Space Coast Beach Buzz

VISIT FLORIDA!

2011-10-31T20:24:00.003-04:00

(Photo courtesy of Wayne Matchett)

It must be Fall

2011-09-05T09:10:00.005-04:00

It's not cool in the mornings yet, but it must be Fall - the agenda for the 16th Annual Sea-Bean Symposium has been published. Mark your calendars for October 21 and 22, Cocoa Beach Library. More about the program, the speakers, the t-shirt (a Dawn Witherington original - the art shown here is on the pocket), and the fun later, but meanwhile, follow the link below for more information.

16th Annual Sea-Bean Symposium

Good Night (Hurricane) Irene

2011-08-25T20:17:00.007-04:00

We are so fortunate that Hurricane Irene's path changed during the week and took her east of Brevard's coastline - she will pass about 200 miles offshore late tonight and tomorrow morning. We're having rain squalls and wind gusts, and I'm sure it will get worse, but all in all, we've dodged another bullet. The photo above is from the NASA web site, with a description as follows:

NASA's Terra satellite captured a visible image of Hurricane Irene's eye
directly over Crooked Island in the southern Bahamas on August 24, 2011 at 12:15
p.m. EDT.Credit: NASA Goddard MODIS Rapid Response

Seas are forecast to be 10-15 feet just offshore and there will be beach erosion (hopefully not much, what with sea turtle nests all over the place), higher than average tides, and rip currents. I thought you might be interested in a couple of web cams that will show you what a hurricane the size and intensity of Irene (Category 3 right now, and a huge footprint) can do, even a couple of hundred miles away.

Sebastian Inlet Web Cam
Cocoa Beach Pier Web Cam

Welcome Home, Atlantis!

2011-07-21T20:51:00.003-04:00

Space shuttle Atlantis touched down at 5:57 a.m. at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida for the final time. STS-135 was the 33rd and final flight for Atlantis, which has spent 307 days in space, orbited Earth 4,848 times and traveled 125,935,769 miles. Those are pretty amazing statistics. The end of an era.

(Image courtesy of NASA/Kim Shiflett)

My favorite launch photos

2011-07-11T20:32:00.007-04:00

The low-hanging clouds did not make for great viewing of Friday's launch, but it made for a great photograph. I love this view, with the launch pads and the beach and the ocean and the marshes. (NASA photo)

The Max Brewer Bridge leading to the Space Center had a few people on it watching the launch! (NASA photo)

We have liftoff

2011-07-08T20:44:00.004-04:00

After a nearly perfect countdown on a day when the rain stayed away just long enough, we had a beautiful final shuttle launch. Godspeed, Atlantis! Job well done, NASA and contractors.
Photo credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls
July 8, 2011

Countdown to launch

2011-07-07T06:58:00.003-04:00

Space shuttle Atlantis is scheduled to lift off 11:26 a.m. EDT tomorrow, Friday, July 8, but it looks as though rain may interfere with the launch plans. Meanwhile, friend David McRee, Blog the Beach, sent the following link to a 360 degree view of the space shuttle Discovery's flight deck. Cool stuff!

http://360vr.com/2011/06/22-discovery-flight-deck-opf_6236/index.html

Thanks to all who have served

2011-07-02T10:49:00.001-04:00

(From Robin Chapman's postcard collection)

Rescue Organizations

2011-06-09T08:57:00.018-04:00

There are so many worthwhile animal rescue organizations that it's difficult to decide which ones to support. Many of us support local one - for example, I belong to and support our local Sea Turtle Preservation Society. But I also admire and support a horse rescue organization in Washington State that I learned about from Cactus Jack Splash (see Reference Links below).

A few months ago, friend Marilyn, traveled to Colombia to learn more about the Cotton-top Tamarin Monkey rescue foundation. When next we met, she brought along two items the rescue foundation sells as fundraisers - a mochila (a traditional bag used in Columbia shown here) crafted by hand from recycled plastic bags (I've ordered mine), and a stuffed toy tamarin. Last week, she forwarded their newsletter. This is an interesting study/rescue effort, with some impressive credentials and sponsors, and I think you'll enjoy reading about it. See Reference Links below for a link to their excellent web site. As their home page notes, Cotton-top Tamarins are an endangered species of primate found only in the tropical forests of Colombia. Interesting stuff, and gives us a perspective about the need to conserve species world-wide. (Images from Proyecto Titi web site)

Reference Links:

Sea Turtle Preservation Society
The Journey's of Cactus Jack Splash
Proyecto Tití: Conserving the Cotton-top Tamarin in Colombia

Welcome Home, Endeavour!

2011-06-01T20:54:00.006-04:00

The always-welcome (even at 2:30 a.m.) twin sonic booms signaled the final approach. Endeavour landed at 2:35 a.m. EDT on Wednesday, June 1, 2011, wrapping up the STS-134 mission. (Photo courtesy of NASA)

Kennedy Space Center has been designated as Endeavour's "forever home" - so her safe arrival was even more special.

2011-06-01T20:54:00.001-04:00

Fly United

2011-05-22T15:02:00.018-04:00

We've had a record-breaking invasion of lovebugs this year. For those of you unfamiliar with lovebugs, they swarm twice a year, in April -May and August - September. This year, their swarming is almost like a snowstorm - they are ALL OVER THE PLACE. They don't bite, but they can sure mess up a car in a hurry - their bodies are acidic and thus bad for the paint, and they clog up radiators. They are called lovebugs because during and after mating, they remain coupled, even during flight. This year, instead of staying along the Interstate, they've blanketed the beachside also, and you can imagine what happens if you've just put on sunscreen :) Co-workers from Ohio were down last week, staying at a hotel in Indialantic, and they mentioned that the buildings and pool were covered with them. One of the hotel employees told them that the love bugs were genetically enhanced by the University of Florida to eat mosquitoes - I laughed, as I'd never heard that, and I assured them it was not true. But when I was looking in Wikipedia for some background information on lovebugs, sure enough, that tale is identified as an urban myth! Friend Margie sent the above pix from Cocoa Beach - her buggy covered with bugs, scum lines everywhere a wave left them when the tide started out, and a closeup. As she says, a photo does not do them justice, but you get the idea. (Click to enlarge)

I have not done much except work recently, but fortunately, friends are being more creative. Vickie has done a beautiful, educational, fascinating series about bluebirds. Robin has done a couple of very entertaining stories about the Schwarzenegger flail (the May 17 post is particularly good). Far ends of the spectrum in terms of topic, but both of these ladies are exceptionally good writers, and I hope you'll follow the links in Reference Links below. Carolyn writes her ... hive of silvery bees blog from my home state of South Dakota - few words, but wonderful photos with perfect captions. I particularly enjoyed her post about the Native American ceremony held prior to high school graduation. And Wayne continues to photograph and document our Brevard County wildflowers.

So far so good with Endeavour - we'll look forward to the sonic booms announcing her arrival home May 31. Brevard County has been designated as her permanent home, which will make it doubly special.

Reference Links:
Lovebugs
Vickie Henderson Art
Robin Chapman News
..a Hive of Silvery Bees
Space Coast Wildflowers

Liftoff!

2011-05-16T09:12:00.004-04:00

Like many, I watched the launch on TV, then raced outdoors to see what I could see from 40 miles south of the Cape. It was a picture-perfect day, a picture-perfect launch, and so far so good. Space shuttle Endeavour and its crew of six astronauts are headed for space, ready to begin their 16-day mission to the International Space Station.

I went to the http://www.nasa.gov/ site to see if they had any launch pix posted yet - they didn't, but on their home page, there was an excellent photo of the Mississippi River flooding taken from the Space Station. http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/multimedia/gallery/index.html

The Tax Man Cometh

2011-04-18T20:13:00.004-04:00

Photo by Jim Angy, but I rescued the turtle in 2009.

Welcome Home, Discovery

2011-03-09T20:45:00.005-05:00

Right before noon today, welcome sonic booms signaled the return of the Shuttle Discovery to Kennedy Space Center. Touchdown was a few minutes later. This was the 39th and final voyage of Discovery. Follow the Reference Link below for an excellent story of the personal ties KSC personnel have to the shuttle program.

Reference Link:

Astronaut Tied Emotionally to Shuttles, KSC

Rest in peace, Miss Kitty

2011-02-26T21:00:00.009-05:00

I adopted Miss Kitty just one short year ago; she was a ten-year old cat that needed a home, and I really needed a cat, although I didn't know it at the time. It took a couple of months before she started to smile, but from then on, she was one happy cat and a wonderful friend. She and Sugar (my Italian Greyhound) apparently had an agreement - no interaction, but no disagreements. Sugar goes upstairs to bed about 7:00, and Miss Kitty would then spend the rest of the evening trying to herd me to the recliner to watch television so she could sit on my lap. Another favorite place to lounge was the pass-through between the kitchen and the dining/living room - she could watch everything from one spot.

When she stopped eating and drinking nine days ago, I hoped it was just a bad tooth or something, but x-rays, blood work, and a sonogram revealed an egg-sized tumor in her intestine that had finally taken over. Surgery was unlikely to help, and her health and quality of life had deteriorated significantly, so she was euthanized on Wednesday. She'll be cremated and join her predecessors in the Safari Room/Mausoleum. Today I packed away litter box, food, afghan, and heated mat. But I've left the indention on the couch cushion where she loved to sleep. I'll vacuum up the cat hair and fluff up the cushion some day. Just not now.

Safe Journey, Discovery

2011-02-24T21:03:00.004-05:00

27 years old, its 39th (and last) liftoff, Discovery leapt off the pad like a youngster, headed for the International Space Station with six astronauts and one robonaut aboard. (Photo courtesy of NASA)

As the Orlando Sentinel noted, The launch marks the beginning of the end of the space-shuttle program, 30 years after NASA began launching reusable, do-all spaceships into orbit to do everything from launching satellites to building the space station itself. After Endeavour in April and Atlantis – now set for June – NASA will have no manned-space rocket for the first time in 60 years.

There is, of course, much sadness associated with these final flights, but at least for today, let's just salute the greatness of the program and the thousands of people that have participated in it.

Up to my eyeballs in alligators!

2011-01-31T20:01:00.010-05:00

(Photo by Matt MacQueen)

I'm hopelessly behind in my blog posting - computer problems (fixed, thank goodness), and up to my eyeballs in alligators at work (it's an old aerospace saying - when you're up to your eyeballs in alligators, it's hard to remember that your objective is to drain the swamp).

Meanwhile, there's some good news on the critter front. Vickie reports from Tennessee that there will be no sandhill crane hunting for two years, pending further studies (see Reference Links below for the complete story). Vickie has waged a tireless battle for years on behalf of whooping cranes and now the sandhill cranes. If you have not wandered through her blog to look at her art, greeting cards, gourd art, etc - DO!

More good critter news - the right whale I wrote of in the previous post was successfully untangled. (In answer to Kelly's question, it is a Right Whale, not a Wright Whale - whalers thought they were the "right" ones to hunt. Kelly likes alliteration :)

Not such good news is the cold weather impact on the manatees and sea turtles. And from my perspective, the news out of Gatorland that they are adding a zip line is a bummer.

Friends continue to do wonderful things. Two of Jim Angy's sea turtle photos were used in National Wildlife Federation report on the status of sea turtles - one on the cover! This 20-page report is chock-full of sea turtle data. See Reference Links below for a link to it. - you can download a copy from the NWF site. I'm eagerly awaiting the Birds of Viera Wetlands Birding Guide developed by Charlie Corbeil. I've seen the draft, and he writes that it has been printed and my copy is in the mail. Matt MacQueen won first place in the Living Wild category of the Florida Wildlife magazine for his photo of a frog on a lily. Wayne Matchett's presentation of Wildflowers of Wickham Park to members of the Conradina Chapter of the Native Plant Society was beautiful and informative. Talented friends, indeed!

The Birding and Wildlife Festival was a big success, according to the reports of friends that attended - I missed it this year, but apparently some 4,500 people attended. Florida Cracker made the trip over from Florida's west coast to the Festival to meet Julie Zickefoose - follow the link below to his Pure Florida blog for an account of the get-together.

Stay warm.

Reference Links:
Vickie Henderson - A New Plan for the Eastern Population of Sandhill Cranes

NWF Report - Sea Turtle Homecoming, Class of 2010: A Proactive Coastal Conservation Agenda for Florida

Pure Florida - Why I Went to the Space Coast Birding and Wildlife Festival

It's Right Whale Season

2011-01-16T14:19:00.012-05:00

I was pondering what to blog about this weekend when a most interesting email arrived from Arnold Dubin describing the on-going rescue of a Right Whale tangled in commercial fishing lines. Arnold gave me permission to use his description, as follows:

This morning, I received a call from Julie Albert, who is in charge of the local Right Whale Monitoring Program. They spotted a Right Whale swimming south of Melbourne Beach. This specific Right Whale was tangled with commercial fishing lines, and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation people were trying to remove them from her. They connected a couple of buoys to the Whale to try to slow it down, but that didn't seem to work, at least for the time we were observing it. They also had a spotter plane keeping track of the whale. I was able photograph this Right Whale with one buoy connected to it and a V-shape Blow. This whale was swimming about 3 MPH in a south east direction. Their normal speed is usually 1 mph. As you can see from my pictures, this whale was pretty far from the shore line. (See Reference Links below for link to Arnold's web site with photos of Right Whale rescue event.)

