—but I was excited to see my first ever Florida bear just a few weekends ago, driving through Ocala National Forest.  

Liesel and Dunder at Shenandoah National Park.

Moving to Tallahassee and enrolling at FSU

Moving to Tallahassee has not been what I expected—it’s really more like Georgia here than what I pictured Florida would be like—but I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the plethora of ways to get outdoors. In town, I love to walk around the lakes at Lafayette Heritage Preserve or to walk beneath the spidery live oaks at Elinor Klapp-Phipps Park. 

My favorite place to visit, however, is St. Marks. My husband is currently training for the Tallahassee half marathon, and together, we participate in what he calls, St. Marks Saturdays, him running miles of trails, me biking and birding, the two of us meeting up at finish line. I’ve been enamored with St. Marks since I moved to Tallahassee, but biking has allowed me to see a wilder part of St. Marks than I saw walking the trails closer to the main road. On the back sides of the Mounds pools, or along sections of the Florida Trail, I have seen wild hogs swimming with their piglets in tow, clusters of roseate spoonbills and wood storks, and river otters undulating beneath tannin-stained water.  

The Saint Marks National Wildlife Refuge.
The Saint Marks National Wildlife Refuge.

I moved to Tallahassee during the height of the pandemic, in Fall 2020, and like many at that time, I spent a lot of my time at home. But, for the first time, I now had land on which I could cultivate a garden. In the mornings, I took classes via Zoom and read books and articles. One of my favorite classes I took was an ecocriticism class. Ecocriticism is the study of how we write about, or conceptualize our relationship with nature, and after I finished reading medieval bestiaries or essays on how colonialism shapes our view of the natural world, I would lace up my tennis shoes, put on rubber gloves, and work on pulling up invasive cat’s claw and Asiatic dayflower from my garden. This experience, this blending of academia and physical labor, inspired me to write about the way we think about weeds for The Dodge. There are many noxious Florida weeds in this essay that some of you might recognize in your own gardens. 

Liesel clutching her harvest of winter greens.
Liesel clutching her harvest of winter greens.

I like to think that I am equal parts writer and outdoorswoman.

My creative writing is often ecological, and mostly nonfiction. In 2016, I published a guidebook to South Carolina’s natural areas with Hub City Press, an amazing independent press in South Carolina. I wrote the book with my mom, a former journalist, the two of us coming up with the idea after taking naturalist classes together and realizing how many of South Carolina’s ecological wonders were hidden from us for so many years. The book braids history and ecology, examining why land was set aside, what makes it spectacular, what interesting and rare flora, fauna, or other features are found there, and when is the best time to go. What excites me about the WFSU Ecology Blog is I feel like it is doing something similar for North Florida—offering an in-depth look at the amazing things there are to see and do around the Tallahassee area.  

Wild South Carolina, a book written by Liesel and Susan Hamilton.
Wild South Carolina, written by Liesel and Susan Hamilton.

Currently, for my creative dissertation, I’m working on a collection of essays about birds and mental illness, exploring the way nature can be healing, and giving voice to anxiety and depression. That kind of writing is very different from what I’ll do for the WFSU Ecology Blog, but I’ve published it in places like Hobart Pulp and The Citron Review, if you’re interested in checking it out.  

In the process of writing those essays, I’ve become somewhat of a bird lady. Before moving to Tallahassee, I was pretty ambivalent about birds, but Tallahassee really is “for the birds”—the egrets, the herons, the ibises, and Pinky the flamingo, are the megafauna of this region. I’ve found that birding is a slippery slope—once you learn a few, you find yourself hanging bird feeders in your yard, buying binoculars, downloading eBird onto your phone, and wearing hats embroidered with pileated woodpeckers.   

I’m excited to write about birds and everything else North Florida has to offer in future blog posts, and to have another excuse to get outside in this fascinating state that has become my home.  

Up next for Liesel- Wakulla Springs Wildlife Survey

Liesel Hamilton joins the Wakulla Wildlife Survey on a chilly December morning.
Liesel Hamilton joins the Wakulla Wildlife Survey on a chilly December morning.

Look for Liesel’s next post later this month. She and Rob tagged along on a Wakulla Springs Wildlife Survey in December, joining volunteers Bob Thompson and Doug Alderson. Bob and Doug shared their experiences surveying the spring run over the years, and their favorite photos (so many good photos). They and the data they collect have a lot to tell us about the spring.

Click to subscribe to the WFSU Ecology Blog
Facebook Comments
WFSU News
0 comment
0
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
Liesel Hamilton

previous post
My Year in Bugs: the 2022 Backyard Blog
next post
The Wakulla Springs Wildlife Survey- a decades long look

Related Posts

Photography feature: Beth Switzer

July 8, 2010

Oysterman

August 12, 2010

Jim McClellan’s “Life Along the Apalachicola River”

April 15, 2015

Eluster Richardson | Painting Life on a Red...

April 14, 2016

Seasons Out of Order | EcoShakespeare

April 7, 2015

Foraging and the Magic of Plants: EcoShakespeare

February 4, 2015

In the Grass, On the Reef, Over the...

May 18, 2011

Paint Every Feather

January 17, 2012

The Biology / Art Intersection

June 19, 2012

“Thicker than Water” Opening

August 9, 2010

Search

Subscribe

Subscribe to receive more outdoor adventures, and an in depth look at our local forests and waterways by Email.

If you do not receive a verification e-mail, check your spam folder.

Category

WFSU-FM Environmental Stories

  • Tallahassee’s latest urban reforestation effort brings new trees to Governor’s Park
  • Hurricane Ian’s estimated damage to Florida agriculture tops $1B
  • America’s largest underground springs gets even bigger with the discovery of another cave connection
  • DeSantis outlines second-term environmental plans
  • Deep freeze breaks pipes, creates water crisis across South

Twitter

Tweets by wfsuIGOR

iNaturalist

iNaturalist became a part of the WFSU Ecology Blog during the EcoCitizen Project in 2019.  Since then, we’ve used it to help identify the many plants and animals we see on our shoots.  And on the Backyard Blog, we show how it can be used to identify weeds and garden insects, to help figure out what’s beneficial or a possible pest.  Below is the iNaturalist profile belonging to WFSU Ecology producer Rob Diaz de Villegas.

iNaturalist


View robdv’s observations »

Most Recent

  • The Wakulla Springs Wildlife Survey- a decades long look
  • Welcome Liesel Hamilton to the WFSU Ecology Blog!
  • My Year in Bugs: the 2022 Backyard Blog
  • Timberlane Ravine: learn to love dead trees (and trillium!)
  • The strange and dangerous love lives of zebra longwing butterflies

Archives

January 2023
M T W T F S S
 1
2345678
9101112131415
16171819202122
23242526272829
3031  
« Dec    

WFSU Ecology YouTube

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Flickr
  • Youtube

@2017 - PenciDesign. All Right Reserved. Designed and Developed by PenciDesign