On a Thanksgiving Day trip to Fort Desoto we encountered this sign as we were about to cross the wooden footbridge to North Beach. Of course I wanted to see an actual Piping plover, since I can’t recall ever noticing one before. Not that I’d been looking or anything, but since they are here, I ought to at least try to see them. Didn’t see any Thanksgiving afternoon, so I came back two days later, in the morning.
Sure enough there were several on the North Beach mud flats. They are quite small and got spooked when a much larger Black-bellied plover swooped onto their turf. I found it easy to observe them by sitting down quietly in the mud. They came fairly close. Even so, they are so small that I had to use my digital zoom to get the photo below (cropped), so the photo quality isn’t going to win me any awards, but it works for the web.
I took this photo on Cocoa Beach in October. It was a warm and humid evening. A heavy rain had fallen an hour earlier. Several large thunderstorms loomed out over the Atlantic Ocean.
Even though the sun sets over the Gulf of Mexico, on the other side of the state, the orange light from the sunset has brilliantly illuminated the cirrus cloud anvil in the eastern sky in a display that lasted for nearly an hour. You can see the nearly full moon at the top center of the photo.
There are quiet, peaceful, and beautiful moments in life that we never forget. This evening will be one of those moments for me.
Everywhere you go on Florida’s Atlantic Coast you see surfboards of all kinds. The surf is nearly always up to some degree on the Atlantic Coast.
Supplying all the wave riding vehicles are innumerable surf shops and beach supply stores. But you don’t have to buy a surfboard–most any surf shop will rent a surfboard to you for the day or for the week for a very reasonable price. If you don’t know where to start, sign up for some surfing lessons. You’ll learn so much in one hour, and it will shave several months off the learning curve.
The younger set and the more experienced often will go for the small, sleek surfboards with colorful designs and a traction pad, like the one pictured above. These boards are high performers in quality surf, but they are really hard to learn on, and if you weigh more than 140 pounds they can be difficult to paddle in large surf.
Longboards, like the one pictured above, are much easier to learn on and better suited to the surf on most of Florida’s beaches. A longboard will be 9 to 11 feet in length. It looks big in the store and it can be awkward to carry, especially in a strong wind, but once you get it in the water it suddenly looks much smaller. Longboards are very popular at places like the Cocoa Beach Pier, which is where the above photo was taken. The waves looked too small to ride, but the longboarders were catching lots of waves.
Another option, pictured above, is a boogie board, also known as a body board. This is a much smaller wave riding vehicle made of foam. They usually have a slick rigid plastic bottom. They are designed to be used with swim fins, since they don’t have enough floatation to paddle like a surfboard.
Yet another option is the stand-up paddleboard. This is all the rage in Florida now. These boards are usually 10 to 12 feet long, 28 to 30 inches wide, and 4 inches thick. They are designed to stand on and paddle with an oar, or paddle, that looks like a long canoe paddle. While many people see this as a “new” sport, the ancient Hawaiians practiced it, so it is more accurately a revival of a lost art. You will often see stand-up-paddleboarding refered to by the acronym “SUP”.
Later I’ll post a video of some stand-up-paddle surfing (SUP). To get involved in SUP surfing you really need to get some instruction, either from someone with lots of experience and an ability to teach, or from a qualified instructor. SUP’s are very heavy and can easily injure you if you don’t use the right techniques for handling the board in the surf. They are also very expensive. A new SUP rig will set you back at least $1,500.
With so many avenues for getting into the surf and having some healthy fun, I’m sure you’ll find a surboard that will suit you.
I recently bought a new (used) board and have been working on getting my balance back. It’s a McTavish “Eightball”. It’s 8′6″, and after one trip to Cocoa Beach I’m wishing I’d bought an 11 footer. Here it is:
I bought it from Lenny’s Surf Shop on St. Pete Beach. Nice guy, Lenny. He spent a lot of time helping me decide which board to buy. A lot of time. And he was very generous with advice. I’m surprised that after 29 years of not surfing, I can still catch waves with no problem. It’s just standing up and balancing that causes me grief. Paddling out is no picnic either when you’re not 16 years old and 130 pounds. I’m thinking about getting a smaller “soft” board and kneeboarding for a while just to get my balance and endurance back.
Fort Desoto County Park is one of the Nation’s top birding locations. In addition to having lots of permanent resident bird species, many migratory species stop by the park on their way to other more exotic locations.
On Thanksgiving Day we took a drive out to Fort Desoto Park–it’s only 30 minutes from our house–and took a walk on the pier, the fort, and the beach. We saw a lot, and I’m posting a few photos that I took.
At left is a juvenile hawk that was perched on a telephone wire by the roadside. I’ve struggled to identify it. I believe it is either a Red-tailed hawk, a Red-shouldered hawk, or a Broad-winged hawk. At first, I leaned strongly towards it being a Red-shouldered, mainly because they are the most common, and because they are a bit larger than a Broad-winged hawk. This was a fairly large hawk. However, the more I look at it and compare it to various web photos and my new Sibley Field Guide to Birds, the more I think it is a juvenile Red-tailed hawk.
The juveniles can be a challenge to identify.
Shorebirds, especially peeps, like the one below, can also be a challenge. I first thought this one might be a Semi-palmated sandpiper. It was on North Beach, just below the high tide line, pecking at objects on the beach. At first, I thought there were two other sandpipers it could be: a Least sandpiper, or a Western sandpiper. However, the Least sandpiper has yellow legs, and the Western sandpiper has a longer bill, according to my field guides.