Earlier this month, I had received a notice from the aforementioned Julie Albert, Right Whale Program Coordinator for the Marine Resources Council, describing their new blog (see Reference Links below), upcoming classes, and the first Right Whale sighting of 2011 on January 4. For those readers local to Brevard County, there are classes and opportunities to help in the monitoring program. (I don't yet know what happened to the Right Whale in jeopardy, but I expect it will be discussed in the MRC blog and I'll update this post then.)

My thanks to Arnold for sharing his experience and his photos with us. Be sure to read the "About Me" section of Arnold's web site. He describes trying to improve his photos via PhotoShop, but finally decided he just needed to take better pictures to start with! He's an officer in the Camera Club of Brevard and has won numerous prizes and awards in recent years.

Reference Links
Arnold Dubin Photography
Right Whale Monitoring Blog (Marine Resources Council)

Camera Club of Brevard

I personally like vultures, but ...

2011-01-09T20:23:00.010-05:00

Many of you that read this blog also follow Florida Cracker (aka FC) and his blog, Pure Florida (see Reference Links below). He recently posted about rescuing a vulture and trying to find a wildlife rehab facility open over the holiday. It was the first time I'd ever given much thought to what a vulture must smell like, given its favorite food - road kill. You'll want to read FC's clever post to find out, but don't do it while eating dinner. Gotta love a guy that will go out of his way to help a vulture! (Photo by Jim Angy. Note that this is a turkey vulture. The one FC and his dog, Bear, rescued was a black vulture. )

The "vulture" in this photo overlooks my dining room table. Her name is I-Lean. I got her from a Martha Steward catalog (pre-jail, so it's been about 8 years ago). I-Lean gets a little santa hat and a stocking with a toy mouse in it for Christmas. The good part is that she fits right in with the current wetlands decor. Actually, she fits right in with any decor - vultures are like that.

Reference Links

Pure Florida - Bear (the dog) finds the buzzard

Pure Florida - Riding in a car with vultures

A hunting season for sandhill cranes? Just say NO!

2011-01-02T16:47:00.007-05:00

For several weeks, friend Vickie Henderson has been lobbying against a plan in Tennessee that would allow a hunting season for sandhill cranes. This past week, Julie Zickefoose also posted about the plan, urging folks from all over to raise their voices against this. Links to both sites are included in Reference Links below. Even if you don't live in Tennessee, feel free to express your thoughts. (Photo by Jim Angy)

Reference Links:
Vickie Henderson Art
Julie Zickefoose

Happy Holidays

2010-12-22T20:56:00.003-05:00

Thanks to Charlie Corbeil for letting me use his beautiful card to wish you all a wonderful holiday season.

Cabbages and Kings

2010-12-19T10:42:00.022-05:00

Blog the Beach friend David blogs professionally for the Space Coast Birding and Wildlife Festival. His recent post about the Festival included a photo of an Al Rao mural. Al turned my guest bedroom into a Florida Swamp about ten years ago, and his son Frank recently turned my living room floor into a Wetlands. The Festival is a major event in our area, attracting first-class speakers and lots of visitors. It's held at the end of January, a peak time for birdwatching. (This photo is of a portion of one of the walls in my Swamp. After ten years, I still love this room, and everybody that walks into it starts to smile - it's that kind of room.)

We had some wicked cold weather last week. Fortunately, it did not last long, but Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission folks report that over 250 sea turtles were rescued, most from our own Cape Canaveral area. They were parsed out to various rehab facilities (those facilities certainly got a lot of experience last year!), and most are expected to survive. Keith Winsten, Director of our wonderful Brevard Zoo, writes an excellent bi-weekly column for Florida Today, and his most recent one spoke to how critters adapt to cold weather. There's a link to the article in Referenced Links below.

Charlie and Charlotte Corbeil had yet another story in the Florida Wildlife magazine - Mating Displays of the Great Blue Heron, with lots of beautiful Charlie Corbeil photos. I received their e-Christmas card the other day, and Charlie has given me permission to use it. I'll post it this coming week - you'll love it. The 2011 Indian River Lagoon calendar includes one of his black-necked stilt photos and a great land crab pic. (This is one of Charlie's great blue heron pix from his silhouette series. I love his pictures, and I particularly appreciate his willingness to let me share them with you.)

Friend Wayne (Space Coast Wildflowers) came over last weekend to dry-run his beautiful Wildflowers of Wickham Park presentation that he'll be giving at the Florida Native Plant Society (FNPS) Conradina Chapter meeting on Monday, January 10 at the Melbourne Library on Fee Avenue, 6:00 to 8:00. It's terrific. Very organized and informative (as you might expect from a former system engineer with a really nice mind), and chock full of gorgeous pictures of the wildflowers he has found and identified during his trips to Wickham Park. If you live in Brevard County, make plans to attend.

Artist friend Vickie Henderson continues to lead the fight against hunting sandhill cranes in Tennessee. What a really dreadful idea! Follow the link in Reference Links below to her gorgeous site - her artwork is just amazing. Be sure to look at her art cards and prints. (This photo is of some "tourists" visiting our defunct golf course today. At least I am assuming these are northern sandhills.)

A few weeks ago, my dog and I found a little three-striped mud turtle wandering around our aforementioned defunct golf course. Since it was mowing day, I brought him inside, made a mud turtle habitat on the screened in porch, gave him some canned dog food, and kept him through the cold spell. I'm not fond of the water on the golf course that he came out of, so on a warm day last weekend, I took him to a nice calm water location and released him. The three-striped mud turtle is not a flashy critter, and they are a little shy, but he was a very pleasant fellow, attractive in his own way. I hope he got burrowed into the mud before the cold spell arrived.

I've gone on waaay too long - hope your week before Christmas is non-stressful :)

Reference Links
Keith Winsten: Animals adept at dealing with cold weather
Blog the Beach: Tenth Annual Birding and Wildlife Festival
Charlie Corbeil Photography
Space Coast Wildflowers
FNPS Conradina Chapter
Vickie Henderson Art

Purses with a Purpose

2010-12-11T10:56:00.005-05:00

Serene Harbor is a local domestic violence center that provides shelter and assistance for abused women. Frequently, these ladies show up with few possessions. A few weeks ago, I received an email from the Women's Business Center describing the Purses with a Purpose initiative wherein one fills a gently used purse with things these ladies might need - new personal grooming items, underwear, socks, etc. I have one old purse - the one I carry! But I knew Melea, my daughter-in-law has a lot of purses, so I forwarded the email to her, hoping for a purse I could fill. Well, Melea and her friend Marissa filled two beautiful purses to the brim, even including Christmas cards. Charlie brought them over this week, and I just finished delivering them to Lori Halbert, the mastermind and coordinator of this effort, now in its fifth year. I think this is a terrific idea, not just for the Christmas season - elements of reuse, practicality, and financial feasiblity. Good job!

Reference Links:
Serene Harbor
Women's Business Center

Manatee mania!

2010-12-09T20:04:00.011-05:00

A few weeks ago, co-workers from Ohio were in town for a meeting and wanted to view manatees. I was unable to find any for them then, so I'm delighted to have these photos to share with them. (Manatees are large aquatic mammals frequently referred to as sea cows. The link below in Reference Links will tell you all about them.)

We've had some record cold mornings this past week (30s and low 40s), and the manatees are coming into the canals from the river because the canal water is warmer. Wayne got these pix at a canal near his home in Satellite Beach.

I'm most appreciative of Wayne's photos - every very time I try to take a manatee photo, by the time I get my act together, the critter has ducked back under the water, and I have yet one more picture of water!

This photo reminds me of a bunch of kids in a swimming pool having a party!

(Photos by Wayne Matchett)

Reference Links:
Manatee Facts

It's a small world

2010-11-27T21:01:00.006-05:00

Thanksgiving day morning, I received an email from the Copyright Editor of the South Australian Certificate of Education (SACE) requesting that I forward an attached copyright permission request to Margie Mitchell, whom faithful readers will recognize as the Beach Coordinator for the City of Cocoa Beach.

The SACE folks wanted permission to use Margie's picture of a purple sea snail published in this blog March 25, 2009. SACE had used the photo in their 2010 Year 12 examination paper for Specialist Mathmatics as the basis of this question - "As the purple sea snail (Janthina janthina) grows, the lateral dimensions of its shell can be modelled by the differential system" .... (followed by a bunch of stuff involving x's and y's that I will not even pretend to understand). The picture in the exam was provided with full credit to Margie and this blog. Now the exam will apparently be made available to the public, so copyright permission was being requested.

I loved the fact that the SACE went to such meticulous detail to do the right thing - certainly the likelihood of discovery had they simply used the photo with no attribution and no permission is slim. But their four-page permission form included illustration of how the photo was used in the exam and a replication of the applicable portion of the blog post and our Copyright Notice.

Margie, of course, immediately provided SACE with permission (by email rather than snail mail - tee hee). And we both marveled at the chances of somebody in Australia finding Margie's photo of a little purple critter posted 18 months ago and using it as the basis of a math question!

As Disney would say, it's a small, small world!

(Photo by Margie Mitchell)

Happy Thanksgiving

2010-11-24T07:58:00.002-05:00

Remembering John F. Kennedy, Jr.

2010-11-22T18:33:00.005-05:00

Today marks the 47th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, Jr., our 35th President.

Talented Friends

2010-11-21T19:35:00.012-05:00

Faithful readers will recall my speaking of friend Vickie Henderson, she of the fabulous art who came to visit last January for the Space Coast Birding and Wildlife Festival and again in July to learn about sea turtles. When she came in June, she brought me some beautiful cards based on her field journal artwork, and now she sells them on her web site (see Reference Links below). Vickie lives in Tennessee, and a recent post on her Sketchbook blog tells about an article in the Tennessee Conservationist featuring her art and photographs. Beautiful stuff! You'll want to take the time to wander through this blog - some amazingly beautiful photos and sketches.

And speaking of the Space Coast Birding and Wildlife Festival (January 26 - 31, 2011), friend David McCree is once again blogging professionally about it. His current post (see Reference Links below) is about a nature bloggers' luncheon at the Festival! What a cool idea. When you think about it, blogging has not been mainstream for very long - there were precursors in 1997-98, then the politicians picked up on it in the early 2000's, and it started becoming more popular with "the masses" in the 2004 timeframe. My first blog post was in May 2008, and I remember having to explain the term "blog" and the concept to folks. So the nature bloggers' lunch at the Festival should be interesting indeed.

I'm so glad my friends are doing wonderful things - I'm on the work/laundry/grocery shopping/work/pay bills/clean the bird cages cycle and have done nothing particularly noteworthy recently (except pick four ripe tomatoes today).

Reference Links:

Vickie's Sketchbook (The TN Conservationist Magazine article is in her November 13 post)

Vickie Henderson Art target="_blank" (Vickie's other blog - her art prints and cards are available on this one)

Blog the Beach (David's post about the networking luncheon at the Wildlife Festival)

Tomatoes

2010-11-13T09:13:00.013-05:00

Yesterday, I ate the first tomatoes from my Fall planting. Yummy! The unusually cold nights we've had over the past few weeks really sweetened them up.

A mere 10 weeks ago, Kari Ruder (Naturewise and The Green Marketplace in Cocoa) brought me four heirloom cherry tomato plants in little cups, along with some really smelly fertilizer. I put two plants in each of the two grow boxes I keep in my courtyard, and voila - thanks to Mother Nature and Kari's strong stock (and that fertilizer), I have eight foot tall plants with scads of tomatoes.

I love the grow box approach - once you get it set up, it's just a matter of keeping the reservoir full of water. The screen behind the plants is to cut down the reflection from the building - one year, my plants got fried.

Just look at these little beauties!

Veteran's Day 2010

2010-11-10T20:56:00.003-05:00

I'm looking forward to hosting my Fifth Annual Veteran's Day lunch tomorrow. Attendees will be co-worker veteran friends, and it's always a privilege to honor their former military service. We hold this luncheon at Loreen's Cafe, which is decorated year-around with flags, red, white, and blue, and anything and everything patriotic! (Eagle photo by Jim Angy, illustration by Matt MacQueen)

Tomorrow, we'll honor the warfighter, past and present. To all, thank you for your service.

Discovery Delayed

2010-11-07T09:44:00.007-05:00

The Halloween card lingered on here while I prepared to post news of the final launch of the Shuttle Discovery, STS 133. The launch was originally scheduled for last Monday, but a series of technical glitches delayed it on a day-by-day basis. Finally, the window of opportunity closed, and the launch is now scheduled for November 30 at the earliest. Meanwhile, e-friend Becka, she of the fabric art genius, has created a beautiful shuttle-related counted thread embroidery piece that you space buffs will covet. Be sure to read her description of what prompted her design (see Reference Links below). Given that I can't hem a dishtowel, I'm in total awe of her talents!

Other e-friends, Cactus Jack Splash, Mushboy, and DOR, have submitted their photos to NASA's Fly Your Face in Space program. so they are eagerly awaiting the launch (see Reference Links below). After the launch, they can retrieve a Flight Certificate - a commemorative certificate signed by the Mission Commander.

