Big Talbot Island State Park

State park in Florida, United States

Big Talbot Island State Park
IUCN category IV (habitat/species management area)
Sign by entrance
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Location	Duval County, Florida, USA
Nearest city	Jacksonville, Florida
Coordinates	30°28′59″N 81°26′24″W / 30.48306°N 81.44000°W / 30.48306; -81.44000
Established	1982
Governing body	Florida Department of Environmental Protection

Big Talbot Island State Park is a state park in Florida, United States. It is located on Big Talbot Island, a coastal barrier island 20 miles east of downtown Jacksonville on A1A North and immediately north of Little Talbot Island State Park along the Atlantic coastal plain.

The park is a nature preserve and a location for nature study, bird-watching, or photography. Other activities include hiking, bicycling, fishing, boating, canoeing, kayaking, and picnicking. Amenities include picnic pavilions, nature trails, a fishing pier, a boat ramp, bike trails and beaches. The park is open from 8:00 am till sundown year round.

The coastal landscape and beach at Big Talbot Island is unique within the state of Florida for its rock-like sedimentary hardpan soil deposits underlying the surface. Where these formations are exposed in the shallow waters surrounded the island they provide habitat for molluscs, crabs, oysters, and other tide pool creatures. The formations and sand on Blackrock Beach are much darker in contrast to the coquina formations at Washington Oaks State Gardens, about 60 miles southward on the coastal highway A1A, and the limestone outcroppings at Blowing Rocks Preserve over 250 miles further south. The beach can be accessed through the park entrance or through the trailhead parking area adjacent to the Blackrock Trail. At the end of the Blackrock Trail is Boneyard Beach. Here, skeletons of oaks sit along the shoreline. Big Talbot's Boneyard Beach is not recommended for swimming but is popular with photographers.

Big Talbot and Little Talbot are two of only a few remaining undeveloped barrier islands within Florida. They were first inhabited by a Native American group called the Timucua. Beginning with the arrival of the French in 1562, France, England, and Spain claimed the islands as colonial territory. In 1735, General James Oglethorpe named the Talbot Islands in honor of Charles Talbot, Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain. Along with the bordering Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve, the islands are representative of several ecosystems and support a number of diverse natural habitats abundant with wildlife.

Ecology

Habitats preserved by the park include beach, coastal scrub, coastal hammock, estuary, and tidal marshes. Parts of the salt marsh surrounding Big Talbot Island are included in the Machaba Balu Preserve.

Flora

Vegetation includes southern live oaks (Quercus virginiana), hollies, magnolias, hickories (Carya spp.), cabbage palmettos (Sabal palmetto), sea oats, and saw palmettos (Serenoa repens).

Fauna

This state park is home to alligators, sea turtles, Florida gopher tortoises, West Indian manatees, white-tailed deer, river otters, marsh rabbits, raccoons, bobcats, foxes, Virginia opossums, eastern gray squirrels, eastern garter snakes, Carolina anoles, broad-headed skinks, pileated woodpeckers, northern cardinals, bald eagles, barred owls, peregrine falcons, painted buntings, and Florida scrub jays.

Gallery

Driftwood on the beach is common
Picnic shelter and deck, Big Talbot Island
Blackrock Beach, Big Talbot Island
Unique hardpan formations, Blackrock Beach
Spiders above the Blackrock Trail, Big Talbot Island
Golden silk orb-weaver, Big Talbot Island
Spurred butterfly pea (Centrosema virginianum)
Beach morning glory, Big Talbot Island

References

Fodor's Florida 2014 0770432573 Big Talbot, with its Boneyard Beach of wind-twisted trees,is not recommended for swimming but is a photographer's paradise. .
Popular Photography - febr. 2007 - Page 34 "FLORIDA: A GUIDE TO NATURE AND PHOTOGRAPHY by John Netherton (Cumberland Valley Press, 1990). Out of print ... HIGHLIGHTS: Boneyard Beach is littered with tree skeletons. "
Blair Witherington, Dawn Witherington Living Beaches of Georgia and the Carolinas 1561644900 - 2011

External links

Protected areas of Florida

Federal level

National parks	Biscayne Dry Tortugas Everglades
National memorials	De Soto Fort Caroline
National monuments	Castillo de San Marcos Fort Matanzas
National seashores	Canaveral Gulf Islands
National forests	Apalachicola Choctawhatchee Ocala Osceola
National wildlife refuges	Archie Carr Arthur R. Marshall Loxahatchee Caloosahatchee Cedar Keys Chassahowitzka Crocodile Lake Crystal River Egmont Key Florida Panther Great White Heron Hobe Sound Island Bay J.N. 'Ding' Darling Key West Lake Wales Ridge Lake Woodruff Lower Suwannee Matlacha Pass Merritt Island National Key Deer Okefenokee Passage Key Pelican Island Pine Island Pinellas St. Johns St. Marks St. Vincent Ten Thousand Islands
Other national protected areas	Big Cypress National Preserve Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve
National Marine Sanctuaries	Florida Keys Key Largo (1975–1990) Looe Key (1981–1990)
National Estuarine Research Reserves	Apalachicola NERR Guana Tolomato Matanzas NERR Rookery Bay NERR
National Wild and Scenic Rivers	Loxahatchee River Wekiva River

