December 30, 2005

Fuhget aboudit.  I'm never gonna get this website current as long as we're here at Lovers Key.  By the time this gets published, it'll be 2006, so a big HAPPY NEW YEAR to you anyway!

Our maiden voyage about to take place, and then me forgetting to smile as Barb makes things a bit tipsy as she turns to take my picture paddling along.

These little pavilions are along the Black Island Nature Trail and show some of our handiwork.  No brush between the bench and the view.  Well, not much.  We're not suppose to be taking out the trees, just trimming them.  But the weeds have all been closely trimmed.  And then a shot of home with a "water turkey" in the foreground, sometimes called a Crested Cormorant.  We're not sure how that piece of line got up in that tree, but we're blaming Wilma for it.  Didn't bother the Osprey much at all.  Of course, nothing much bothers those fish eaters.  They're a great source of amusement for us and others too.

Oysters attach to the roots of the red mangrove trees all over the place.  And then when the wind blows a tree over, the roots and oysters, from a distance, appear to be some kind of white flowers.  Park naturalists will usually ask their tour group what they think it is.  They rarely get the right answer.

So this is Barb's first canoe trip that we're sure of.  I may have taken her out in Jack Munroe's beautiful old antique wooden canoe on Lake Sammamish in WA longer ago than either of us will admit to.  But maybe I was alone on that trip.  Anyway, she did an admirable job of staying in the center of her seat, and telling me where to take us.  Like "Over there so I can get a close-up of those oysters".  "No, closer!"  And you see the end result.  The canoe nose in the roots is about as close as I can get us.

One time when Barb had the paddle across her lap taking a picture, the paddle slid into the water and she lunged to get it before it got away.  That rocked the boat so to speak.  I hadn't mentioned that they float, so instinct took over.  And then the other time it got exciting on our first trip, a mullet jumped up and looked her in the eye about 6" from her--she yelped and got soaking wet from the splash, and rocked the boat a bit too.  Other than that, it was an uneventful trip.  Except for spotting the manatees up close with the camera in its bag, of course.

Pam is another local volunteer and a wealth of information about the local area's plants and animals.  This morning she's taking a small group of us on a beach walk, and as an introduction is pointing out where we are, where we'll be going, and what to expect to see in the process.

Here she's pointing out a buttonwood tree on the left, and a red mangrove on the right.  We even learned that the mangrove tree will get rid of the salt in the water by depositing it on it's leaves.  We could even taste the salt.  The white mangrove lives furthest from the water, with the red almost in the water, and the black between the two.  Sort of.  There's not any real clear line as to who will grow where.  Like most natural things, generalities fit best most the time.

Crossing the first bridge we spot this Great Blue Heron ("GBH" to us) and then below, in the mud, a Lightning Whelk.  It's a shell that has a left-handed curl to it.  The only left handed curled shell, so naturally it's Barb's favorite.  Well, that's not entirely true.  I'm not so sure she does have a favorite.  I'm pretty convinced she likes them all, and is trying her best to move all the shells from the beach to our home.  Poor girl is struggling with a cough and sore throat at the moment (it's bedtime) and she's liable to miss one of the lowest minus tides of our stay here tomorrow morning.  Each minus tide that she can, she's out there looking for special shells.  Not something I totally comprehend, but do appreciate the addictive activity, having some of my own.

Pam, with her red backpack, is telling about the red bellied woodpecker that lives in the tree behind her.  I think.  One of the biggest problems with delayed posting of our activities is that some of the facts get a bit fuzzy.  And then the sea oats that were planted after Charlie blew through a couple of years ago.  It's an attempt to get a protective dune to grow here, and it looks like it's working pretty much.  These were all hand planted, and most have survived.

As luck would have it, there was a recently deceased blue crab on the beach, and Pam is explaining how it has paddles for its hind legs, and thus a swimming crab, rather than the usual little pointy legs, which denotes a walker.  And, of course, it's easy to see why it's called a blue crab.  I've been told they're good to eat, too.