Reference Links:

Becka's Project Journal (shuttle counted thread embroidery piece)

The Journeys of Cactus Jack Splash (their photos in space)

NASA (STS-133 Mission)

Boo!

2010-10-30T20:43:00.004-04:00

Thanks to Charlie Corbeil for this Halloween greeting - perfect as always!

A visit from my granddog

2010-09-30T07:02:00.007-04:00

Charlie and Melea came to visit last weekend and brought Cardosa, the puppy they are raising for Canine Companions for Independence® (CCI). What a delightful dog! He patiently waited out the hysterics of Sugar, my Italian Greyhound, and within five minutes, they were friends. Even Miss Kitty was not dreadfully offended. He met several of the neighbors during a walk, and they were likewise charmed with his poise and demeanor - this is a real sweetie pie!

CCI provides highly-trained assistance dogs for children and adults with disabilities. Cardosa will remain with Charlie and Melea until he is 18 months old, going to obedience class, getting socialized, etc. Then he'll go to CCI "college" with his perment master.

15th Annual Sea-Bean Symposium

2010-09-15T20:40:00.004-04:00

Mark your calendars for October 22 and 23 - the 15th annual sea-bean symposium. For those of you new to this blog, you may well ask, what is a sea-bean? As we explain in our Florida Beach Basics DVD, sea-beans are nuts and seeds from trees and vines that grow along water that flows into the ocean. These nuts and seeds fall into the water and reach the ocean currents, where they can float for several years before washing ashore, hopefully on our beaches. (Photo of a coral bean in pod by Jim Angy.)

Brevard County beaches are prime spots for finding sea beans, particularly when we've had a lot of wave action - which we have had and are expecting to have this weekend.

The Symposium is held at the Cocoa Beach Library and features exhibits. speakers, and a bean-a-thon. Every year, it attracts more attendees, and it's always standing room only for the speakers.

Over the next few weeks leading up to the event, I'll post more information about the speakers and events, but I wanted to get on your calendars with this.

The NFL Kicks Off - In Iraq and Afghanistan

2010-09-09T19:52:00.002-04:00

(This is a reprint of last year's post about the first NFL game of the season. We weren't in Afghanistan then. Once again, I'll think of our warfighters as I watch the game, and hope that they are safely gathered around their TV sets watching it too.)

Tonight, finally, the NFL kicks off its season. The first game of the season brings memories of 2003, the year the Iraq war started in earnest. I was working for Harris Corporation, a major defense communications equipment manufacturer. In April of that year, a friend on the manufacturing floor called one day and said it was time we did something to support the troops and I should organize something. So after we put up some posters and had a few meetings, we packed about 60 shoeboxes and sent them to a contact in Iraq. Bear in mind, this was just a couple of months after everything over there started, so the infrastructure for our warfighters was pretty slim. The response from the troops that received our shoeboxes was heartwarming, so we did a 4th of July mailing and pretty much adopted a Signal Battalion in Camp Adder and a Signal Brigade in Mosul. By this time, we were getting some fairly regular correspondence, and it became apparent that a lot of the soldiers really missed their sporting events, so we started planning for the start of football season. We shipped over 350 pounds of chips, peanuts, salsa, nacho cheese sauce, door prizes, disposables, and instructions (for example: Put cheese in disposable pan, cover with plastic wrap, and set on top of humvee hood to heat). The party took place September 7, when the troops watched the first NFL games, with a delay of about 8 hours because of time differences.

Door prizes (the football team cheerleader posters were a big hit!)

Local businesses supported the effort whole-heartedly. Texas Roadhouse donated 100 pounds of peanuts in the shell. Publix kicked in 64 pounds of salsa. Sodexho provided chips for 350, enough jalapeno slices for an entire Army, and disposables. Carroll Distributing provided customized 3 ft x 6 ft Budweiser banners. The Tampa Bay Bucs, Miami Dolphins and the Jacksonville Jaguars each sent posters and team memorabilia. Harris provided 10-ft long banners for each location proclaiming “The NFL Kicks Off In Iraq”, and Harris employees brought in football magazines. Cash donations filled in the holes – nacho cheese sauce, four footballs, ESPN stadium music, and tickets for door prizes. And Harris picked up the shipping costs, which made everything possible.

These soldiers were two of the party committee that set everything up - including spelling out NFL with cups of peanuts. So young, so lovely, so handsome.

The parties were a huge success. We got reports that a great time was had by all – lots of cheering and lots of eating - and that the troops were genuinely delighted that people they don’t know would throw them a party. The goal was to give troops a touch of home, and in the Battalion CSM's words, “Mission Accomplished”! The Brigade in Mosul reported a “blowout” party, even though the satellite card for their TV did not arrive, so they had no football.

We continued our support with Halloween, Christmas, and Valentine's Day parties, with a final banner welcoming the troops home. It's hard to believe that seven years have passed.

So tomorrow I'll get back to talking about beach things, but tonight I'm going to watch football and think of our warfighters around the world and hope they are getting a chance to watch it too. HOO-AH!

I treasure good customer service

2010-09-06T09:46:00.007-04:00

A couple of weeks ago, I witnessed some dreadful customer service (with my "hair on fire", I tracked down a manager and told him exactly how poor it was) and experienced some excellent customer service (spent a considerable amount of time writing a commendation letter to Verizon). Decided there had to be a better way, so I whipped up these little cards. They are the size of business cards, and you can write the person's name in the blank spot on the back and sign your name (or not). I don't give them out for an expected level of service, so I've only handed out four cards thus far. (I ordered a thousand because of the price break. May take a while to distribute that many. If you want some, let me know.) The smiles on the faces of the recipients of the four cards made the whole thing worth it. When I hand somebody a card, I suggest they give it to their supervisor to put in their personnel folder.

Front:

Back:

Surf's up, Dude!

2010-09-01T20:39:00.004-04:00

By tomorrow, Hurricane Earl will be about 350 miles off our coast as he chugs towards North Carolina's Outer Banks as a Category 3 or 4. That's bringing huge waves and fierce rip currents to Brevard's beaches. Margie, our intrepid Cocoa Beach patrol person, sent the above picture and reports that large flotsam is coming in - one of her pix showed big wooden pallets that she'd collected from the beach. Estimates are for 13 foot waves tomorrow. This past weekend, lifeguards were kept busy rescuing folks caught in the rip tides - one person drowned. We'll hope more common sense is applied this coming weekend.

A Wetlands Floor

2010-08-29T11:29:00.020-04:00

Miss Kitty is wondering where her favorite chair that USED to be in this spot went to.

When last we spoke, my living room was empty and the floor had been stripped down to the concrete. Friend Matt came over Monday night and pulled out those nasty carpet tack strips (ouch). Frank Rao, muralist extraordinaire, arrived bright and early Tuesday morning. We vacuumed one more time to be sure all the dust was up, he fixed some of the more obvious floor flaws, I penned up the cat and the dog in my bedroom (much to the dog's disgust), and we were off to the races!

For a person like myself that thinks in terms of words, not pictures, knowing that the end result would be wonderful is a matter of trust (and having other mural and faux painting work done in my house by Frank and his father, Al).

After Frank applied a base coat, we identified "big picture - this is water, this is marsh" stuff, and he started blocking in colors.

Once the floor was taking shape, Frank started bringing the art up the walls. What fun! (Thanks to prodigiously talented friends like Charlie Corbeil, Jim Angy, Matt MacQueen, and Wayne Matchett, I had some wonderful reference photos for Frank. I pulled them into a PowerPoint presentation on my laptop that Frank could move around with him.) His first scene was a wetlands view behind the 20 foot curly willow tree that stands in one corner. After I saw that, I was hooked into more wall art, so I now have an anhinga in nuptial plumage drying his wings by the dining room table area, a great blue heron with his neck curled around a light switch by the sliding glass door, a pig frog by the guest bathroom, and a dragonfly in another corner. (We sea-bean symposium folks think that Cathie Katz comes back to us as a dragonfly, so of course there had to be a tribute dragonfly.) An alligator on the floor will peer at guests sitting on the couch. Grasses coming up the walls tie the whole thing together. (Ignore the African art - it will get moved into the Safari Room.)

Yesterday, the final clear sealer coat went on - we're done! Well, at least with the art. Furniture can go back in place mid-week, after everything cures for the appropriate amount of time. (Frank worked extra hard to come up with products that were pet-friendly in terms of limited outgassing - we kept a lot of fans going, and it was not smelly at all.) Rope lights will go along the baseboards. Artificial water lilies will be scattered on the floor. A frog statue that I've had for years will now sit on a lily pad. I gracefully turned down a friend's offer for a canoe that could be used as a couch - we certainly don't want to go over the top here :)

DONE! Matt came over yesterday and shot a short video - when that gets edited, I'll post it and you'll get a better idea of the finished product - a thing of beauty! Frank's new web site is in work - when that is up and running next week, I'll provide you with a link to it so you can see some of his other creations. Meanwhile, if you need a mural or faux art, Frank is your man!

Ode to a good son

2010-08-22T09:34:00.016-04:00

If you're lucky, your child grows up to be a happy, productive, competent person. My son Charlie is all of these things, and more. In addition, he supports my quirky ideas with minimal flack. Case in point is this last week, when he came over for a couple of days to prep my living room so that Frank Rao can paint a wetlands mural on the floor (this will be so cool). In addition to moving furniture and removing and disposing of carpet, he put in a new shower head, installed a lattice barrier along the balcony railing so the cat and dog won't jump through, cleaned the gutters, detected a backed-up overflow drain in my garage A/C and fixed that, cleaned the refrigerator coils, rescreened the screen door and put in a "butt panel", and installed a screen over my neighbor's A/C grate because she was worried about the leaves getting in the unit. Whenever we go through these "honey do" events, I continue to be impressed and delighted with the wide variety of things Charlie does well and his calm, practical approach to solving problems. The photo is a couple of years old, but a favorite of mine - shows Charlie and his wife Melea, with their rescue greyhound, Cheyenne. I got lucky with Melea, too - she and Charlie have been married for nearly 20 years. She's charming and intelligent and the perfect daughter-in-law. She's training to walk 60 miles in the Susan B. Koman 3-Day Walk for the Cure in October (20 miles a day). We'll talk more about that later, but anybody willing to train outside in August in Florida has my admiration!

Amongst their many skills and interests, Charlie and Melea are long-time volunteer puppy raisers for Canine Companions for Independence (CCI), and a few weeks ago they received a new CCI puppy they have nicknamed Tank. For those of you unfamiliar with CCI, it is an organization that provides highly-trained assistance dogs for children and adults with disabilities. Charlie and Melea will care for, train, and socialize Tank for 18 months, after which time he will go off to "college" to work with his permanent owner.

A week from now, my living room floor will be a thing of beauty, and there will be pictures, of course. Meanwhile, here's to good kids everywhere!

Drunk as a ...

2010-08-17T20:39:00.007-04:00

Friend Ann, Sea Turtle Preservation Society volunteer extraordinaire, spends a lot of time on the beach during sea turtle nesting and hatching season, but this was a first for her. She described her experience thusly:

"This morning after survey when we were dumping our trash, we heard a hiss from the trash can. When Alex looked in the can, she saw this opposum staring at her. He was quite upset to have styrofoam thrown on him. We decided to tilt the can and let him out. First, lots of cans and bottles and alcohol-smelling liquid fell out, and then out came the possom, soaking wet and reeking of beer.

He staggered over to the sea grapes and eventually climbed up on a limb. At first we thought he was sick or injured, but he seemed to recover pretty quickly. "

Well, the title would have rhymed better if it had been a skunk, but we certainly thank Ann for saving the inebriated possum and sending us the photos!

WWII Anniversary

2010-08-14T20:47:00.005-04:00

Today marks the 65th anniversary of V-J Day - Victory over Japan, the end of WW II. This iconic photo speaks to the jublient crowds that rushed into New York's Times Square to celebrate after President Harry S. Truman announced the victory. (Photo by Victor Jorgensen, The Associated Press File, snagged from the Orlando Sentinel.) Friend Robin Chapman has an excellent post about V-J Day in her Robin Chapman News blog, as well as a guest post by historian Steve Thompson. When you finish with those two posts, be sure to wander around her blog a little - as a former TV news anchor, Robin has a real way with words!

As always, a grateful salute to all our warfighters, past and present.

Reference Links:

Robin Chapman News

Orlando Sentinel

More cabbages and kings

2010-08-08T13:50:00.000-04:00

"The time has come,' the Walrus said, "To talk of many things: Of shoes -- and ships -- and sealing wax -- Of cabbages -- and kings -- And why the sea is boiling hot -- And whether pigs have wings." (The Walrus an the Carpenter, Lewis Carroll)

It's a lovely, rainy Sunday afternoon (and we really need the rain) - a perfect time to catch up a little.

