Blog The Beach — Florida beaches in words, pictures, and video.

Caladesi Island Takes You Back in Time

by beachhunter on February 9, 2010

The Caladesi Ferry provides comfortable and fun transportation from Honeymoon Island State Park to Caladesi Island State Park.

Posted by David McRee at BlogTheBeach.com

The journey to Caladesi Island begins from Honeymoon Island. The shallow-draft pontoon boat transports passengers from the dock in Honeymoon Island State Park through the calm backwaters to the bay side of Caladesi, thick with mangroves, mullet, diving pelicans and graceful long-necked wading birds. The jovial bantering of the captain and first mate mixed with educational factoids about the islands make the 20 minute ride seem like mere seconds. There are no bridges to Caladesi, nor are there any paved roads on the island. Only the ranger has a vehicle on the island.

Caladesi Island has clean restrooms and rinse-off showers and sturdy boardwalks to the beach.

Passengers disembark the ferry at the marina, walk past the snack bar/gift shop, and then follow the trail to the boardwalk and beach. There are restrooms at the snack bar and again about halfway down the boardwalk to the beach. They’ve got you covered.

Sand trails take you on a tour of the various habitats found on Caladesi Island, like pine flatwoods and oak/palm hammock.

In addition to relaxing at the beach, visitors can go hiking on several miles of trails. If you are planning to hike the trails during the summer months, take plenty of water and sunscreen and consider scheduling your hike for earlier in the day if possible. It gets fearfully hot on those trails in the summer. Spring and fall migration is an excellent time to go birding on the trails.

Fire has always played an important role in the balance of nature in Florida. Here on Caladesi, controlled burns are an important habitat management tool.

Visitors to barrier island preserves like Caladesi Island, Honeymoon Island, and Cayo Costa State Park will often encounter burned areas. Sometimes fires are started by summer lightning strikes, but often they are the result of controlled burns. Without undergoing periodic fires, natural Florida woodlands tend to build up a lot of dead leaves and branches. Areas that go too long without being subjected to fire have so much dead plant matter built up that when fire does come, it burns so hot that it damages mature trees that would have easily withstood a lesser fire. So rangers conduct controlled burns to make sure that too much “tinder” doesn’t build up. Birds and animals also benefit from periodic fires, but I’ll leave that explanation for another day.

The homestead of Henry Scharrer as it once existed on Caladesi.

Caladesi Island has a very interesting history. On the trail you’ll find some historic photos posted of Henry Scharrer and his daughter Myrtle, who were early pioneers on the island. Myrtle wrote a book of her life on Caladesi Island. It is called Yesteryear I Lived in Paradise: The Story of Caladesi Island (link to Amazon). It’s a heartwarming story and a fascinating window on the past. The new printing has lots of black and white photos from the old days. I highly recommend reading it right before visiting Caladesi to add a nostalgic dimension to your experience. It is available on Amazon.com and is also for sale in the Caladesi Island gift shop for about $20.

Most visitors stay close to the boardwalk and restrooms so it's not hard to find a secluded stretch of beach on Caladesi, epecially on weekdays.

At the foot of the boardwalk a vendor rents beach umbrellas, chairs and kayaks. Lifeguards are on duty during the warm months.

You don't have to take the ferry to get to Caladesi Island. If you have your own boat, even a kayak, you can paddle to the island like these adventurers. The condos in the background are actually on Honeymoon Island. They appear much larger and closer in this photo than they actually are because of the zoom lens I'm using to take this photo.

Caladesi Island is attached to north Clearwater Beach so it is possible to walk from Clearwater Beach to Caladesi Island State Park. However, it is a walk of several miles and is not suitable for a casual stroll.

Learn more about Caladesi Island

Nature and Shelling on Caladesi Island

Learn more about the Caladesi Ferry

Learn more about Honeymoon Island State Park

Cayo Costa Island State Park offers a similar, but even more remote island experience.