More shells to look at and learn about.  Barb will have to tell you the names of these guys (on the left is a worm shell on the right are whelks--different sizes).  I was mostly along for the pictures, and to get a flavor for what the beach walks are like so I can share with the visitors who have questions.  And I had a ball, even if I didn't remember all the shells names.  Did like Pam's explanation as to how Lovers Key got its name.  Seems that before the highway and bridges were built, only people with boats could get here, and most of them were students.  Studying anatomy and physiology.  After dark.

Some sea whip coral, and another shell Barb will have to name for us.  (Not sure of the one above--could be an auger.  Below are two different sized apple murex.  And third is a beautiful little coquina which come in many pastel colors.

So far, all the shells have simply been picked up as we walked.  Then Pam sat down and opened the backpack with all these plastic containers holding special objects of interest.  And I'm embarrassed about not taking a notebook with me, because lots of what she had to tell us really was interesting, and I wish I could remember it all.

Ever heard the old saw about "...the cockles of my heart."?  Well, here's a cockle, and you can see the heart shape it has when closed.  And open, it looks just like a, well, ... like a cockle.

These are egg cases that these little critters lay.  Barb will have to tell you what kind of shelled animal made them  (The one directly above left appears to be a banded tulip; the other, again, is a lightning whelk which are all over the place.)  She knows the names of all the shells on the beach.  Well, at least the shells that are still there!  She's managed to haul off a lot of them already!

These are all the same critter.  Different stages in life.  The older they get, the more "curls" they add to their exterior.

These are horseshoe crabs, and, yeah, they're doing just what you think they're doing.  Making more horseshoe crabs.  And naturally, the female is dragging the male around.  What's so surprising about that, eh?  And she could care less about him, too.  She's releasing eggs, and he's fertilizing them.  Thousands of them!  Good food for lots of other sea critters apparently.

A bunch of shore birds that aren't running along the surf line.  Some even look like they're about to take a nap, right there in the middle of the sea oats.  And a beach walker who's quit walking the beach and is waiting for the tram.

And of course, in addition to the "normal" shells she found, Barb also picked up some coral.  Sea Whips in this case.  And then this odd little starfish with the uneven legs (no, they're arms, not legs, and it's a nine-armed starfish), able to grow a new arm if one is lost (or stolen--HA!) .  I think this was the following morning.

Look out!  We're at the North Beach, and another sunset is coming up.

Yup, another sunset.  What a surprise, eh?  And then guess what.  A sunrise.

It's another nice big minus tide, which means the tide is out further than normal, and that means that lots of critters normally out of sight are visible.  On the left, a horseshoe crab I flipped over to see what they look like on the bottom, and a cockle that is going someplace else.  Wonder if they're edible.  We'll not be testing one though, as any shell with somebody living in it is off limits for putting in the shell bag.

Sometimes the cockle looks like it's pushing itself along, and other times it looks as if it's pulling itself.  And that orange thing is my "dirt fishing" (metal detecting) trowel.  Needed something to give a perspective on the size of these critters.

This conch (pronounced "conk") lives out here, but we can only seem find it when there's a minus tide.  On the right, you can see the bottom of it's foot.  The part that is flat and acts like a door when the monopod withdraws all its tender parts.  The foot is shell-like in nature and is pretty much the same color as the shell.

Looking back at the beach from the edge of the Gulf of Mexico, you can see there's plenty of sand for everybody.  And more coming!  That big yellow machine is a front loader that handles logs.  And stumps.  And anything else in its way.  It's being used to enlarge the beach a bit by moving some of the dead trees into a pile for burning later.

These low tides are super fun for me.  I find all kinds of things I know absolutely nothing about.  Like these little calico crabs.  In the first picture is the overall view of the scene.  Then a close-up of the two crabs.  Then the hole they apparently came out of, and the intricate path they made in the sand, and then, finally, a shot of the general area with some other people out there as well.  And naturally, I have no answer as to what was going on with these little crabs.  Two of those people in the last photo are men who volunteer to clean the beach, and they're out here quite early.  Before the park opens at 8AM.  The other person with the light colored shirt is a sheller we see out here quite often, but have never met.

Not sure what's up with that lump in the middle of the little starfish.  Didn't seem to mind it, and just went about doing it's thing.  We thought it was dead, but still limber when Barb first picked it up, but as soon as she dropped it in the water, it squirmed for that shell.

Gonna quit here, just so something will get posted.  More later............