I often use Charlie Corbeil's beautiful photos on here. Many of those photos come from the Viera Wetlands, where Charlie can be found every morning and every evening, taking pictures and checking up on things. A couple of years ago, I introduced Charlie to a friend who at the time was the editor of Viera Voice, a local monthly newspaper. Thereafter, every issue had one of Charlie's photos in it. Recently, Viera Voice took it to the next level and produced a charming video featuring Charlie in the Wetlands. It's on YouTube, and the link is in Reference Links below. I was amazed at how "un-nervous" Charlie was - and his love of the area and the inhabitants comes through loud and clear! (The photo is one I took of Charlie and the Viera Wetlands sign featuring one of his photos.)

David McRee did a terrific post about Blair Witherington on his Blog the Beach site (link is likewise in Reference Links below). As faithful readers know, Blair and Dawn have spent their summer out on boats in the Gulf rescuing oiled sea turtles. I recently sent a card featuring one of Jim Angy's sea turtle hatchling photos to Fed Ex, with a note thanking them for their generous donation of resources to transport the coolers full of eggs from the Gulf Coast to Kennedy Space Center (see last couple of posts for a description of this monumental task). There's a link below to a Fed Ex site that describes the logistics involved in the transport - a very impressive effort. And the good part is, according to a recent story in Florida Today, it's working! The story reports that since 11 July, some 2,600 hatchlings have been released from KSC beaches. The eggs are hatching at an 80 percent to 95 percent rate, better than in the wild. An added bonus is the lack of artificial lighting on the beaches where the hatchlings are being released, so there's less disorientation.

I was so touched when co-workers in another state recently made a donation in my name to the Audubon Nature Institute Sea Turtle and Marine Mammal Response Fund for "rescuing, rehabilitating and successfully releasing stranded and injured sea turtles and marine mammals." The Beatles said it well - we get by with a little help from our friends.

Friend Marilyn and I attended the third annual Tour de Turtle release at the Barrier Island Center last Sunday. This event is sponsored by the Sea Turtle Conservancy (STC), formerly the Caribbean Conservation Corporation (CCC). The last two releases were over an hour after the advertised time of 8:00 a.m., so one had to hang around on a hot beach while the resin affixing the transmitter cured. So I suggested to Marilyn that we plan to arrive about 9:00. Well, wouldn't you know - as we pulled in, cars were pulling out. A quick-curing epoxy was used in place of the resin, and Hope (so named in a contest) swam out shortly after 8:00. The good news is that there was a record crowd of spectators (over 600), and we bought cool t-shirts. And ate a good breakfast at Friendly Toast on the way home. Check the STC link below for Hope's progress.

Reference Links:

Charlie Corbeil on You Tube

Blog the Beach post about hatchlings and Blair

FedEx participation in sea turtle egg relocation

Sea Turtle Conservancy

Catching Up

2010-07-05T19:27:00.012-04:00

Artist Vickie Henderson visited me a couple of weeks ago, and I was again reminded of the many natural wonders Brevard County has to offer. Thanks to friends Jim Angy, Wayne Matchett, Charlie Corbeil, Vince Lamb, and Dave Hotchberg (STPS), Vickie saw everything from beach sunrises to wildflowers to deer to sea turtles laying eggs. She took at least a million photos (never go on a nature walk with two photographers - every two steps, it's "oh look at this", and it's 95 degrees in the shade!). She brought some beautiful greeting cards featuring her field journal sketches of limpkins and scrub jays - just gorgeous. (I'll let you know when she figures out how to commercially produce and market them.) This was her first adventure with sea turtles, and I'm eager to see the artistic results! (Wayne took this photo of Vickie while they were investigating wildflowers at Wickham Park. See Related Links for his post about the trip.)

Dawn and Blair Witherington are again out on a boat involved in oiled sea turtle rescue - this time near Destin, Florida. Dawn's last email said that the rough weather was keeping them in port for the day, but they hoped to get back out soon. I've talked often and lovingly of Witherington's current book, Florida's Living Beaches, but Blair's earlier book, Sea Turtles: An Extraordinary Natural History of Some Uncommon Turtles, is perhaps more apropos at the moment.

In my last post, I provided a link to an article from the LA Times that spoke of burning the turtles along with the sargassum. Four non-profit agencies have sued to prevent that from continuing.

This photo of sea turtle eggs in a nest is one of Jim Angy's. The eggs are about the size of pingpong balls, with a leathery shell. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) is implementing a plan to excavate Gulf Coast sea turtle nests that are 49 days old (about 11 days prior to typical hatching), carefully put the eggs in specially constructed coolers lined with sand to simulate a nest, and haul the coolers via climate-controlled FedEx trucks to the facility at Kennedy Space Center that was used during the cold stun event. When the eggs hatch, the baby turtles will be released into the (hopefully and blessedly) oil-free ocean here in Brevard. A sea turtle nest will have about 100 eggs in it; there are typically about 700 nests in the affected area. That's 70,000 eggs! Along with everything else associated with this oil gusher, this is the first time anything like this has been attempted, and my hat is off to the folks at FWC who have put this plan together so quickly. Nobody loves the idea of moving eggs, but if they don't, all those babies are doomed as soon as they hit the water. I'll keep you posted. (Photo by Jim Angy)

Reference Links:

Vickie Henderson - A Slice of Florida's Space Coast

Sea Turtles: An Extraordinary Natural History of Some Uncommon Turtles (Blair Witherington)

Wickham Park Wildflower Safari

Oil Spill Burn Box

2010-06-17T19:56:00.005-04:00

As those who know them might expect, Dawn and Blair Witherington have been actively involved in sea turtle rescue necessitated by the Deep Horizon gusher in the Gulf of Mexico. Working from a boat with five others, Dawn described it simply as "horrible." She's back home, but Blair is still out there. The day after Dawn returned to Brevard, a reporter from the LA Times accompanied the rescuers on the boat and filed this story. Dawn says it describes everything perfectly. The story is called Death by Fire in the Gulf and starts out with "So-called burn boxes are torching oil from the water's surface at the sacrifice of turtles, crabs, sea slugs and other sea life."

I hate the effects of this gusher on the marinelife, but even more so, I'm so sorry that folks like Blair and Dawn, whose life purpose is to preserve and protect these critters and educate others about them, are being subjected to these horrors. This is a nature lover's war, and the scars will linger a long time. But Dawn shared her perspective thusly. She says there is a term for not being able to help - "compassion fatigue." She said that she was depressed before they went out there, and that while the whole thing was disturbing, being able to save turtles helped her mood a lot.

Here's looking at you, kids!

2010-06-13T19:30:00.010-04:00

I don't think visually, so when an image lingers in my mind, it's a strong one. That's the way I felt about Charlie Corbeil's photo of these Great Horned Owl chicks. After a day of seeing them in my head, I asked Charlie for permission to share the photo and for some details.

If he is in town, Charlie is at Viera Wetlands every morning and every evening, and this was his first sighting of a Great Horned Owl there. He tells me that the soft, light feathers on their foreheads identifies them as chicks. He says they were quite large, and he figures they flew from their nest tree to this palm tree. He first saw them last weekend while he was walking the roadway early in the morning . (Click on the photo to enlarge so you can spot the third chick.) They were still in the same position, same tree that afternoon, but gone the next morning, confirming his suspicion that they fledged their nest and were trying out their wings. He didn't ever see any adult Owl supervision.

I love this photo - thanks, Charlie! (See a link to his web site in Reference Links below.)

If you have not visited Wayne's Space Coast Wildflowers blog lately, be sure to do so - he added three new posts yesterday about beach wildflowers. Somehow, many of us think of the beach as a stretch of bare sand, but it's ever so much more.

Reference Links:

Charlie Corbeil Photography

Space Coast Wildflowers

Your Face in Space

2010-06-10T20:57:00.004-04:00

Cactus Jack and Caroline, this is for you!

NASA is encouraging people to send electronic images of their faces to fly into orbit aboard one of the two final remaining space shuttle missions.

To put your face in space, follow these directions:

1. Go to http://faceinspace.nasa.gov/
2. Upload your image or type in your name to be flown aboard a space shuttle.
3. Print and save the confirmation page.
4. After the mission, return to the website and print your "flight certificate."

You can read the whole story as it appeared in our local Florida Today newspaper here.

If you love wildflowers ...

2010-06-06T12:01:00.007-04:00

I'm delighted to announce a new blog that features the wildflowers of Brevard County, Florida. Long-time friend Wayne Matchett has gathered his hundreds of wildflower photos into one location - the result is Space Coast Wildflowers, and it's a dandy reference. Wayne has gone to considerable effort to provide locations, closeup and context photos, common and scientific names, reference material, and labels. (As you wildflower aficianados know, a closeup photo of a wildflower can make a tiny flower look really big, so having the context photos really gives you a sense of scale.) As the site's title notes, this is a growing collection. As I write this, Wayne and his wife are braving the heat and humidity to hunt for wildflowers in St. Sebastian River Preserve State Park.

My Eco blog has "field trip reports" on some of the locations Wayne has identified in his posts, but not all - he really gets around! At some point, we plan to collaborate on a four-fold reference brochure.

Wayne's contact information is on his site - if you have questions, corrections, or comments, he'll be pleased to hear from you.

On a separate note, today is the 66th anniversary of D-Day and the invasion that turned the tide of World War II. When I bought my Buddy Poppy for Memorial Day and thanked the elderly Veteran for his service, he said "Oh, that was a long time ago." I suspect he was a Korean War Vet. It's hard to believe the WW II vets are in their late 80s and 90s now. The Orlando Sentinel carried this story about the invasion and its terrible toll on the troops. As always, our thanks for Warfighters past and present.

A little cutie

2010-06-02T21:34:00.011-04:00

As best I can tell, critters understand that photographer friend Jim Angy means them no harm, so they just kind of go about their business while he happily snaps away. He dropped off a CD with some 179 images of this Sandhill Crane family, and I quickly grabbed some that made me smile. This particular baby is a natural-born model. (All photos by Jim Angy)

Mom - is that my brother in there?

Whoa - it's a big world out there!

Oh boy - what did I do wrong this time?

I don't think I like this bath stuff!

Now this is what I call a really nice featherbed!

Good night, Mom

Memorial Day 2010

2010-05-30T20:44:00.006-04:00

Last year on Memorial Day, I used this postcard from friend Robin Chapman's collection of vintage cards. I'm using it again this year, but please go to Robin's site for more cards and an excellent post about the history of Memorial Day. Robin Chapman News

Meanwhile, as always, a heartfelt salute to our Warfighters, past and present.

Limpkin Love

2010-05-17T20:33:00.008-04:00

Just when you think there is no good news to be found ...

Thanks to Charlie Corbeil for making this Monday sweeter with his beautiful pictures of Limpkin chicks and their Mom. This little family makes their home at Viera Wetlands.

You can see more of Charlie's pix at http://www.pbase.com/charlie_corbeil

Thanks, Charlie!

Atlantis Soars One Last Time

2010-05-14T20:46:00.022-04:00

NASA did it again - STS-132 Atlantis lifted off at 2:20 this afternoon on its final scheduled mission, carrying six astronauts and headed for the International Space Station. (NASA Photo)

It was a beautiful day for a launch, as you can see in these photos that friend Wayne snapped from Satellite Beach. (Photos by Wayne Matchett - click to enlarge)

Gone with the wind ...

Atlantis has been in service for nearly 25 years and has flown 115 million miles. The mission patch says it all - a shuttle headed into the sunset.

Cabbages and Kings

2010-05-10T19:21:00.016-04:00

"The guys" have been telling me for two years that Gatorland is a photographer's paradise, and indeed have brought back the photos to prove it. So one lovely Sunday morning a few weekends ago, friend Marilyn and I headed over to see for ourselves. It has been 40 years since I visited Gatorland, and boy, has it changed! Gatorland was the brainchild of Mr. Godwin, who financed its creation in the 1940s by loading a big alligator into a trailer and hauling it up the east coast, charging folks a nickle to peek at the critter. If I recall correctly, Gatorland was originally about 6 acres - it is now about 116 acres, much of it swamp full of alligators and what seems to be thousands of birds. You wander through on excellent boardwalks, and there is also a little train with a driver/guide. It is still a family-owned business, with the four Godwin children in charge. Folks that work there are "down home" friendly. The bird rookery is stunning, and you'll see nearly as many photographers as birds! These are Florida birds, so of course they strike a pose every time they see a lens pointed towards them. I'll do a full trip report for Space Coast Eco one of these days soon, but here are a couple of my photos - not the quality of those by Jim, Matt, and Charlie, but I sure had fun taking them. (click to enlarge.) Check their web site for entry fees, hours, specials, etc.

Speaking of birds, Margie writes that the terns and skimmers are returning to Cocoa Beach. Faithful readers will recall the skimmers that nested on the beach last year. So far, no nests on the beach this year, but the signs and the monitors are ready.

Sea turtle nesting season started officially on May 1, so if you live along the beach, remember that sea turtles dig the dark!

We are all so in hopes that the oil spill does not impact our beaches or our critters. David McCree has a couple of excellent posts on his Blog The Beach (see link below) about the oil spill status and where to get up-to-date information. Ludi, beach blogger for the Orlando Sentinel (see link below), reports that two birds rescued from the Gulf oil spill were released today at Pelican Island just to the south of us.

That's it for now - time to go watch the Orlando Magic sweep the Atlanta Hawks! GO MAGIC!