Tagged as: Caladesi Ferry, Caladesi Island

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Florida Shark Bite Fatality Raises Important Questions About Beach Safety

by beachhunter on February 6, 2010

A well-equipped lifeguard station can make the difference between life and death for swimmers in trouble.

Posted by David McRee at BlogTheBeach.com

I don’t usually make comments about shark bite incidents. Most shark bite reports in the newspapers and on news channels tend to lack enough detail to really explain what happened. This latest case of a kite surfer being fatally bitten south of Stuart Beach in Florida is different, and instructive. It also compels me to ask some serious questions.

On Wednesday February 3, 2010, 38 year-old Stephen Schafer was kite-boarding some distance off of Stuart beach on Florida’s southeast coast when he was bitten by a shark. Exactly how the bite occurred is not known or is not being reported yet. I would assume he fell at some point and was bitten before he could get back up on his board. Not important to this discussion.

There are a couple of important points about this incident that I think we should all think about:

According to reports, Schafer was kite surfing alone, approximately a quarter mile offshore.
Schafer was kite surfing in an area not officially guarded by the lifeguards at Stuart beach.
According to Daniel Lund, one of the apparently two lifeguards who rescued Schafer, it took about 20 minutes to reach Schafer using a long surfboard and another 20 minutes to get back to the beach.
The lifeguards did not realize that sharks were involved until they were very close to Schafer who informed them he had been bitten.

Several unfortunate factors coincided to turn this incident into a fatal one for Schafer. There was only one lucky break for Schafer but it wasn’t enough.

The first bad luck was influenced by Schafer himself: he was surfing alone a long way from shore and had no one close by to help him. Would he have survived if he had a buddy? No one knows for sure, but it certainly would have increased his chances. Any of us who has ever been on any kind of surfboard has probably surfed alone at some point. It happens. I’ve done it. Not a quarter mile offshore, to be sure, but alone nevertheless.

The lucky break was that a very alert lifeguard, Daniel Lund, realized that Schafer appeared to be having difficulties in the water, even though Schafer was not in Lund’s guarded area. Now for the really bad break: Lund had no way of knowing the truly serious trouble that Schafer was in. Lund and a fellow lifeguard paddled a quarter mile out into the Atlantic Ocean using long surfboards, taking, according to Lund speaking on the O’reilly Factor Friday evening, probably 20 minutes to reach Schafer, and another 20 minutes to get back to the beach. Assuming that Schafer had probably been in trouble for at least 5 minutes before Lund and company determined he was in trouble, Schafer was probably bleeding for the better part of 45 minutes and was in shock by the time they got back to the beach. That’s way too long.

[Note: I am making the reasonable assumption that the lifeguards used the best equipment, methods and information about Schafer's condition available to them at that moment to get to Schafer as quickly as possible. The fact that it took 40 minutes to get Schafer back to the beach is in no way a relection on the skills, training, efforts, or dedication of the lifeguards .]

There are a lot of things I just don’t know about this situation. How well equipped are the Martin County lifeguards? A quarter mile is a long way for a lifeguard to have to paddle to help someone. Lund’s arms must have been like lead weights by the time he reached Schafer. Did they not have a surf boat? A jet-ski? Either one of those would have shaved perhaps 20 to 30 minutes or more off the rescue time. I’m not trying to lay blame, I’m just asking perhaps the same questions that Lund himself might be asking; the questions that every Florida beach town should be asking.

If you don’t know about this incident, here’s a video that explains some of the details. There is a better video on the local West Palm Beach T.V. station’s YouTube channel but they’ve disabled embedding so I can’t put it in this blog. Apparently they don’t understand the real value of YouTube, but that’s another story. If you’ve already heard the story, the video below does not contain any new info:

A few years ago I attended a lifeguarding competition on Siesta Key Beach. Lifeguards from all over the southeastern U.S. were there showing off their skills and equipment. I was amazed at how fast they could launch their surf boats through the waves, row out beyond a buoy and row back to the beach. Amazing. Does Martin County not have that capability? Should they have? Should every beach community? Is a human paddling a surfboard the best equipment for the job? I’m not an expert on ocean rescue…I’m just asking the first question that popped into my mind.

