#5 - Headquarters Pond


Both Headquarters Pond and Picnic Pond were once tidal pools. Today, they are managed as fresh or brackish pools. Headquarters Pond gets its name from its proximity to an early refuge headquarters and work center that was located nearby during the 1940's and 1950s. Viewing ducks and wading birds from the Headquarters Pond Trail observation deck is wonderful during the winter. Wood duck hens and their broods can often be seen swimming around the wood duck nest boxes in the summer.

Alligators enjoy Headquarters Pond year-round. Look especially for baby 'gators in the summertime. The green vegetation floating on the surface of the pond is not slime, but a small three-leaved floating plant called "duckweed." It hides many insects and is a common food source for wintering ducks. Sometimes black-crowned night herons can be seen among the willows along the edges, and wood storks use snag trees and pine trees for perches during the spring and fall.

The Tower Pond Interpretive Trail crosses over an Indian mound. In fact, all Mounds Pool impoundments are near Indian mounds. Indian occupation of the refuge area was most intense around 500 A.D., during the Swift Creek Era. These Indians were fairly nomadic and enjoyed the hunting and fishing available near the bay. A flint quarry, now completely submerged, is located off the lighthouse in Apalachee Bay. If you would like more information about the history of the area, please check with the ranger at the Visitor Center and be sure to visit the Fort San Marcos de'Apalache State Museum in the town of St. Marks.

The Tower Pond Interpretive Trail is one mile long and provides a good walk through several different habitats found on the refuge: pine flatwoods, oak ridge, brackish pond, saltwater marsh and oak/cabbage palm hammock. A trail guide should be available at the start of the trail. Many birders enjoy this trail during the winter and the spring, when the woods are filled with small migrating songbirds.

Watch for the photo blind which overlooks Tower Pond and affords the opportunity to observe and photograph the wildlife.