Reference Links:

Gatorland

Blog the Beach

Orlando Sentinel Beach Beat

Welcome Home, Discovery!

2010-04-20T20:01:00.007-04:00

After a one-day weather delay, Space Shuttle Discovery, STS-131, landed at Kennedy Space Center at 9:09 this morning. The entry path was from the northwest, and I didn't hear any sonic booms (darn it). The successful 15 day, 6.2 million mile mission delivered over 7 tons of equipment to the International Space Station.

Photo credit NASA/Bill Ingalls

The Tax Man Cometh

2010-04-15T16:13:00.002-04:00

Go Discovery!

2010-04-05T20:41:00.000-04:00

Space Shuttle Discovery blasted off at 6:21 this morning, an hour before sunrise. These photos by Wayne Matchett are hot off the digital press, so to speak. We usually show a NASA photo of liftoff, but here you see the launch as you would if you were standing in Wayne's yard in Satellite Beach. The first is the moon before launch, followed by a pic shortly after liftoff, then one after the solid rocket booster (SRB) separation (the shuttle is the white circle, the SRBs falling away are the little orange things). Click to enlarge.

According to NASA's excellent site, Discovery will carry a multi-purpose logistics module filled with science racks for the laboratories aboard the station. The mission has three planned spacewalks, with work to include replacing an ammonia tank assembly, retrieving a Japanese experiment from the station’s exterior, and switching out a rate gyro assembly on the S0 segment of the station’s truss structure. STS-131 will be the 33rd shuttle mission to the station. I'm still in denial that the shuttle program is fast nearing its conclusion.

I live in the middle of the first green of a former golf course. About four years ago, the course was sold to a developer, who planned to build 350+ houses on it. Between lawsuits and the economy, nothing has happened (thankfully), except of course the formerly green landscape has gone to weeds. However, this Spring, we've been treated to fields of purple! Nobody knows why, and I didn't know what these little flowers were, but Wayne came to my rescue yet again. He has identified the plants as Blue Toadflax, and provided this closeup photo to augment my shot above. Such a beautiful addition to our landscape should have a more glamorous name, somehow. Blue Toadflax is technically a weed, but I'm grateful for the smile this purple carpet brings every time I drive past it.

We're coming up fast on sea turtle nesting season, and the Sea Turtle Preservation Society has announced its training classes for the Sea Turtle Emergency Response Program (STERP): 1) Sat. May 8th, Cocoa Beach library 9:30-11:30 am, 2) Monday May 17th, Schechter Community Center, Satellite Beach 6:00- 8:00 pm, and 3) Saturday July 17th, Satellite Beach 9:30-11:30. (You must attend one of the workshops to be a STERP volunteer.) Call the STPS office for more information: 321-676-1701.

Joyous Easter!

2010-04-03T10:13:00.003-04:00

May the joy and promise of Spring and Easter be yours.

(Photo by Jim Angy)

Signs of Spring

2010-03-29T06:32:00.015-04:00

This year, we're actually having a change of seasons here in Florida - instead of just sliding from Winter into Spring, there are actually signs of Spring. Trees are leafing out, I've seen some anoles skittering around, lifeguards are back on the beaches, and it's warm enough some days to watch the Florida Nationals spring training.

In Spring, a young man's fancy turns to love, as evidenced in Charlie Corbeil's beautiful photo of courting Anghinas in nuptial plumage.

Charlie is the "gym rat" of the Viera Wetlands and sent along these new signs establishing the Wetland's hours of operation. (Sorry about the gym rat designation, Charlie - I've overloaded on March Madness basketball, yet another sign of Spring.)

The Sea Turtle Preservation Society works on behalf of the sea turtles year-around, but really kicks it into high gear as nesting season approaches. Good friend Paula Berntson, Paula Berntson, Brevard County Natural Resources Management, is the featured speaker at this month's STPS General Membership meeting. Paula Berntson, Brevard County NaturalResources Management. She'll talk about her particular passion, "Coastal Challenges in Brevard County- Beaches, Lighting, & Sea Turtles.” The meeting will be held at the Melbourne Beach Community Center this coming Thursday, April 1, with socializing at 7:00 and meeting at 7:30.

You may recall that artist friend Vickie visited during the Birding and Wildlife Festival and has already produced some dandy art featuring Brevard birds. She's started a new blog (see Related Links below) about sketching that promises to be a dandy.

Off to work, so I'll wish you a good Monday morning and leave you with another of Charlie's photos, this one of a Great Blue Heron with nesting material - yet another sign of Spring.

Related Links
Charlie Corbeil Photography

Vickie Henderson Art

Vickie's Sketchbook

Space Coast Eco (our Viera Wetlands post)

Catching Up

2010-02-15T19:39:00.016-05:00

Where to start? Where did January go? Half of February? I'm still writing 2009 on my checks.

I missed wishing everybody a Happy Valentine's Day and displaying my favorite Valentine photo by Jim Angy.

There was an excellent night launch of STS-130 on 8 February (actually 4:14 a.m. - lit up the sky, as you can see) - the last night launch. As I write this, all is going well as the crew installs what is described as a seven-window cupola during this 14-day mission. (Photo by NASA)

I had a delightful guest during the Space Coast Birding and Wildlife Festival. Photographer/artist Vickie Henderson came down before the Festival started, and friends Charlie Corbeil and Vince Lamb showed her the local birding sites. She had a great time - every day, she'd come home with tales of scrub jays sitting on her hat or otters playing at Viera Wetlands. I'll bet she took 2,000 photographs (and that's probably a conservative estimate). She's a brilliant sketch artist and watercolorist, and wait until you see her posts on the Florida Scrub Jay and the Wood Stork! Absolutely beautiful. She gifted me with one of her gourd bowls - that will be the topic of a post all by itself, but you can see her gourd art and watch a tutorial on her site. (Link at end of the post under Reference Links)

The Saturday of the Festival, we picked up Margie Mitchell in Cocoa Beach and made a quick trip to Canaveral Lock and Avocet Lagoon prior to heading to Titusville in time for Vickie to attend her Kingfisher workshop. The Lock had a wonderful gathering of Brown Pelicans and lots of snook. I was born and raised in South Dakota, where the only fish I ate were trout, and that was in July, so I'm not a fish expert by any means, but Margie tells us that snook is wonderful eating. The catch limit on snook is limited, and unfortunately, we lost thousands of snook during the cold stun event. Avocet Lagoon had too much water and too few birds, but it appears that the overlook tower is going to become a reality at some point.

The Birding and Wildlife Festival gets bigger every year. Friend David McRee blogged professionally for the Festival this year, and there's a Reference Link to his excellent wrapup post. We didn't see the Raptor show, but one end of the exhibit area was devoted to the Raptor Exhibit. These were all beautiful birds, but the Golden Eagle was, in the old-fashioned usage of the term, awesome! Margie snapped this photo of him, but you had to be there to really appreciate this beautiful creature.

Matt and I attended the Sea Turtle Preservation Society meeting that focused on the cold stun event - the FWC folks are still crunching the numbers, but nearly 5,000 sea turtles were rescued during the event, with about half of those in Brevard County. The mortality rate was about 20%, with many of those washing in dead. The meeting was excellent, with folks sharing their personal rescue experiences. Matt videoed it, and as soon as we get stuff processed, we'll put up some clips. I hope the segment about how to get a 300 pound sea turtle out of the water turns out - necessity is the mother of invention, for sure!

Take care, and stay warm.

Reference Links:
Vickie Henderson Art

Charlie Corbeil Photography

Vince Lamb Photography

Blog the Beach (David McRee's wrapup of the Birding Festival)

Cold Stun Wrapup (FWC)

Sea Turtle Preservation Society Meeting

2010-01-31T20:44:00.006-05:00

The Sea Turtle Preservation Society was an active participant during the recent cold stun event, and this month's meeting on Thurday night, February 4, will focus on the experience. Here's your invitation to the meeting, courtesy of Flipper Flash:

On Thursday, February 4, you are invited to attend the STPS General Membership Meeting to be held at the Melbourne Beach Community Center. The theme for the evening is the timely topic of the January 2010 Sea Turtle Cold Stun Event. Beginning at 7:00 PM, refreshments will be served as a series of photographs highlighting the Cold Stun Event in the area is displayed. The photos are courtesy of Ursula Dubrick. Our program begins at 7:30 PM, with the following speakers and topics.

1. Mike Splitt – The Meteorological Explanation for a Cold Stun Event (10 minutes). Mike is a Meteorology Professor at the Florida Institute of Technology, and he will discuss the evolution of the deep freeze and some historic perspective.

2. Karrie Minch - The Cold Stun Event from the State's Perspective (45 minutes). Karrie is the Wildlife Technician, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, Fish and Wildlife Research Institute, Sea Turtle Stranding and Salvage Network, Indian River Field Lab. Her presentation includes: a. What is a cold stun event, b. What effect did it have on the sea turtles, and c. Description of statewide cold stun efforts.

3. Roger Pszonowski - The Role of the STPS Stranding Team from Rescue to Release (15 minutes). Roger is the new STPS Stranding Team Coordinator.

4. Unique stories about the event (15 minutes) from STPS Stranding Team members: a. Beth Stuckey - Boating Rescue, and b. Cindy Dolaway - Water Rescue Video

5. Questions and Answers

This event is free and open to the public.

After the cold

2010-01-20T19:27:00.011-05:00

Florida's weather is getting back to normal, after a week of record-breaking temperatures that affected people and critters alike (although like the rest of you, I feel guilty complaining about ANYTHING when I read of the devestation in Haiti). When last I wrote, the sea turtle rescue effort was just getting started, and I spoke in terms of a couple of hundred - turns out that some 4,000+ sea turtles were rescued in the state, and the majority were from Volusia and Brevard counties. It was a herculean rescue effort headed up by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) folks, aided by hundreds of volunteers ranging from organizations like our friends at the Sea Turtle Preservation Society (STPS) and Brevard Zoo to the duck hunters described in Bill Sargent's article in Florida Today newspaper (see Related Links below).

Turtle photographer extraordinaire, Jim Angy, has provided us with some wonderful pix of rescues and releases. I'll compile them into a slideshow soon, but I wanted to share a couple with you now. This first one is of a truckbed full of cold-stunned sea turtles, mostly greens. FWC examined, weighed, measured, tagged, and logged EVERY rescued turtle. The poor cold creatures were then parsed out to any facility that could provide a warm environment for them. Indeed, this logistical effort will provide stories for years to come, along with tales of kind people who kept the sea turtles' eyes sprayed with water and provided whatever other creature comforts they could. (I'm one of those people who firmly believes that creatures know and appreciate those who are trying to help. I also believe Heaven is run by critters, children, and old people, but that's another story.)

This next photo shows STPS friend Roger releasing an eager sea turtle back into the Lagoon south of Sebastian Inlet later in the week, once the waters started to warm up. Jim tells me the turtles took off like bullets once they hit the water.

However, this one lingered for a glamour shot!

Our thanks and sincere admiration to all who participated in this rescue effort, and special recognition to FWC for their ability to react so quickly, efficiently, and effectively.

Related Links:

Bill Sargent's story in Florida Today

Cold Critters

2010-01-10T13:28:00.015-05:00

We've had record-breaking cold for an extended period of time, and our critters are not used to it. Friend Blair Witherington can be seen in a video (see Reference Links below) about cold-stunned sea turtles pulled from Mosquito Lagoon at Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge (MINWR). According to an alert sent out by the Sea Turtle Preservation Society, the Marine Science Center in Volusia County had received some 300 for rehab as of yesterday. In South Brevard, thankfully we have not had those numbers, but 13 were rescued yesterday, and this morning started out with a rescue at Long Point Park. Those of you in Brevard County - if you find a sea turtle that needs help, call the STPS at 321-768-1701.

Meanwhile, the manatees have sought refuge in a drainage ditch close to friend Wayne Matchett's house in Satellite Beach. This many manatees in this accessible a location is big news, and there have been a variety of print and tv stories about it - one issue is that it is illegal to feed them, but that's not stopping people from doing it, trespassing on private property to see them, etc. As is usual, it's not the critters that are the problem! We thank Wayne for sharing his wonderful pix, legally obtained!

All I know is, I've been in Florida since the early 1960s, and this is the first time I remember the water in my bird bath being frozen! Most of our wild birds, however, do not seem too bothered. Wayne sent photos from a drive he and Julie took through MINWR, and at least this roseate spoonbill is not wrapped in its snuggy. (They stopped at Sunrise Bakery on US #1 in Titusville, on that southbound stretch of Hopkins that goes through downtown - he tells me their breads are excellent. They dined at Dixie Crossroads, always a favorite. A field trip that includes beautiful birds, good food, and fresh bread sounds like a winner to me.)

From the Gulf Coast, this news from friend Suzi Fox, sea turtle volunteer extraordinaire. Permit holders from Lee and Collier counties rescued an adult leatherback sea turtle and transported it to Mote Marine Laboratory Rehab Hospital. I'm going to wait and do a separate post on this later this week - the press release had a thorough writeup about leatherbacks, and I want to share the whole thing with you.

As always, a salute to the many volunteers helping our critters through this disruption.