Surf boats can be launched quickly into the ocean and are a valuable tool for lifeguarding. These boats are being launched at the Southeast Regional Lifeguarding Competition in 2008.

Some people say we don’t have any real heroes anymore. Baloney. Lifeguards are heroes. The Martin County lifeguards found themselves in water full of sharks and blood but they did what they had to do. They are heroes. And they’ll go back out and do it again tomorrow if they need to.

There are a lot of what-if’s in this story but here are the two most significant:

What if Schafer hadn’t been kite-surfing alone?
What if the lifeguards had been able to get to Schafer more quickly, stop the bleeding, and get him back to shore right away?

For years I”ve been hearing that Florida does not take beach safety seriously enough. Since our main attraction is the beach that’s kind of surprising isn’t it? Take Lee County on the southwest Gulf coast, for instance: no lifeguards. Not a single one. And the Florida panhandle has long been criticized for not having enough lifeguards.

I decided to look around on YouTube for information on lifeguarding and here’s what I found:

Brevard County: Rescuers Plead for More Lifeguards

And yet another. I’m not picking on Brevard, but it is representative of a statewide issue:

How about this YouTube search result for “Volusia County Lifeguards” This is not the way our lifeguards should be portrayed on the internet:

This is how the Volusia County Lifeguards are represented on YouTube. Can't we do better than this? Sure we can. I happen to know that Volusia County has a very good Beach Patrol / Lifeguard service.

Quite a contrast with the YouTube results below for “Australian Lifeguards”:

The Australians seem to have the edge on us. They are proud of their Lifeguards and they promote them heavily.

Here’s an Austrailian Lifeguard video. Do you see some pretty nice surf rescue equipment in this Australian video?:

Or this one from the United Kingdom. Wait, is that a BOAT they are using? Why yes, I believe it is!

Do we invest enough in our lifeguards?

Do they all have the equipment they need? No doubt some do, but what about the rest?

Each of us has a responsibility toward our own personal safety (I know I won’t be surfing alone anymore). But at some level it is beneficial to society as a whole, and to our tourism industry, to make our beach visitors and watersports enthusiasts feel like all reasonable efforts are made to ensure their safety.

It is possible that no amount of rescue equipment would have saved Stephen Schafer, but we still have to ask the tough questions. Schafer was a valuable member of the community and was loved by many. He deserved every chance.

Let’s make sure our brave lifeguards have the equipment and training they need to do their jobs. And let’s make all populated beaches lifeguarded beaches.

If you’re concerned about your family being safe at the beach, download my free ebook on beach safety:

How to Be Safe From Sharks, Jellyfish, Stingrays, Rip Currents and other Scary Things on Florida Beaches & Coastal Waters

Tagged as: beach safety, shark bite

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Visiting Anna Maria Island? Don’t Miss These Restaurants

by beachhunter on February 5, 2010

Posted by David McRee at BlogTheBeach.com

If you are visiting Anna Maria Island, don’t miss these restaurants:

The Sun House Restaurant

IMG_4807-1

The Sun House Restaurant is in Bradenton Beach on Historic Bridge Street at the roundabout, right across the street from the Gulf of Mexico. I enjoyed eating dinner here one evening and was completely taken by surprise at the high quality of the food and the very reasonable prices. I’m really tough on beach restaurants. They can’t just sling fried fish and beer at me and think I’m going to like it. Fortunately Executive Chef Darrell Mizell is very creative and offers something interesting on the menu for every taste. The Sun House exceeded my expectations on all counts. If you want to impress friends, a spouse, or a date without breaking the bank, the Sun House is the place to go. It’s also a great place for small wedding receptions. Get married on the beach and walk across the street to the Sun House for your reception.

