It was still pretty dark, as I walked out between trees and bushes, then on the board walk to the sand. When I got to that point, there was a little more light.
There was a man already standing near the shore, with camera in hand. He had a lens in the other hand and he told me he had made a mistake and kept it in air conditioning and now it got foggy and he was trying to get it warmed up before the sunrise. I've had that happen a few times myself. He said I had better hurry because rain was coming. So, I went on my way. The sky was looking pretty threatening and I kept hearing thunder in the distance. It made me hurry along a little faster than usual, for a while.
The one turtle nest in our zone had a couple of holes in it from ghost crabs. I reported it to the Permittee, when I finished my walk. I hope they can't get into the eggs. :(
There was a strong breeze and it was very pleasant walking along the beach. I loved walking toward the sunrise this morning, but it was pretty difficult to keep from looking back all the time. The clouds behind me were a different color every time I looked around. The rising sun makes such a beautiful light show on the clouds. That's why I love sunrises so much, and also why you have to keep scrolling through photo after photo that probably look the same to you. To me, everyone is different and I can't decide to delete very many of them. :)
It seems kind of strange to find at least one shoe, every time I come to the beach early in the morning. How do you manage to go home with one shoe on? Beats me! Or, if you carry things from the beach, don't you ever look back to make sure you got everything or didn't drop anything? Maybe only Mommies are trained to do that.
I'd be interested to know what they had in mind or where they were going with this one.
Patron spirits must have been here. :)
Not the greatest shelling this morning.
My favorite sight of the day!
I didn't have to share the beach with many others, this morning.
Snowy Plovers stopped to say hello!
If you enlarge and look closely at this one, you'll see this poor little Plover has both legs, but only one foot. But, you would never notice, when it's running along the beach. I've noticed it every time, and stand in awe of how well it has adapted.
This guy has the beginnings of a perfect day!
There were more shells, in places.
Some bad fisherman, left his shrimp bait, behind to rot in the sun. :(
Sea Pork
A few things to carry home.
It was a beautiful morning, and I needed another look back, as I was leaving at the Buttonwood access.
And......just one more! :)
An explanation of the new method being used this year by SCCF Biologist, to mark the sea turtle nests, was sent to those of us who volunteer. This is one time, that I think all of us are hoping these measures will be a waste of time, because no oil gets to our beaches. :)
This season,The Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission has issued new nesting beach monitoring protocols for all gulf coast beaches in
response to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Here is a short summary of the protocol.
• Every nest must be staked
• Every nest must be staked using 4 stakes
• Every nest must be verified
• Every nest must be triangulated
• Every nest must be recorded using a GPS with accuracy of less than 1ft.
Verifying and triangulating each nest means that the exact location of the egg chamber must be determined and stakes will be placed in the dune behind the nest at measured distances. All of these steps are to ensure the safety of the nest if
a beach becomes oiled and cleanup is necessary. In the event of oil, every nest will be staked with a ten foot buffer. This will protect the nests from any additional traffic or equipment on the beach. All nests due to hatch will be also be caged. This
will allow us to catch the hatchlings and prevent them from reaching the oiled beach and water. They will then be released in an unaffected area.
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