Reference Links:
Cold-stunned sea turtle video with Blair in it

Marine Science Center (press release about cold-stunned sea turtles and birds)

Sunrise Bakery

Mote Marine Laboratory (includes information about the rescued leatherback)

2010 - Bring it ON!

2010-01-01T12:50:00.015-05:00

Prior to Christmas, Charlie Corbeil sent this beautiful photo of a masked duck that has taken up residence at Viera Wetlands. According to Wikipedia, these smallish stiff-tailed ducks reside primarily in Mexico, South America, and the Caribbean and are generally non-migratory. They are rarely seen in our neck of the woods. Charlie tells me there was a female masked duck in the Viera Wetlands three years ago, and hundreds of birders from all over came to see it. This one is a drake, and we're lucky that Charlie saw it and got this beautiful photograph before the hordes began decending on the Wetlands again. (Right after Christmas, the Brevard Natural Resources Management Offices reported numerous traffic problems attributed to folks coming to see the duck.) The first one three years ago stayed about six weeks, so perhaps this little guy will hang around for the Space Coast Birding and Wildlife Festival, January 27 - February 1! (As aways, our continuing thanks to Charlie for sharing his talent with us so graciously.)

Speaking of the Festival, be sure to visit Blog the Beach (see Reference Links below) - David is posting professionally for the Festival this year and has done several excellent posts about field trips and speakers.

I took a look at what I wrote on January 1, 2009 - it was about Ann Zscheille's trip to The Turtle Hospital for a rehab workshop. She went again this year, and her visit reminds me to tell you that Sandy, the Hawksbill from St. Croix that was attacked by dogs while laying her eggs on the beach, flown to the United States, and treated at The Turtle Hospital, recovered after a full year of treatment and was flown back to St. Croix and released. How's that for a great success story! Kudos to all involved, including American Airlines, who brought Sandy to Florida when she was injured and flew her and Turtle Hospital personnel back to St. Croix for her release. (See Reference Links below).

It's a rainy, quiet day here on this first day of 2010 - perfect for making resolutions and being retrospective, but I'm not fond of either activity, so I'll watch football and wallow in a day of laziness. Here in Central Florida, we're being held hostage by the battle between Time Warner Cable and Fox, so we still don't know if we'll see the media-flagellated drama that is the Gators in tonight's Sugar Bowl. Right now, I'm going to go watch Bobby Bowden's last game, not because I'm an FSU fan, but out of respect for an icon that's been treated poorly - what classless treatment of a classy coach.

But whether we get to watch the game tonight or not ...

GO GATORS!

REFERENCE LINKS:

Charlie Corbeil Photography

Happy Holidays

2009-12-25T07:19:00.000-05:00

Last year's holiday greeting featured Charlie Corbeil's beautiful photo of a Florida mockingbird and a balsam apple. Once again, Charlie has shared his Christmas card with us - this year's photo is of a lodgepole pine, and it was taken at Yellowstone National Park (in July, fortunately - I'm certain it is buried in show right now). Charlie writes that because the trunk of this tree is long and straight, the natives and early settlers used them to build their shelters. Indeed, its name reflects its use in American Indian tepee lodges.

As always, we're grateful for Charlie's prodigious talent and generous nature. You can see more of Charlie's work at his web site, Charlie Corbeil Photography.

Christmas Eve 41 years ago

2009-12-24T08:00:00.006-05:00

This may look familiar to faithful readers, as it is a repeat of last year's Christmas Eve post ... it's my favorite "night before Christmas" story. marge

Forty-one years ago, Apollo 8 was launched from Cape Kennedy on Dec. 21 and entered lunar orbit on Christmas Eve. So many "firsts" and so many technological accomplishments, but the lingering memory is of the astronauts (Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, and William Anders) beaming a television program from orbit to earth on Christmas Eve, during which they read from the Book of Genesis. They timed their broadcast to show the planet Earth hanging in the blackness of space and the surface of the moon visible in the lower left corner. At the time, the broadcast was the most watched TV program ever. In addition to our profound appreciation to NASA for its many technological achievements, we must also recognize their extraordinary sense of history and documentation that allows us to relive Apollo 8. Here, then, is that timeless greeting from the crew of Apollo 8, illustrated by NASA's photo entitled Rising Earth.

William Anders: "For all the people on Earth, the crew of Apollo 8 has a message we would like to send you. " "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness."

Jim Lovell: "And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day. And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so. And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day."

Frank Borman: "And God said, Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so. And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good."

Borman then added, "And from the crew of Apollo 8, we close with good night, good luck, a Merry Christmas, and God bless all of you - all of you on the good Earth."

Holiday Wishes

2009-12-20T10:06:00.010-05:00

When Ann forwarded this Christmas greeting, it took me all of five seconds to decide to email the artist to request her permission to share it with you. Nini and Michael Conner are Sea Turtle Preservation Society members that started their sea turtle volunteer work in Ann's STERP program and have since expanded into nest survey and education activities. Nini did the artwork, and Michael came up with the title (I'll bet it reflects a wry sense of humor). Perfect!

My thanks to the Conners for permission to share their card. They added their wish for good will to all creatures great and small, and I echo that wish.

NASA does it again

2009-11-16T20:59:00.004-05:00

STS-129, Space Shuttle Atlantis lifted off on time today. This 11-day mission carries equipment to the space station and brings back Nicole Stott, who has spent the last two months living on the space station. It is inconceivable to think that there are only five of these launches remaining.

(Photo by NASA)

Veteran's Day 2009

2009-11-10T20:32:00.005-05:00

I'm looking forward to hosting my Fourth Annual Veteran's Day lunch tomorrow. Attendees will be co-worker veteran friends, and it's always a privilege to honor their former military service. We hold this luncheon at Loreen's Cafe, which is decorated year-around with flags, red, white, and blue, and anything and everything patriotic! (Eagle photo by Jim Angy, illustration by Matt MacQueen)

In the very early days of the Iraq war, I led an effort of co-workers in supporting a Battalion stationed in Iraq that used equipment manufactured by our employer. We did "parties in a box" - a great NFL Kicks off in Iraq party, as well as Halloween, 4th of July, and Christmas parties. Now, several years later, we're getting ready to adopt a platoon in Afganistan, and it's interesting to see the "wants" have not changed that much, except to add hand warmers to the list!

Tomorrow, we'll honor the warfighter, past and present. To all, thank you for your service.

Taking a Break

2009-10-25T20:26:00.003-04:00

I make lists of things to do. Last week, as I was making my to-do list, I realized that blogging had moved from "want to" to "have to."

When I returned to the workforce in July (I'm a technical writer and spend most of my days hunched over a computer), I knew it would interfere with my blogging. I've tried various approaches - getting up at 5:00 in the morning to write (aargh), writing three or four posts on Sunday and then publishing them during the week. But the fact remains that something from which I have derived so much pleasure in the past now feels like just more work.

So I'm taking a blogging sabbatical, so to speak - a break until that day when I think - Wow! I can't wait to write about that!

The Eyes Have It

2009-10-23T07:27:00.000-04:00

After my fairly casual explanation of Matt's beautiful alligator eyeball photo, Blair sent a more accurate description and this photo of a Cuban tree frog's eye. One of the great things about Blair is his ability to make scientific stuff understandable, as you'll readily see in the following:

Most of what we see in Matt’s astounding photo is the alligator’s iris. Like many animals, alligators have an iris that is reflective (like a mirror) as well as pigmented. When we stare into an alligator’s eyes with the light directly behind us, we get the same effect we see in highway reflector studs illuminated by our car headlights. Some of the pattern is from vessels supplying the iris. Note the vessels and coppery reflectance of the Cuban tree frog’s eye.

This iris reflectance keeps unwanted light (like from the bright sun) from entering the eye. At night, another reflector that alligators have actually enhances the light available for them to see. This reflector is the tapetum lucidum, right behind the retina. It’s what makes alligator eyes shine red at night, a time when their pupils are wide open.

I hope you will remember all this the next time you find yourself staring into an alligator's eyes!

A kind neighbor made sure my little Italian Greyhound princess did not go without food while I was spending long days at the sea-bean symposium, and I gave her Blair and Dawn's book, Florida's Living Beaches: A Guide for the Curious Beachcomber, as a thank-you. She is totally captivated and has started a list of people she plans to buy copies for.

As always, our thanks to Blair for sharing his expertise and his photos.

Here's looking at you, kid!

2009-10-20T20:42:00.008-04:00

Matt MacQueen took this beautiful closeup of a juvenile alligator eye. Matt and I both did some research to see what caused the unusual eyeball pattern and came up with zilch, so we asked Blair Witherington what he thought. Blair opined that it was not related to the age of the gator so much as it was to the amount of outside light being reflected back out of the inside of the alligator's eye, back-lighting the maze of blood vessels in the eye. (If you search on alligator eyeballs, you get hits for one of my favorite sayings - When you're up to your eyeballs in alligators, it's hard to remember that your objective is to drain the swamp!)

That explanation is good enough for me, and I know I love the photo. (Click to enlarge)

14th Annual

2009-10-16T21:16:00.005-04:00

The 14th Annual Sea-Bean Symposium is off to a great start. We had good crowds today, with standing room only for the presentations. In this first photo, Ed Perry is finishing his presentation about beach walking - Ed is a life-long resident of Brevard County, a Park Ranger, and a confirmed beach rat, so he knows whereof he speaks!

In the afternoon, STPS Volunteers Ann and Adrienne tag-teamed to talk about sea turtles of Florida's East Coast and the Sea Turtle Emergency Response Program (STERP) that we've told you about. Adrienne is holding the bucket that STERP volunteers carry to collect washbacks. These two ladies started this successful and innovative program, and in its second year, there are 189 volunteers that can be rallied by a phone call in case of a washback event.

Tomorrow is the Bean-a-Thon in the morning, Blair Witherington speaking at 2:00, and Curt Ebbesmeyer speaking at 7:45 (after the Bean-a-Thon winners are announced). Good fun!

Haiku, anyone?

2009-10-14T06:37:00.000-04:00

This wonderfully peaceful sunrise photo by Charlie Corbeil simply begs for a haiku. I'm a technical writer with a limited imagination, but here's my shot at one - I hope some of you fearless readers will provide more fitting verses. Meanwhile, click on the photo to enlarge it, then meditate!

reeds in the sunrise
another day beginning
and the game is on

Charlie Corbeil Photography

The Rescue of Wilbur the Washback, Continued

2009-10-12T20:33:00.016-04:00

Yesterday's post spoke of Wilbur washing up on our beach, far from his home in the Sargasso, and luckily being rescued by a Sea Turtle Preservation Society STERP volunteer. Wilbur and his fellow washbacks were transported in the snazzy STPS truck shown here to the Marine Science Center in Ponce Inlet, the nearest facility licensed to treat sea turtles.

Once there, Wilbur was greeted by Tammy, a sea turtle rehab specialist and one of our conservation heroes. Her exam showed that Wilbur was exhausted and dehydrated, but otherwise in good condition. Wilbur then:

got weighed (Wilbur weighed 24 grams, or .87 oz),

got measured (Wilbur was 5.6 centimeters, a little over 2 inches) ,

got fluids (ouch),

and joined his friends for lettuce and a little "rest and relaxation" so he can build his strength back up. Then he'll be ferried back out to the Sargasso and released, hopefully to lead a long and peaceful life.

A lot of people made a difference in the life of one little turtle - our thanks to them and to animal rescuers everywhere. Special thanks to Ann for sharing her story and photos.

The Rescue of Wilbur the Washback

2009-10-12T06:18:00.011-04:00

I've written before about Ann, Sea Turtle Preservation Society volunteer extraordinaire. Ann's passion is sea turtles in general, and hatchlings and washbacks in particular. For the non-turtlers amongst you, a hatchling is a new-born. Hatchlings are born with a yolk sack that provides their source of nutrition as they head out on their 20+ mile swim to the Sargasso weed line, where they will make their home for several years. Washbacks are baby turtles that have already started or completed their swim to the Sargasso, using up their yolk sack, and have been washed back in during a storm. They lack the strength and food source to swim back out, and that's where Ann and her STERP team come in. Ann developed STERP (Sea Turtle Emergency Response Program) two seasons ago. Now, during a washback event, STERP volunteers are mobilized via a phone call to find these little critters so they can be transported to the Marine Science Center in Ponce Inlet for evaluation, rehab, transport back out to the Sargasso, and release.

Ann will be talking about STERP during her Friday afternoon presentation (2:00) at the 14th Annual Sea-Bean Symposium. Meanwhile, she's provided us with some photos to use as a preview. This is Part I - we'll do Part II tomorrow.

In this first photo, a STERP volunteer prepares to search through the wrackline (the seaweed that has washed up) for washbacks. Remember that these are just little critters, a couple of inches long, with protective coloration - sort of like finding a needle in a haystack. Volunteers are not allowed to use sticks to poke through the seaweed, so this is a back-breaking work of love.