I started out with their Caribbean chips and Pineapple Fire Salsa, then devoured a scrumptious order of Banana Leaf Pork. Floribbean Cuisine they call it. At sunset (visible through the windows overlooking the Gulf) diners receive complimentary ceremonial “green flash shooter” drink (non-alcoholic) as the whole restaurant sings “You Are My Sunshine.” Where else you gonna get that?

The Sun House Restaurant on Gulf Drive and Historic Bridge Street in Bradenton Beach (Anna Maria Island).

Gulf Drive Cafe

The Gulf Drive Cafe sits right on the beach overlooking a top snorkeling spot: the 247 foot Regina, a molasses barge that sunk in a storm in 1940 and is now an Underwater Archeological Preserve resting in about 20 feet of water.

Gulf Drive Cafe. I didn't even have to get up from my chair to snap this photo of the Gulf.

I stopped in for breakfast and chose to eat out back in the open air overlooking the placid Gulf of Mexico. I enjoyed French toast with cinnamon and nutmeg while watching the snorkelers paddling around the wreck. It’s a casual atmosphere and there are items on the menu for every budget. Gulf Drive Cafe has long had a reputation for excellent food. I’ll have to come back soon for dinner and a sunset.

Enjoying a casual open-air breakfast at the Gulf Drive Cafe. You can eat inside in the air-conditioning if you prefer.

The Sandbar Restaurant

The Sandbar Restaurant is another island landmark. You can dine with your toes in the beach sand if you choose. And if you want to have a beach wedding, even a large one, the Sandbar has you covered with their beach wedding pavilion. It seems like they have a wedding just about every weekend.

I’ve eaten at the Sandbar many times over the years. I almost always eat outside as close to the beach as possible, and I usually go for a grouper sandwich.

This location has a tradition as a gathering place as far back as the early 1900’s, before there was a bridge to the island. The restaurant itself was born in the 1940’s. It’s a very popular place, so if you want a seat in the indoor dining area, I suggest making a reservation.

The Sandbar Restaurant in the old days. Photo courtesy of Caryn Hodge at the Sandbar Restaurant.

Local musicians offer live entertainment most nights at the Sandbar, and sunset is a favored time for gathering with friends at this island institution. Take a walk on the beach after dinner. Photo courtesy of Caryn Hodge at the Sandbar Restaurant.

The Sandbar Restaurant was purchased in 1979 by Ed Chiles, who is the son of the late Florida Governor Lawton Chiles. It is part of a group of popular local restaurants Chiles owns: The Mar Vista on nearby Longboat Key, and the BeachHouse and Sandbar Restaurants on Anna Maria Island.

Ginny & Jane E’s at the Old IGA

Ginny & Jane E's at the corner of Gulf Drive and Magnolia on Anna Maria Island.

When I was growing up this was an IGA grocery store. Now it is Ginny & Jane E’s at the Old IGA, a unique spot that offers a cafe and bakery, antiques and cool home furnishings, a florist, and internet access (good to know). I stopped in one morning for a quick breakfast and found it a wonderful change from the usual restaurant breakfast scene. There are bookshelves filled with interesting reading. Have a seat in a comfy chair and read or chat with friends while you sip your coffee. Wander around and discover. It’s a great place to relax.

Ginny and Jane E's has a great menu. I'm told their creme brulee French toast is a must-try.

Ginny & Jane E's at the Old IGA is a lot more fun than the IHOP. Guaranteed.

Mattison’s Riverside

Mattison's in downtown Bradenton on the Manatee River.

O.K., this one’s not on the island. It’s on the Manatee River in downtown Bradenton at the municipal pier, just west of the Green Bridge on the Manatee Riverwalk. During my 42 years of living in Bradenton other restaurants have come and gone in this location, which sports a marina and a great view of the Manatee River. Many times I fished off of this pier as a youngster and dreamed of sailing the oceans as I watched the big sailboats bobbing at the marina.

