Eco Tours

Beginning Fall 2010, Four String Farm will host a series of eco-tours and special events on the farm.  In addition to our commercial farming operation, we carefully maintain a protected ecosystem on the farm that allows native animal and plant species to thrive.  

Our eco-tours will feature this vast array of plant and animal wildlife.  Birdwatchers, nature enthusiasts, and visitors to the Gulf Coast will be amazed at the bio-diversity in our tours.  We will also host numerous educational and entertaining events, from cooking demonstrations in the farmhouse to classes on wildlife photography.  More information around these tour and event packages will be released soon. 

(Thanks to wildlife photographer John Martell for these beautiful pictures.) The lake at Four String Farm attracts interesting visitors.  Cranes, hummingbirds, herons, ducks, and other migratory birds are only passing through.  Some visitors come to stay.  When alligators over-populate the lake and threaten our pets and domestic livestock, we carefully capture and relocate them to other protected areas so they may continue to live and thrive. 

The lake is stocked full of bass, perch, and catfish.  A vast population of frogs, lizards, snakes, and bugs also call the lake home.  This abundant food supply helps sustain our native wildlife.   Our farm is just over one mile from the bay, hidden from the surrounding area within a dense stand of live oak.  We are perfectly positioned in the migratory path of the many bird species that pass through our area each year. 

Four String Farm is one of the few significant fresh water sources for these birds on the peninsula.  Our farm features a protected eco-preserve to welcome and sustain these wonderful visitors.  There are currently at least 11 great blue heron nests around the lake; the birds are now nursing their chicks.   The picture above is of a great blue heron leaving the nest to gather food for her noisy brood. These hawks are in the season for mating.  When they are courting, their acrobatics in the sky above the farm are a wild demonstration of the mastery of flight.  The frequent calls from their nests around the farm are shrill and demanding.  They seem almost reckless in their romance.  In the mood for romance or not, these hawks are always efficient and highly skilled killers.  The grace and beauty of these hawks mask the savagery of their hunting.  No lizard, snake, fish or field mouse is safe from these amazing predators.

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