And here's Wilbur, washed ashore during a storm. Ann describes his state of mind thusly: Everything happened so fast, Wilbur is dazed. Where is he? What happened to the ocean? Then Wilbur begins to recognize where he is. He is back on the beach amongst the seaweed. Without water, the seaweed traps Wilbur even more. He is exhausted, hungry and dehydrated. He no longer has the energy to crawl back to the ocean, much less to swim 20 miles back to his safe haven in the sargassum. The birds are searching the seaweed for food. The sun is beating down on him.

Wilbur is one of the lucky washbacks - a STERP volunteer will find him, put him in a bucket with a nice damp towel, and transport him to the Marine Resource Center in Ponce Inlet. What happens there will be the topic of tomorrow's post.

Cathie Katz, The Sea-Bean Lady

2009-10-07T05:35:00.002-04:00

(Note: Long-time readers may recognize this as an updated reprint of a post I ran a year ago, prior to our 13th Annual Sea-Bean Symposium. New readers, I'd like you to know about Cathie.)

The late Cathie Katz was friend, mentor, and muse who wrote wonderful books (including The Nature of Florida's Beaches), started an international organization of sea-bean lovers called The Drifters who hold the annual Sea-Bean Symposium, and inspired all who knew her.

Cathie lost her battle with cancer in 2001, but she left a legacy of books, friends, and traditions. Shortly after her death, Ed Perry led the effort to have a sea-bean named in her honor, and the common name for the Canavalia nitida shown here is now Cathie's Bean. (Photos by Jim Angy)

Cathie and Jim Angy were close friends, and Jim provided the photographs for some of Cathie's book covers. For her memorial service, he wrote a poem titled The Nature of my Questions that began with these words:

"Considering how vast the shoreline truly is …
What wind, what current, what tide
Allowed us to end up on this same beach?
In a sea of strangers, how did we become such close friends?"

Our 14th Annual Sea-Bean Symposium will kick off Friday, October 16. We'll see close friends, many of whom have attended every symposium, either as a visitor or a speaker/exhibitor, and we'll make new friends who will be amazed at just how warm and friendly this event is. And we'll take time to think of Cathie. She loved the beach and everything on it, and credited her first sighting of a sea turtle laying eggs with changing her life's direction. Knowing her changed ours.

A chamber of commerce weekend

2009-10-04T19:40:00.012-04:00

We have had a touch of Fall in the air this past week - one morning, it was actually down to 63 degrees when the little princess and I took our before-dawn walk. Still getting into the high 80s during the day, but at least there is hope for moderation here soon.

Meanwhile, it was a beautiful weekend. Cocoa Beach had its first airshow, and it was apparently a huge success, with some 30,000 folks crowding onto the beach each day to watch such events as the Golden Knights skydivers, an F-22 Raptor, a water rescue demonstration by the 920th Rescue Wing from Patrick Air Force Base, and a variety of other airplane related performances. Margie sent these pix, with this note: Perfect day to watch loud airplanes over the water. :)

Friday, I attended a meeting at the Brevard Zoo and snapped a few photos of little kids having a simply wonderful time in the Paws On exhibit. I hope this picture gives you an idea of just how carefree an environment this is. We'll talk more about the Zoo later, probably in our Space Coast Eco blog, but it was such a lovely day in such a delightful place that I wanted to share the feeling.

I hope your weekend was similarly mellow, wherever you are. Blog the Beach friends David and Sue spent their weekend getting married, so best wishes to them!

If it has legs ...

2009-10-01T06:50:00.003-04:00

... don't put it in the ocean!

Margie found this beautiful little gopher tortoise on the beach early yesterday morning. What, you may well ask, is a gopher tortoise doing on the beach? Blair and Dawn Witherington's book, Florida's Living Beaches, tells us that gopher tortoises dig burrows in sandy scrub habitat, including coastal dunes, and that they may wander onto beaches, but rarely feed there.

Margie adds: There are some living in the dunes here and there. I've seen them wandering on the beach before. The unfortunate ones are misidentified by beach-goers as sea turtles and "helped" into the ocean. This little guy today was pretty far from the dune line when I saw him. He was down in last week's dried wrack, right next to a big ghost crab hole. At first I thought maybe the crab had dragged him there and he was injured, so I picked him up to see. He was ok and tried to run away, so I could see all his legs were working fine. At that point I figured I might as well "help" him get home, so I took him up to the dune line and put him down near a bay bean plant (sometimes called a beach pea), which is when I took the photos. When last seen, he was motoring west into the thick dune, using his sturdy little legs. (Be sure to click on the photo to enlarge it - baby gopher turtles are such pretty little creatures.)

As luck would have it, Jim has this photo of a loggerhead sea turtle hatchling, posing near a railroad vine. Good looking flippers, handy to have when swimming. (Click on photo so you can see the fancy white trim on his little flippers.)

The moral of this story is, if it has flippers, it's a sea turtle. If it has legs, it's not, and don't put it in the water!

If the shoe fits ...

2009-09-29T06:54:00.000-04:00

Margie sent this photo a few weeks ago, along with this note: Attached is a photo of some, but not all, of the shoes I picked up in just a couple of hours this morning. The seaweed is beginning to come in pretty thick and is, as usual, full of floating shoes. All of the shoes in the photo are drifters, not the ones forgotten on the beach by visitors. I get a lot of those, too. (For you new readers, Margie is the beach coordinator for the City of Cocoa Beach, and mornings will find her tooling up and down the beach on her four-wheeler, picking up everything from injured critters to launch trash.)

Curt Ebbesmeyer had Bill Blazek and Margie documenting drift shoes for a while. Margie notes: Bill may still be doing it, but I quit after about three years. Curt was interested in whether certain beaches attract left or right shoes. I collected over 500 shoes and kept a spread sheet with an entry every day I found any drift shoes. My data showed no statistical difference between the arrival of lefts and rights, but Curt eventually concluded, from what data I don't know, that there are left and right beaches. If I remember correctly, he mentions it in his book. I know I've heard him say it in a talk.

Curt is the keynote speaker at this year's Sea-Bean Symposium, so I'll be sure to ask him. Meanwhile, there are pages and pages of Internet "hits" for Curtis Ebbesmeyer - here's a good one that talks about his shoe theory.

A day without Florida orange juice ...

2009-09-27T16:39:00.015-04:00

... is a day without sunshine!

I am addicted to fresh Florida orange juice. I have a freezer in the garage dedicated primarily to freezing enough Hamlin oranges to last from mid-May to mid-October. I don't wash or juice the oranges - I just freeze them, a layer at a time so nothing gets squished, then take out a couple every night, thaw them in the refrigerator, scrub them, and juice them for breakfast. This does not work as well if you want to eat them, as freezing changes the texture, but if you just want juice - perfect! Just like fresh-picked. I get my Hamlins from a local grove that (thanks to a wonderful owner) has not been turned into a development. This photo is of what's left in my freezer - should last until Mr. Tyler opens his grove.

I'm also addicted to cantaloupe, and we're coming to the end of the season. (I don't eat imports.) Cantaloupe gets mushy if you freeze and thaw it, so I experimented this year with eating it frozen, and it's pretty good! For those of you interested in trying it, here's my process. Peel, seed, and chunk a cantaloupe that has ripened on your countertop for a few days after you buy it. (It should smell like ripe canteloupe at the stem end, and the skin should start puckering just a little bit.) Put a flexible plastic cutting board on a sheet pan and spread your cantaloupe chunks on it, not touching. Freeze.

I use a Food Saver system that sucks the air out of the bags, but you can use a zip lock bag or whatever you like. It's nice if somebody holds the bag when you're ready to fill it with frozen chunks. Grab the edges of the flexible cutting board and fold towards the center. Voila - the chunks will release from the cutting board and you can funnel everything into the waiting bag. I think these frozen chunks will be a dandy treat this winter.

1,202 winners - and one loser!

2009-09-24T21:43:00.001-04:00

I'm delighted to report some excellent results from last Saturday's annual International Coastal Cleanup. While there are frequent beach cleanup days throughout the year, this is the only day where everything is counted, weighed, and tabulated world-wide. The Ocean Conservancy web site does not yet have any totals for the day, but Keep Brevard Beautiful's Barb Venuto forwarded me the following from Jim Kriewaldt, KBB's Spoil Island and Invasive Plant Program Manager: Today we had 1,202 volunteers come out to do this extremely important survey, and we collected 23,365 lbs of trash in the process. This may seem significantly lower than the last few years, but the numbers don't include Canaveral AFS. They will be having their cleanup next month due to some high priority commitments this month. So the actual numbers will be at least the same as last year.

Well, that was good news in and of itself. But then last night, I got this follow-up email regarding Jim Kriewaldt's adventures at yesterday's cleanup of Port Canaveral: 2 people, 4 hours, 9 bags trash, ~300 pounds. VERY high tide, with strong east wind, drove trash to west end of west turning basin. Carnival (cruise ship) in, so couldn't do north end of the west turning basin. Trash collected in with seaweed in other three corners. Found one interesting package that I put off to the side. Called security on way back in. Met and transferred package to Port Security Officer. She called the Brevard County Sheriff's Office, who took custody. It turned out out to be a kilo of cocaine. Today's Florida Today story about the find put the street value at $100K. That's some "square grouper!" (Photo by Jim Kriewaldt)

Our thanks to Ocean Conservancy, Keep Brevard Beautiful, and all the volunteers who spent their Saturday morning cleaning up after others and to Barb for sending us the news. Kudos to Jim for figuring out what he caught and what to do with it!

Nesting Loggerhead - Drop Those Eggs Gently!

2009-09-23T06:40:00.001-04:00

Last month, Matt and Jim went on a night beach walk in search of a nesting sea turtle. Matt was anxious to try out the video camera's night vision capability, and if there's a nesting sea turtle around, Jim will usually find it. They hooked up with the University of Central Florida students that monitor sea turtle activities in the Archie Carr Refuge, and soon the group came upon a loggerhead working her way up the beach to lay her eggs. Once she got her pit scooped out and began the egg laying process, Matt started filming, with Jim holding a low red-shielded light to augment the video cam's night vision. This is a long process - by the time the sea turtle finds a location she's happy with, scoops out her nest, lays approximately 100 eggs, covers the nest, and heads back to the ocean, it's about a two-hour process. Fortunately, Matt was able to edit the two hours down to 30 seconds so that you can see the turtle's lovely face, eggs dropping into the pit, and her heading back out to the ocean. Pay particular attention to the frames that show the little "flip" motion of her back flippers just before an egg drops. (The eggs are about the size of pingpong balls, with a leathery shell.)

So what's the big deal about sea-beans?

2009-09-19T20:27:00.019-04:00

Last week, one of our posts featured a video about a beach walk to look for sea-beans. Pure Florida blogger Florida Cracker (aka FC) left the following comment: I never realized people were so gaga over sea beans. I just took them for granted as another cool beach oddity growing up in St. Augustine. I did plant one once, and an enormous vine grew out of it and all over my sunny bedroom. A little history about FC - he's a native Floridian, former park ranger, current school teacher, and a terrific blogger. He and his family live on the Nature Coast of Florida (west coast).

I know when I got interested in sea-beans, but FC's question made me wonder when sea-beans started to become more of a field of study and interesting to more people. So I asked Ed Perry, native Floridian, park ranger, and co-author with John Dennis of "Sea-Beans From the Tropics: A Collector's Guide to Sea-Beans and Other Tropical Drift on Atlantic Shores." The following is Ed's reply: The first interest in the science of sea-beans was probably in the 60s/70s, mainly in south Florida, and primarily because of Bob Mossman and John Dennis and the publishing of the subject's first comprehensive reference book, "World Guide to Tropical Drift Seeds and Fruits" that John co-authored with Dr. Bob Gunn. The renewed interest started in the mid-90s, here in Brevard, and was due to Cathie Katz and her books/newsletter and the sea-bean symposiums.

Ed's interest in sea-beans began at an early age when his grandmother operated the Sea Bean Boutique gift shop on the Canaveral Pier (now Cocoa Beach Pier). Ed tells us: It had nothing to do with selling sea-beans, but because of the name, people would always want to know what a sea-bean was/looked like. Thus, my grandmother would send me out on the beach when I wasn’t fishing to look for sea-beans. She would keep them in her cash drawer to show to interested visitors. She often gave them away, thus entailing more work for me when I visited her again (she gave me a quarter for each one I brought back to her). After graduating college, I came back to Brevard and started reading books by Cathie Katz. I thought, “here’s a lady as crazy as I am, picking these curious seeds off the beach!” I met Cathie and we were kindred spirits. I became involved with a loose-knit group known as “The Drifters” that studied, collected, and wrote about driftseeds on a worldwide level. (This photo by Blair Witherington shows Ed at last year's symposium.)

Since Cathie's death in 2001, Ed has spearheaded the annual symposiums and publishes the quarterly Drifting Seed newsletter that connects 500 readers in 20 countries. Ed is a life-long resident of Brevard County and has been a park ranger at Sebastian Inlet State Park for over 20 years.

Regarding the plant that FC grew in his bedroom, Ed tells us that the seeds are almost always viable. Once their shells are cracked, they're ready to grow some pretty interesting plants.

Reference Links:
Sea Bean Web Site (Paul Mikkelsen is the webmaster of this dandy site)
Drifting Seed (newsletter)
Pure Florida

Tee-Hee

2009-09-19T14:05:00.004-04:00

Sometimes it can be difficult to tell the difference between male and female birds, but this video makes it easy. Even a non-birder like me can tell which of the birds is the female!