Not long ago I stopped here for lunch after a sweltering morning nature walk at Emerson Point with Karen Fraley of Around The Bend Nature Tours. The air conditioning in Mattison’s was most welcome. Mattison’s is popular with the downtown business community for lunch and attracts diners from all over Bradenton. Dining on the water at night is a Florida tradition.

I don’t pretend to be a restaurant critic, so if you’d like to really learn what makes Mattison’s a successful part of downtown Bradenton’s Manatee Riverwalk you’ll want to read an article by Ralph David Romberg that appeared in Style Magazine: Mattison’s Magic Kingdom.

Elegant but not pretentious dining on white linen with a view of the river at Mattison's.

Casually elegant dining on white linen with a view of the river at Mattison's. I arrived after the lunch crowd left so we had the whole place practically to ourselves.

Chicken salad sandwhich on a croissant along with a fresh salad hit the spot on a hot summer day.

Chicken salad sandwich on a croissant along with a fresh salad hit the spot on a hot summer day.

I’ve covered some of the better waterfront and island restaurants here, but there are plenty more to write about later. You can’t go wrong with any of these.

If you’d like to read more about Anna Maria Island and its restaurants there is a great article in USA Today that will give you a nice feel for the island.

One last thing I’d like to say about island restaurants is that if you visit during the high season–January through mid-April–expect to wait longer for service and for your food, expect some difficulty in finding parking, and expect a noisier atmosphere inside the restaurant. That’s just the way it is. Relax and enjoy being on the island.

FTC Disclosure of Material Connections: I recently visited these restaurants as part of a trip sponsored by the Bradenton Area Convention & Visitors Bureau. In some cases I dined as a guest of the restaurant. All views expressed by me are my honest opinion as a result of my actual experience on this trip and from previous experiences at the restaurants during my many years as a native Bradenton resident.

Tagged as: Anna Maria Island, Restaurants

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Gull Watching with Alvaro Jaramillo at the Space Coast Birding Festival

by beachhunter on February 2, 2010

Posted by David McRee at BlogTheBeach.com

There are two really good places to watch gulls: the beach and the dump.

On this particular morning during the Space Coast Birding Festival we went to the dump on a field trip led by gull expert extraordinaire Alvaro Jaramillo of Field Guides. I shot this short video during our visit.

If you ever have a chance to take any field trips with Jaramillo I highly recommend that you do so. He’s lots of fun, doesn’t get too serious, and has a knack for reducing complexity to elegant simplicity.

A few days ago I wrote a blog post about a gull identification class taught by Jaramillo and about our gull-watching field trip to the Brevard County Landfill.

Tagged as: Alvaro Jaramillo, North American Gull Conference, space coast birding and wildlife festival

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People I Met at the Space Coast Birding & Wildlife Festival

by beachhunter on February 1, 2010

Posted by David McRee at BlogTheBeach.com

I met lots of great folks at the 13th Annual Space Coast Birding and Wildlife Festival. I learned a lot about nature and birds from everyone. I thought it would be fun to introduce you to some of the personalities at the Festival, so I’ve created the short video clip above. The video is totally candid. I just walked up to people in the Festival exhibition building, put my camera in their face and asked them to introduce themselves and tell why they are at the Festival and what their experience has been. Some of the people recognized me because we had taken classes or field trips together. Others had no idea who I was, except that I explained that I was the “official Birding Festival blogger.”

Note: If the video keeps stopping, just click the pause button on the bottom left of the video control bar and wait for the progress bar to advance. Then click the play button again for uninterrupted viewing.

Tagged as: space coast birding and wildlife festival

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Birding by Ear and Habitat

by beachhunter on January 30, 2010

Gathering before sunrise in the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge to listen for birds as they awaken and begin their day.

Posted by David McRee at BlogTheBeach.com

My alarm clock went off at 4:05 this morning. I was to meet Paddy Cunningham-Pascatore and the rest of our group for a pre-sunrise Space Coast Birding Festival field trip in the bird-rich Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge (MINWR).

