Wildlife around an empty Marineland property

A place made for wildlife

Few places in Florida put houses so close to so much wild land. The River to Sea Preserve runs through Marineland from the river to the ocean; across the river lies a large estuary reserve; to the south is a state park. Birds, mammals, reptiles and sea turtles move through all of it.

That is a joy for owners who are here, and an occasional puzzle for owners who are not. An empty house becomes part of the landscape for animals that do not know or care who owns it.

The coast and its preserved land are described in the Beverly Beach and Marineland guide.

Raccoons and armadillos

Raccoons are common in Marineland, and they are curious and clever. Around an empty house, they tip over trash carts, explore decks and porches, and look for any gap into a shed, a crawlspace or an attic. Armadillos dig: shallow holes in lawns and beds, rooting for grubs, sometimes under walkways and slabs.

Signs of both show up in pictures: a cart on its side with trash scattered, holes across a lawn, a lattice panel pushed out at the base of a deck. Nobody on a photo visit tries to find or follow the animals, and pictures never say what caused what; they show what is there.

When the pictures show signs of digging or entry, owners call a wildlife service. How to read changes from one round to the next is in reading the photos you receive.

Birds and nests

Ospreys nest on poles and high perches along the river; wading birds rest on docks and lifts; songbirds build in eaves, porch corners and the tops of shutters. On an empty house, a nest can appear in a light fixture, a dryer vent hood or a gutter corner and raise a brood before anyone notices.

Federal and state law shelters many birds and their active nests, which is why owners usually call a wildlife professional rather than removing a nest themselves.

Pictures from a walk around the lot show the eaves, porches and fixtures as they look on each date, and a new nest shows up as a change from the last round. What a ground visit photographs is listed in the main site's questions and answers.

Gopher tortoises in sandy yards

Gopher tortoises live in the sandy uplands of the Florida coast, and Marineland's yards and preserve edges are good ground for them. They dig long burrows with a half moon shaped opening and a fan of sand in front, often at the edge of a lawn or under shrubs.

State rules forbid disturbing a gopher tortoise or its burrow without approval, and any work near one, from landscaping to construction, has to plan around it. Owners far away are often surprised to learn one has moved in.

A burrow opening shows clearly in pictures from a walk around the lot, and a new one stands out against an earlier round. Owners planning yard work or a build pass that on to their contractor. Planning work from afar is discussed in managing a home from out of state.

Sea turtles on the beach

From May through October, loggerhead, green and leatherback turtles come ashore on the Flagler coast to nest, and Marineland's quiet beach is a favored spot. Volunteers stake and tape each nest, and the hatchlings, emerging after dark, crawl toward whatever horizon is brightest, which ought to be the open water.

Beachfront lights can lead them the wrong way, so local rules limit lighting visible from the beach during nesting season. Owners away often put exterior lights on timers or switch to fixtures that turtles do not follow.

Daytime pictures show the fixtures on the ocean side of a house, so an owner can see what is mounted where, though never how a light behaves after dark. The beach season is described further in the Flagler Beach guide.

Snakes, frogs and small visitors

Black racers, rat snakes and other snakes move through Marineland yards, mostly harmless and usually unseen. Tree frogs gather on windows at night and in pool cages and outdoor showers; lizards live everywhere. Around an empty house, they find shelter under stacked furniture, in tall grass, and in sheds left open.

Pictures rarely show the animals themselves, and never set out to. What they show is the habitat around the house: grass grown tall against the walls, furniture stacked in a corner, a shed door ajar, a gap in a screen.

A tidy yard and closed doors keep most small visitors outside. How quickly a yard grows tall in summer is set out in a summer away.

The preserve edge

Where a Marineland yard meets preserved land, the wild side pushes in. Saw palmetto spreads its fans across the line, vines climb the fence, and young palms and wax myrtle sprout in the lawn. Animals follow the cover, coming closer to the house as the edge creeps toward it.

A yard crew that cuts the edge back a few times a year keeps the line where the owner wants it. From far away, pictures from a walk around the lot show where the edge sits on each date.

Comparing rounds shows how fast it moves in each season. Help from local crews, arranged from far away, is described in a monthly routine for absentee landlords.

Trash, food and attractants

The single biggest draw for wildlife at an empty house is anything that smells like food: trash carts left at the road or by the house, a grill not cleaned after the last use, birdseed in a feeder, pet food left on a porch. Raccoons find it first, followed by birds and, near the river, the occasional otter.

Owners leaving for a season usually empty and clean the carts, clean the grill and take down feeders. When a rental or a visit leaves something behind, the animals find it.

Road pictures show where the carts are and whether anything around them has been scattered. The road side frames are listed in the street photo set guide.

After a storm

Storms move wildlife as well as sand. After a strong wind or high water, animals displaced from the marsh or the preserve may shelter around houses for a while, and debris piles in a yard become cover for them.

Pictures after a storm, once the road is open, show the debris and the state of the yard. Clearing it promptly gives the animals less reason to stay close to the house.

How to read a round of pictures after a storm is explained in after the storm.

Wildlife through the year

Marineland's wildlife has seasons of its own. In spring, birds build nests and ospreys return to their perches along the river. From May through October, sea turtles nest on the beach and hatchlings emerge on summer nights. In fall, migrating birds pass along the coast and the marsh fills with waders. In winter, the river and marsh host ducks and visiting shorebirds.

The signs around an empty house follow those seasons: new nests in spring, turtle stakes on the beach in summer, more droppings on docks and lifts as birds gather. Pictures every couple of months show them as they come and go.

Owners who time their stays to the seasons will find the usual pattern laid out in snowbird season.

A rhythm for an owner away

For an owner far from a Marineland property, wildlife is one more reason for a regular rhythm of pictures: road pictures every month or two to show the carts and the front, a walk around the lot every two or three months to show the eaves, the deck, the lawn and the preserve edge, and an extra round after storms.

Repeat visits keep the rhythm going on its own, and each round shows the signs of the animals that share the land, without ever setting out to follow them.

To begin, visit FlaglerPropertyWatch.com.

Living with the neighbors

Most Marineland owners would not want it any other way. The ospreys, the tortoises, the turtles and the herons are part of what makes the place special, and a well kept property lives alongside them easily.

Pictures simply help an owner far away notice when the balance tips: a nest in a vent, a burrow by the steps, a lawn full of holes, a cart tipped over at the road. With that knowledge, the right professional can handle it gently, and the property and its wild neighbors can go on sharing the same strip of coast. For more about Florida's other coastal seasons, see hurricane season preparation.