Caspersen Beach is a public beach access park 5 minutes south of downtown Venice, FL.
The old wooden boardwalks are currently being replaced with new composite fake wood. Some of the boardwalk areas are still under construction.
Until the next renourishment project, beach accesses north of the parking area are closed due to severe beach erosion.
Severe beach erosion on northern Caspersen Beach has taken all the sand.
The vast majority of Caspersen Beach still has plenty of sand and is open for business as usual.
Snorkeling for fossilized shark teeth on Caspersen Beach.
Caspersen Beach is a major nesting location for loggerhead turtles. It is late in the season, but there are still a few nests yet to hatch. The cage is to protect the nest from raccoons.
These leftover eggshells are a sign that a sea turtle nest has recently hatched.
A sea turtle eggshell is tough and leathery, not hard and brittle like a chicken egg.
The almost daily rains along with warm temperatures provide perfect conditions for beach plants to germinate, like this railroad vine seedling.
Mature railroad vines carpet the dunes, helping to hold the sand in place and provide food and shelter for wildlife. Railroad vine has purple morning-glory flowers.
For those of you who’ve stuck around all the way to the end of this blog post, here’s a cool panoramic photo I put together with my iphone (click photo to enlarge):
Caspersen Beach, Venice, FL September 2010