It was pitch black when I arrived in the parking lot of the Oak Hammock Trail. The birds were still asleep. We all gathered around Paddy as she explained what our walk was about. Then she played some bird calls to help familiarize us with what we were going to attempt: learning to identify a bird without actually seeing it.

One of the main lessons I’ve learned this week at the Birding Festival is that the top birders find birds by hearing them call and by knowing which habitats the birds will frequent. We needed to learn those skills to become better birders.

As soon as it was light enough to see the trail we set out through the oak hammock, crossed the railroad track used to transport the space shuttle, and made a short trek on a boardwalk through a wet lowland habitat. The first birds we heard were a Great Horned owl, Yellow-rumped warblers, Robins, Black and White warblers, a Hermit Thrush, a Pileated woodpecker, many Carolina wrens, Tree swallows, Grackles, and several birds that others saw but that eluded me, like the Goldfinch that made a brief appearance in the treetops. We heard each of them before actually finding the bird with our eyes. Some bird calls are musical, some are raspy, others sound frantic or angry, and others buzz and chirp. Some of the smallest birds make the loudest calls.

After a brief stop at the MINWR visitors center we took a brief tour of the scrub and found a few scrub jays, then on to Blackpoint Wildlife Drive, which is an unpaved road that runs through the vast wetlands of the refuge. Paddy was wonderful at teaching us how to identify small shorebirds from a great distance by observing their size, feeding habits, behaviors, flight patterns, and their choice of habitats. We saw Dunlin, Black-bellied plover, Roseate Spoonbill, Shoveler duck, Blue-winged teal, Pintail duck, American widgeon, Black skimmers, Avocet, numerous wading birds of all types, Greater yellowlegs, a Bald eagle, and much more. The best sighting was of a lone Clapper rail.

A lone Clapper rail makes a brief appearance in a tidal marsh at Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge.

Paddy is generous with her knowledge, but does not immediately identify a strange bird. She leads the participants through the thought process used by an advanced birder to identify birds quickly and with confidence. She doesn’t just take you out and show you birds. She teaches you how to find them and identify them. I can hardly wait to put my newly learned skills to work when I get back home.

Birders at the Space Coast Birding & Wildlife Festival watching Dunlin feeding on the tidal mud flats.

Not only did we learn a lot from Paddy, we all learned from each other. Many of the field trip participants were experienced birders who gladly shared their knowledge and experience. We had participants from all over North America.

Paddy Cunningham-Pascatore gives a lesson on shorebird identification to participants during the 13th Annual Space Coast Birding & Wildlife Festival.

Paddy Cunningham-Pascatore offers guided birding field trips and instruction through her company Birding Adventures. She also organizes and manages the Everglades Birding Festival which will be coordinated with next year’s 14th Annual Space Coast Birding Festival so birders can more easily attend both events.

FTC Disclosure of Material Connections: I receive compensation from the Space Coast Birding & Wildlife Festival for writing about the 2010 Festival. I also receive a great deal of personal satisfaction from writing about this wonderful event.

Tagged as: birding, space coast birding and wildlife festival

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13th Annual Space Coast Birding & Wildlife Festival Offers Something for Every Nature Enthusiast

by beachhunter on January 29, 2010

The Exhibition Center at the Space Coast Birding & Wildlife Festival will immerse you in the world of birding and nature.

Posted by David McRee at BlogTheBeach.com

Not all activities at the Space Coast Birding & Wildlife Festival are outdoors. Much of the festival takes place in the Exhibition Center in the Gymnatorium at Brevard Community College. Vendors who serve the birding community showcase what they have to offer.

Thursday afternoon I had a couple hours of free time to wander around, talk to people, and snap some photos. I also took some video which I’ll post after some minor editing.

Raptors like this Northern Harrier attract all ages. They are such beautiful birds.

