Walk #16

This morning arriving at the beach access at 6:15 was a little too early, so we waited a few minutes. Bug spray was applied because I had noseeums bothering me last week until it got more light out. I stuffed my little back pack with extra trash bags and we were off!

There was a full moon, but it still wasn’t very light out because clouds were covering it most of the time.

You can barely see the moon between clouds and palm trees. Rember click on all pictures; they are much better.



I could see lights twinkling on Ft Myers Beach and the light was blinking on the light house; other than that the only lights were on a few boats.



There was a nice cool breeze from the east, which would keep the noseeums away. It was very quiet; you could hear only the gentle lap of the waves, until a boat went by, then after it past, all was peaceful again. It’s really nice to be out so early to enjoy the quiet, while you watch wildlife and people begin to come out for the day.

The sky began to take on a light pink color that was coming up from behind clouds. It would be a while before the sun could work its way above them.












There wasn’t much on the beach, just the usual deep holes dug here and there and a beach chair left by someone to carry up to a boardwalk. Hopefully it belongs to someone in one of the condos and they will find it later. I’m not sure but they must have had one of the Olympic Games here yesterday because I could see the remnants left by Ronz Team. J I have not heard of that country.

The beach was pretty deserted this morning; we had only seen a very few people before reaching the light house.







The tide was a little lower today, so we could walk part of the way around on the beach, and then had to cut through the picnic area again.


. Just as we started to leave the beach there was a whole bunch of Happy Sixteenth Birthday, helium filled balloons laying in the edge of the water. I carried them up to the dumpster and put them inside, putting the lid back down on top of them. I had to laugh, when I thought of how funny it would be when they came to dump it, because when you raised the lid up, the balloons came floating up.



Walking back out onto the beach, you could see the sun getting brighter behind the clouds. I guessed we would eventually have a sunny day after all.

Only a few fishermen were on the pier and it didn’t look like there was much action going on either.




There were a lot of big birds out on the beach this morning, more than we usually see. I suppose that was because there were fish jumping up from the water now and then.

A sand sculpture was left near the pier. Some little person had spent much of their time carrying buckets of wet sand and had placed a white seashell on the top of each little mound. There was also a row of mangrove seed pods all arranged in a nice little row as landscaping.



As we walked along the bay side, you could see the full moon ahead, while the sun was coming up behind us.







A heron caught my eye as he stood all alone on a dock. He was on the top edge of a bench; maybe waiting for his ship to come in.




Well, our adventure for this Sunday morning is over. It’s hard to believe that as beautiful as this day is, there could possibly be a hurricane coming here in a matter of hours. If it does, many of our remaining turtle nests could be washed away. So, please send positive thoughts this way.

Till next time……

Did you know?

From the time of nest emergence up to 24 to 72 hours after entering the ocean, hatchlings remain in a state often referred to as frenzy. During this period, hatchlings remain in a swimming state. It has been suggested that this may serve to get the hatchlings away from shore and coastal predators, out to deeper waters. Very little is known about sea turtles from the point that hatchlings enter the ocean until at least 20 years later when the females become sexually mature and come ashore again to nest.