After reading the size information about these sandpipers, I had to reconsider. The Semi-palmated AND the Western are only about 5 inches long. This bird was definitely larger, so I had to look for a larger bird. I’ve now decided it is a Black-bellied plover, which is described as being about 9 inches long. This bird was every bit of 9 inches. To further strengthen my case, after looking at photos of all 3 species on the web, I see clearly that the Black-bellied plover has a thicker bill, which matches this bird.
Black-bellied plover?
Out on the Gulf Pier we saw lots of gulls, Snowy egrets, Brown pelicans, and terns. Below, Sue approaches a a tern to see how close it will allow her to get. It flew away when she got to the 3-4 foot range. This appears to be a Royal tern.
Sue approaches a Royal tern.
Fort Desoto’s North Beach is also a fairly good place to find shells. Below are pictured the most commonly found shells of the day, clockwise from the bottom: Sunray Venus clam, scallop, Jingle shell, Surf clam.
I picked up the scallop, then put it back on the beach. While I was stooped over, I picked up the other shells and put them all together for this photo. If you come to the park once a week, you’ll find different shells each time. During the summer we find lots of Olive shells, but I didn’t see any on this day.
Assorted shells found on Fort Desoto Park’s North Beach.
To give you an idea of what the North Beach area looks like, and to see why it has such a diverse bird population, I took a short panoramic video of the area. You can see the beach, mangroves, small dunes, a tidal lagoon, mud flats, and an Australian Pine forest in the distance, near the picnic area. If you look really closely, you can see several white egrets wading in the lagoon. The video rendered slightly jumpy on uploading, but there’s not much I can do about it. It’s good enough to give you a general impression of North Beach.
Ghost crabs (Ocypode quadrata) get their name because they look like apparitions scurrying across the sand. When they stop moving, they become invisible, and you often cannot see them again until they start moving again. Problem is, they move so fast, it’s hard to confirm that you are not imagining that you saw something. They are like ghosts.
Once your eye is trained in their ways of visual deception they are much easier to spot. On the Gulf coast I am used to seeing them come out at dusk. However on the Atlantic coast I tend to see a lot more of them running around during daylight hours, although they are mainly active from dusk til dawn.
Ghost crabs live in burrows in the sand, above the high tide line. Below is a ghost crab burrow I photographed on New Smyrna Beach. As you can see from all the crab footprints, this crab has been very busy. Also, notice how white the sand is. New Smyrna Beach is one of the few white-sand beaches on Florida’s Atlantic coast.
Ghost crab burrow on New Smyrna Beach, Florida
Blair and Dawn Witherington, in their excellent book Florida’s Living Beaches, explain that male ghost crabs dig their burrows closer to the water than females do, and that ghost grab burrows can be up to 4 feet deep.
Ghost crabs play an important role in keeping the beach clean, and if you see lots of ghost crab burrows, it is a sign that you are on a healthy beach. Beach renourishment projects temporarily disrupt the populations of ghost crabs.
The 12th Annual Space Coast Birding & Wildlife Festival is coming to Titusville, Florida in January 2009. If you are a birder, or just love to learn about birds and wildlife from the experts, you don’t want to miss this Festival.
When: January 21 - 26, 2009
Where: Brevard Community College Campus in Titusville, Florida, and surrounding wildlife preserves.
This event is organized by the Brevard Nature Alliance. They are a nonprofit group dedicated to increasing awareness of the natural resources of Brevard County.
I don’t often get to areas where Sandhill cranes can be seen, but whenever I’m driving on I-4 from Tampa to Orlando, I stop at this large rest area. Almost every time I’m here I see this pair of Sandhill cranes foraging on the lawn. They are quite tame.
I had some difficulty getting this photo because there were so many people walking around, and I didn’t want people in my bird picture.
Sandhill cranes are about 3 feet tall. They are mostly seen in fields and prairies. They eat insects, frogs, and even small rodents. I always enjoy seeing big birds.
While on a beach-hunting road trip in the Vero Beach area I spotted this large and unusual lizard at a beach access. I had never see one of these before. It was fairly cautious and kept its distance from me. Ultimately, when I got too close it raised up off the ground and started running on its back legs!
I’ve since discovered that this is a Brown Basilisk, and is not native to Florida. They were first observed in southeast Florida in 1976, according to the FloridaConservation.org website.
Now, it seems they have taken up residence in the Naples area as well. No doubt the were brought over by someone who thought they were cool.
Not cool.
Lizards like these help destroy local bird populations by feeding on eggs and young nestlings.
Shawn Goldberg recently wrote an article for the Barrier Islands Gazette regarding the upcoming (Fall 2009) renourishment project scheduled for Upham Beach and Treasure Island. The article is titled More Sand to Bury the Problem.
Mr. Goldberg called me and asked for the use of one of my photos of the erosion on Upham Beach. I have quite a large collection of beach photos, and since I live 10 minutes from Upham Beach, it’s only natural that I have lots of photos of that location. I was happy to let the Gazette use my photos.
Whenever a nonprofit, educational, or news organization wants to use my photo(s) for educational purposes, I am generally happy to cooperate. Mr. Goldberg and the Gazette editors were particularly respectful and pleasant to deal with and actually included an accurate photo credit that was in legible font size. So many newspapers and magazines make the photo credits so small that they are nearly invisible.
The photo they used (pictured above) is looking north toward Blind Pass and the condominiums that feel the threat of erosion most severely. Note the steep scarp (cliff) that is the result of rapid erosion. It is about three-and-a-half feet high.
Someone had been picking up the jellyfish and placing them in an arrangement on the beach in one spot. Strange. These jellyfish are generally harmless, although you wouldn’t want to touch one and then rub your eyes. They do have stinging nematocysts, but according to what I hear, only the most sensitive people are bothered by them at all.