The Raptor Project has quite a few live birds of prey with them at the Festival and they are a major attraction. The Great Horned Owl is particularly striking; It is both beautiful and menacing. They are staging live shows featuring the amazing skills of the raptors.

Looking for a good pair of birding binoculars? Several top brands are represented at the Festival. This is the place to actually give them all a try before buying.

It’s amazing how much binoculars have improved over the years. You can get a great pair for $40 to $150 (or you can spend up to $2,500). You could literally spend hours trying out different binoculars before making a buying decision. You can’t do that online.

In addition to binoculars, many birders use high-powered spotting scopes mounted on a tripod to get a really close-up view of distant birds.

I had used telescopes before, but never a spotting scope. They are really easy to use and will bring a distant bird right up close. Today on a field trip to Blue Heron Wetlands I enjoyed a close up view of a very distant American Bittern and a Black Bellied Whistling duck through Pete Dunne’s spotting scope. With a spotting scope, distance is no barrier to enjoying the beauty of shy birds.

A spotting scope in use in the field. A got a good look at a Lesser Black-backed gull through this scope.

A spotting scope in use in the field. A got a good look at a distant Lesser Black-backed gull through this scope.

Field guides are an indespensable tool for any birder. Here you can look at them all and pick out the one that's best for you.

O.K., I’ll admit it–I’m a book junky. I just love books. Especially nature books and field guides. I could have spent the entire day perusing the field guides here at the Festival written by the “who’s who” of birding.

Ken and Linda Burgener lead birding tours from cruise ships visiting tropical ports-of-call like Costa Rica. Ken also produces beautiful DVDs with videos of Florida Birds.

I met Ken and Linda Burgener of Carefree Birding Adventures during our walk through Florida scrub jay territory at the South Lake Conservation Area. Ken saw me typing a Tweet on my iphone while in the field and suggested I save myself the aggravation by downloading Dragon Dictation. He then demonstrated the application on his iphone by dictating a message into his phone. The words he spoke instantly appeared on the screen as text. All you have to do next is copy to the clipboard and paste into Twitter or email or whatever. So I’ll be downloading Dragon Dictation to my iphone shortly.

Robert Amoruso's fabulous nature and birding photography is on display at the Festival. You have to see it to believe it.

I saw half-a-dozen or so Bald eagles in the wild during field trips this week. Seeing them at a distance is one thing, but you really get an idea of the size and power of these beautiful birds when you see them up close, like this one keeping watch over the Festival's exhibit center.

If you get a chance to stop by the exhibition center at Brevard Community College I highly recommend you do so. You’ll be glad you did. And bring the kids, they’ll love it if they have any interest in nature. And if they don’t, maybe they will before they leave.

For more info and details visit the Space Coast Birding & Wildlife web site.

Tagged as: birding, space coast birding and wildlife festival

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A Scrub Jay Adventure at the Space Coast Birding Festival

by beachhunter on January 28, 2010

There were lots of sumac berries for the scrub jays to eat. This jay perches next to his meal.

Posted by David McRee at BlogTheBeach.com

I first met the friendly scrub jays when I went on a camping trip to Oscar Scherer State Park in Sarasota as a kid. These beautiful jays have no fear of humans. Since they are so habitat-specific, few people get to see them. I became reaquainted with this species this morning during a walk through the South Lake Conservation Area in Brevard County during the Space Coast Birding & Wildlife Festival.

Our walk through the scrub habitat began in the cool morning hours.

This wasn’t strictly a birding walk, so we were accompanied by an assortment of experts:

Xavier de Seguin des Hons (helps oversea the restoration and maintenance of the tract)
Dr. David Breininger ( a bird guy)
Dr. Paul Schmalzer (a plant guy)
Michelle Smurl (a representative from the Brevard Zoo)
Pete Dunne (one of the most amazing bird guys on the planet)

The scrub habitat is characterized by saw palmetto, sand pine, slash pine, longleaf pine, scrub oaks, and a large assortment of low scrubby plants that can tolerate the hot, dry, shadeless conditions of a sand ridge. Regular controlled burns maintain the scrub habitat to keep it attractive to the scrub jays.