State level

Parks	Amelia Island Anastasia Avalon Bahia Honda Bald Point Big Lagoon Big Shoals Big Talbot Island Bill Baggs Cape Florida Bulow Creek Caladesi Island Camp Helen Cayo Costa Collier–Seminole Colt Creek Curry Hammock Delnor-Wiggins Pass Devil's Millhopper Don Pedro Island Dr. Von D. Mizell-Eula Johnson Eden Gardens Egmont Key Falling Waters Faver-Dykes Florida Caverns Fort Clinch Fort Cooper Fort George Island Fort Pierce Inlet Fred Gannon Rocky Bayou Gasparilla Island George Crady Bridge Fishing Pier Grayton Beach Henderson Beach Highlands Hammock Honeymoon Island Hontoon Island Hugh Taylor Birch John D. MacArthur Beach John Pennekamp Coral Reef Jonathan Dickinson Little Talbot Island Long Key Lovers Key Mike Roess Gold Head Branch North Peninsula O'Leno Oscar Scherer Perdido Key Price's Scrub Sebastian Inlet Skyway Fishing Pier St. Andrews St. George Island St. Marks River St. Joseph Peninsula Stephen Foster Folk Culture Center Stump Pass Beach Tomoka Torreya Windley Key Fossil Reef
Botanical garden parks	Alfred B. Maclay Gardens Dagny Johnson Key Largo Hammock Lignumvitae Key Ravine Gardens Washington Oaks
Lakes, rivers and springs parks	Deer Lake Lake Griffin Lake June in Winter Scrub Lake Kissimmee Lake Louisa Lake Manatee Lake Talquin Alafia River Blackwater River Dunns Creek Econfina River Hillsborough River Little Manatee River Myakka River Ochlockonee River Oleta River Suwannee River Three Rivers Blue Spring De Leon Springs Edward Ball Wakulla Springs Fanning Springs Homosassa Springs Wildlife Ichetucknee Springs Lafayette Blue Springs Madison Blue Spring Manatee Springs Ponce de Leon Springs Rainbow Springs Silver Springs Troy Spring Weeki Wachee Springs Wekiwa Springs Werner-Boyce Salt Springs Wes Skiles Peacock Springs
Recreation areas	Dead Lakes Gamble Rogers Memorial
Museums, historic sites, and archaeological sites	Addison Blockhouse Cedar Key Museum Constitution Convention Museum Forest Capital Museum John Gorrie Museum Ybor City Museum The Barnacle Bulow Plantation Ruins Dade Battlefield DeSoto Site Dudley Farm Fort Foster Fort Mose Fort Zachary Taylor Gamble Plantation Indian Key Koreshan Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Homestead Natural Bridge Battlefield Olustee Battlefield Orman House Paynes Creek San Marcos de Apalache Yellow Bluff Fort Yulee Sugar Mill Ruins Crystal River Lake Jackson Mounds Letchworth-Love Mounds Madira Bickel Mound Mound Key San Pedro Underwater
Preserves and reserves	Allen David Broussard Catfish Creek Anclote Key Cedar Key Scrub Charlotte Harbor Crystal River Disney Wilderness Estero Bay Green Cay Wetlands Fakahatchee Strand Hal Scott Kissimmee Prairie Lower Wekiva River Paynes Prairie Pumpkin Hill Creek River Rise Rock Springs Run San Felasco Hammock Savannas Seabranch St. Lucie Inlet St. Sebastian River Tarkiln Bayou Topsail Hill Tosohatchee Waccasassa Bay Yellow River Marsh
State trails	Blackwater Heritage Florida Keys Overseas Heritage Gainesville-Hawthorne General James A. Van Fleet Jacksonville-Baldwin Marjorie Harris Carr Cross Florida Greenway Nature Coast Palatka-Lake Butler Palatka-to-St. Augustine Tallahassee-St. Marks Historic Railroad Withlacoochee
State forests	Belmore Big Shoals Blackwater River Carl Duval Moore Cary Charles H. Bronson Cottage Hill Deep Creek Etoniah Creek Four Creeks Goethe Holopaw Indian Lake Jennings John M. Bethea Lake George Lake Talquin Lake Wales Ridge Little Big Econ Matanzas Myakka Okaloacoochee Slough Picayune Strand Pine Log Point Washington Ralph E. Simmons Memorial Ross Prairie Seminole Tate's Hell Tiger Bay Twin Rivers Wakulla Watson Island Welaka Withlacoochee

Local level

Preserves and reserves	Boyd Hill Gumbo Limbo Moccasin Lake

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