Give Birds a Rest!

We're so used to seeing birds flying that we might forget they need to rest every once in a while. If you've watched the Beach Birds section of our Florida Beach Basics - The Space Coast DVD, you know we ask that you don’t let children run up to birds on the beach. As the northern birds begin arriving for their winter vacation here, it is especially important that we give them time and space to recover from the long trip down. Friend David (http://www.blogthebeach.com/) spoke of this in his blog the other day, and gave us permission to share this photo he took during a Thanksgiving trip to Fort Desoto Park. Our Brevard County beach signs tend to be more sea turtle related, with rip current signs thrown in for good measure - I don't think I've ever seen a bird-related sign.

Curt Ebbesmeyer has told us that flotsom can float in the Atlantic gyre for years, but David sent a story about a message in a bottle that is an extreme case:

NORTH HALEDON, N.J. — A message in a bottle tossed into the ocean off Barnegat Bay has turned up in North Carolina — 39 years later. The note was sealed in a Schaefer beer bottle. It was dated Aug. 17, 1969 and read: "If found notify the North Haledon Fire Co. .2." Mark Ciarmello and his 3-year-old daughter found the bottle along a beach in Corolla, N.C., in October. That's about 400 miles from where it was released. The Downingtown, Pa., resident says he got on his cell phone, called North Haledon and e-mailed photos of the bottle to the firefighters.No one is sure who tossed the bottle. But firefighters suspect it was during one of the many fishing trips that they used to take years ago.

I'm looking forward to the Migration Celebration and the Barrier Island Bash this weekend - should pick up lots of new information to share with you. Plus, Ann Zscheile is off to a sea turtle rehab conference this weekend at The Turtle Hospital in Marathon, and she has promised to take photos of Sandy the Hawksbill rescue turtle and give us a first-hand report of her progress.