Walking through the South Lake Conservation Area during the Space Coast Birding & Wildlife Festival. The scrub jays appeared in the distance at first, then gradually came closer.

We took a long, slow, winding walk through the scrub, gradually attracting the attention of a bevy of scrub jays that found our presence quite amusing. They followed us around and generally made a fuss over us.

Michelle Smurl points out a familiar scrub jay in the scrub to the left.

The scrub jay is a beautiful bird, with various shades of blue and gray.

Scrub jays are so friendly they'll land right on your head. This one was on my head first, then hopped over to someone else.

Dr. Paul Schmalzer explains the characteristics of a particular plant I believe he called a "tar flower."

A wide range of participants took the walk. Some were more focused on birds, others had an interest in plants. We all had a great time, and the weather was perfect.

I met lots of interesting people during the walk; Each person had unique bird stories to share. Pete Dunne amazed me with his ability to identify a bird species a quarter mile away with his naked eye before I could even FIND the bird using my binoculars. I’m really looking forward to the rest of the Festival.

Other species I saw: Bald Eagle, Turkey vulture, Red-tailed hawk, yellow-rumped warbler, catbird.

We were told that in the early morning hours around sunrise the Rufous-sided towhee [Eastern towhee] is very common.

Tagged as: birding, Birds, scrub jay, space coast birding and wildlife festival

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A Quick Trip to Playalinda Beach

by beachhunter on January 28, 2010

A quiet mid-week afternoon on Playalinda Beach, on Canaveral National Seashore.

Posted by David McRee at BlogTheBeach.com

Wednesday after lunch I had a class on Warblers (very small birds) at the Merritt Island Wildlif Refuge Visitor’s Center. After the class I took a quick trip out to Playalinda Beach, which was only 6 miles away. It was a quiet afternoon–I was the only person parked at the #2 access.

Long afternoon shadows encroach on one of the most important Loggerhead sea turtle nesting beaches in the world.

I watched Northern Gannets diving for fish just offshore. One flew over the beach several times. They are sea birds and aren’t seen much near land. Other than a few birds, two fishermen and a few beachcombers spread out over a distance, I had the whole beach to myself. Just the way I like it.

To get to Playalinda you have to drive through Titusville and Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge. The beach is open from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. There are no lifeguards.

Neither pets nor glass containers are allowed on the beach. Firearms are not permitted on Canaveral National seashore, in case you were wondering.

More likely you are wondering about the nude sunbathing practiced on Playalinda. Nudity is prohibited and signs are posted to that effect. However, it does seem to be tolerated at the most remote access. Just don’t say I told you it was O.K. I don’t hold any sway over Brevard County judges.

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Gull Identification Practice–At the Dump!

by beachhunter on January 28, 2010

If you want to practice gull identification, you need to go to where their are large numbers of gulls. The beach is good, but the dump, or landfill, is even better (if you can stand the smell).

Posted by David McRee at BlogTheBeach.com

After our class on gull I.D. at the Space Coast Birding & Wildlife Festival we headed over to the Brevard County Landfill and rode a bus to the top of “Mount Brevard,” as it was called by Erin from Brevard’s Solid Waste facility who escorted us to the top of the 185 foot high landfill. The elevation provided us with a great view of the surrounding area.

Participants in the 13th Annual Space Coast Birding & Wildlife Festival train their binoculars and spotting scopes on a hungry flock of gulls.

There were thousands of gulls flying every which way, but Alvaro Jaramillo picked out the interesting species easily and helped us understand how he does it. I saw, for the first time, a Lesser Black-backed gull. It’s a large gull, like a Herring, but with a darker grey back, yellow legs, and a prominent red spot on the lower bill. I’m rather proud of myself for being able to pick it out of a sea of Ring-billed gulls, Laughing gulls, and Herring gulls.