The rest of the story ...

My daughter-in-law sent this to me via email - one of those forwarded and reforwarded things. I got such a kick out of it that I knew I wanted to share it, but she did not know its origin, and I could not figure out how to extract it from the email. (I knew it was an animated .gif, but you can't put those directly into a blog post.)

Faithful readers have figured out that I don't know much, but I have a lot of talented friends, so I asked Wayne Matchett if he could figure it out. Bless his retired system engineering heart, he weaseled it into an iMovie.

In an effort to give proper attribution to whomever created this cute little thing in the first place, I searched on-line and found a couple of web sites using it, but nobody that took credit for developing it. So to that nameless person, thanks for the giggle!

"Tis the season to be beaning

2009-09-18T06:45:00.010-04:00

Debbie Harper lives in Fort Morgan, Alabama, and she's a beaner. She came to a Sea-Bean Symposium several years ago and hopes to get back for this year's symposium. During some emails with our chief beaner, Ed Perry, she sent a link to a video she made of a sea-bean walk she took about a month ago. Ed sent it to Margie, Margie sent it to me, and I got Debbie's permission to share it with you. Cactus Jack, I know you'll love this! Short Lessons in Finding Sea-Beans on the Beach

(Sea purse photo by Matt MacQueen)

A Beautiful Creature

2009-09-17T06:43:00.005-04:00

Each year, the Great Land Crabs in south Brevard leave their burrows in the Lagoon, migrate to the beach to lay their eggs, and return to the Lagoon. This worked out fine for them for a long while, then housing development and Highway A1A came along and messed up their clear path. They still migrate, but many don't make it across. Indeed, some wind up in swimming pools. (Be sure to click to enlarge this image so you can see the crab's eyes on stalks.)

It's migration time again, and Charlie Corbeil has captured some wonderful photos of these beautiful creatures. He shared this glamour shot with us, and there are others on his web site (see Reference Links below). As Charlie and I were talking about the hazards these crabs face in trying to cross the highway, I was reminded of a story I read last year about folks in Vermont helping some endangered frogs and salamanders across the road. Looking for an update, I searched on "help frogs across the road", and sure enough - there was a story about this year's Vermont rescue effort (link below - a good story).

Matt reminds me that picking up a salamander and carrying it across the road is one thing - exposing your fingers to a Great Land Crab is something else. Still, it seems a rescue process might be considered for these critters whom we have seriously inconvenienced.

Reference Links:
Charlie Corbeil
Great Land Crabs (a post we did last year)
Vermont Rescue Operation (ABC news story)

International Coastal Cleanup Day is September 19

2009-09-16T06:28:00.000-04:00

Please join Ocean Conservancy for the 24th Annual International Coastal Cleanup on Saturday, September 19, 2009 at a beach, inland waterway, lake or stream near you.

Here in Brevard, the cleanup is co-sponsored by Keep Brevard Beautiful (KBB). The Cleanup kicks off at 8:00 A.M. and goes until noon. Check-in sites are as follows:

South Area Sites

Jon Jorgensen Landing, Grant

Pelican Beach Park, Satellite Beach

Howard Futch/Paradise Beach Park, IHB

Ocean Ave Beach Park, Melbourne Beach

Coconut Point Park, Melbourne Beach

Sebastian Inlet State Park

Central Area Sites

Kelly Park, East, MI

Cherie Down Park, Cape Canaveral

Shepard Park, Cocoa Beach

Lori Wilson Park (N), Cocoa Beach

Ramp Road Park, Cocoa Beach

Pier/Central Park, SR A1A, Patrick AFB

North Area Sites

Haulover Canal, Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge
Kennedy Point Marina (US 1), Titusville

Canaveral National Seashore, Beach 1

KBB, the Ocean Conservancy, and event sponsors will supply trash bags, gloves, data cards, pencils and sunscreen. Volunteers should bring drinking water and a snack, if desired. FREE T-SHIRTS while supplies last. For more information, please email Jim Kriewaldt at jimkbb2005@yahoo.com.

If you don't live on the Space Coast, follow the Ocean Conservancy link below to find the nearest event.

We're especially fond of Barb Venuto, the KBB Environmental Programs Coordinator. KBB and their volunteers work long and hard to keep our county free of litter that less thoughtful folks seem to leave behind. Please join them on Saturday, September 19 - it should be fun!

Reference Links:

Keep Brevard Beautiful

Ocean Conservancy

My new guardsnake

2009-09-14T19:29:00.002-04:00

The other night, as I was trying to get Sugar (my Italian Greyhound princess) outside for a late-night walk via the front door, she resisted mightily. The next morning, I think I found the reason - this pretty little snake was nestled near the door, up against the doormat.

You can't tell from the photo, but this little guy is only about eight inches long. I sent a photo to Dawn, who replied as follows: That’s a ringneck snake. Those are one of the few I will handle. It’s a nice little Florida native.

According to the Florida Museum of Natural History web site, Average adult size is 6-10 inches. Adults are small and slender-bodied with a black body and yellow, cream, or orange ring across the neck. The belly is bright yellow, orange, or red with a single row of half-moon spots down the center. They are harmless terrestrial burrowers, frequently found in or underneath logs or other debris.

I gently urged him back into the jungle that comprises one corner of my courtyard. I hope he stays around - if he ventures out again, I'll get some better photos of him.

Jellyfish Update

2009-09-13T09:24:00.007-04:00

In yesterday's post about jellyfish, I didn't address what to do if you get a jellyfish sting. I was reminded of that when David did an excellent post today about a jellyfish sting product that he has found to very effective. His post includes a testimonial by the Chief of Ocean Rescue, Brevard County, Florida Fire Rescue. (The link below will take you directly to that post, but take the time to wander through his site.)

I was also reminded of a conversation with Jim Angy, long-time Brevard beach rat, in which he said white vinegar has been a standby remedy for years, but many locals would recommend just peeing on the sting. An interesting ABC News story noted that using vinegar would get you fewer strange looks!

David's post and the ABC News story are both excellent resources for information on how to inactivate the stinger and eventually remove it. Best advise is, of course, don't mess with a jellyfish!

(Photo of moon jellyfish by Ann Zscheile - click to enlarge)

Reference Links:
Blog the Beach (David's post about a jellyfish sting neutralizing gel)
Old Wive's Tale? Urine as a Jellyfish Sting Remedy (ABC News story)

There's always room for jellyfish

2009-09-12T10:29:00.006-04:00

Last weekend, we heard of jellyfish on Daytona's beaches. On Labor Day, Margie reported: The jellyfish that invaded Daytona last week seem to have found their way down here to Cocoa Beach. There were a lot of moon jellies washed up. I didn't see anything that looked like a box jelly, but I didn't poke anything unidentified with my foot either. Those things are nasty. On the other hand, there were people in the water and I heard no screaming, as was the case the last time we had box jellies out there. I saw quite a few blue buttons along with the jellyfish, and one sea pansy. (Margie's photo shows a moon jellyfish.)

Apparently the winds were blowing the critters south - on Wednesday, Ann sent photos from her early morning sea turtle nest monitoring walk on Satellite Beach - love how the sunrise colors are reflected by this in the moon jellyfish and the sand.

So I got to wondering how long a beached jellyfish will live, can they survive long enough to wash back out to sea in the next tide, what happens if you step on a dead one, etc. etc. etc. I put those questions out to friends and beach experts Blair and Dawn Witherington, and of course got a an excellent explanation from Blair, as follows:

Medusae (bell-and-tentacle form of jellyfish) are pretty fragile animals. When bad luck brings them to a beach, they are done for. However, their nematocysts (stinging cells) can fire after death. This is why one can still receive a sting from a jelly blob on the beach. Few should be troubled by this prospect. Foot bottoms are thick enough to defend us from this assault, and only a few of our local jellies have a significantly painful sting. One of these was in your photos, a sea nettle, identified by reddish-brown radiating rays. Might want to step around that one. (Shown below in Ann's photo)

Blair goes on to say: Not many animals eat jellyfish. The short list includes leatherback sea turtles, molas (ocean sunfish), some sea birds, and humans. Yes, the group of jellyfish containing the cannonball jelly is edible. I’ve tried it. Not bad with the right seasoning. Animals that specialize on a diet of jelly (like leatherbacks) have to eat a lot of them. Most jellyfish are about 95% water. By contrast, we are about 65% water.

Blair and Dawn's book, Florida's Living Beaches - a Guide for the Curious Beachcomber, has a good section on jellyfish. If you don't have their book (you should), you'll be able to get an autographed copy at the Sea-Bean Symposium, October16 and 17 (see Reference Link below for symposium information).

David McRee has an excellent post about jellyfish on his BeachHunter site (see Reference Links). David will be at the Sea-Bean Symposium with his book, Florida Beaches - Finding Your Paradise on the Lower Gulf Coast.

Blair and Dawn are experts on the "technical aspects" of Florida's beaches (critter identification, dunes, tides, etc), and David is a "destination" expert (lodging, can I bring my dog, what is the most romantic beach, where do I eat, etc.), so the symposium will offer a great opportunity to pick some excellent minds about all aspects of Florida beaches.

As always, thanks to Margie, Ann, Blair, Dawn, and David for sharing their expertise and photos. These are folks that are on the beach daily - it is "home" to them, and they see nuances and events that escape the casual beachgoer (like me). That's one of the things that makes the Sea-Bean Symposium such a neat experience - the presenters and exhibiters love what they do and what they study, and they get great delight in exchanging ideas and knowledge with others. It's a mellow time - make plans to attend.

Reference Links:

BeachHunter (David McRee's post on jellyfish)

Blog the Beach (David's post about jellyfish sting neutralizing gel)

Sea-Bean Site (Paul has updated the official sea-bean site with lots of symposium information)

Our September Beach

2009-09-09T06:54:00.005-04:00

Margie sends this lovely sunrise photo, along with this news: The fall mullet run looks to be in full swing. The pelicans were diving like crazy at sunrise and later we watched a huge bait school working its way south with little fish jumping in terror all over the place as the big guys tore into them.

And Ann provided this harbinger of hope for you sea-beaners - a hamburger bean she found while searching through the wrack for hatchlings. The hamburger bean comes from pods hanging on vines in the tropical rain forest. That dark band is the seed’s hilum, where the seed was attached to the pod.

Who says that Florida does not have seasonal changes!

Shooting Stars Explained

2009-09-08T07:46:00.000-04:00

Friend Dick, web master of our Deadwood High School Classmates site that keeps us Deadwood Bears alum "together though apart", sent this video that answers the question that I'm sure astronauts most dread hearing - how do you go to the bathroom in space? His email added: I worked in Huntsville AL during the Space Station development early years. Boeing had a mock up of the Station, and I would visit it often. They also had extra urine container collectors in mens/womens room if you wanted to help contribute. The system in space converts waste water back into potable drinking water.

I don't watch much TV, but I always watch The Big Bang Theory (if you like nerds, you'll love this show). As luck would have it, last night's episode involved the toilet on the International Space Station. I had to switch away from the Miami/FL State game for 30 minutes to watch it, but it was worth it - having seen this video, it was even funnier.

Labor Day through Charlie Corbeil's Lens

2009-09-07T07:41:00.007-04:00

Charlie added this comment: Both Labor Day 2009 Posters are pictures taken at the new Health First Hospital under construction in Viera. These pictures honor all the workers building this new health facility. Charlie

Labor Day 2009, Part 1

2009-09-06T09:34:00.008-04:00

Labor Day is celebrated the first Monday in September and is typically viewed as a holiday marking the end of summer vacation, the beginning of a new school year, and kickoff for college football.

According to the Department of Labor web site, Labor Day is a creation of the labor movement and is dedicated to the social and economic achievements of American workers. It constitutes a yearly national tribute to the contributions workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of our country. The first Labor Day holiday was celebrated on Tuesday, September 5, 1882, in New York City, in accordance with the plans of the Central Labor Union.

Faithful readers know that photographer extraordinaire Charlie Corbeil has provided us with many holiday-related photographs. For this Labor Day holiday, he provided two photographs, and I could not choose between them. So, you get one today and one tomorrow. Both are lovely and symbolize the laborers this holiday is meant to honor. You can see more of Charlie's photos at http://www.pbase.com/charlie_corbeil/profile.

Accessories make the outfit

2009-09-03T18:34:00.000-04:00

Margie knew this beautiful, unusual bird on the beach was some sort of Laughing Gull, but the orange legs and bill are not typical, so she sent the pic off to Phyllis, who sent it on to an expert, who came back with this explanation: It is an adult Laughing Gull in basic plumage, but with aberrant soft-parts' colors. Every so often a Laughing Gull shows up with an orange bill, legs and feet. They are probably more prevalent in the Gulf because there are more breeding colonies and more Laughing Gulls there than along our Atlantic coast. Laughing Gulls normally have a red mouth-lining when they breed, so they likely have carotene underlying the melanin of the normally dark legs, feet and bill. When the melanin pigment is absent, probably due to a genetics anomaly, it exposes the underlying color that appears as orange rather than red, because red is usually the result of increased vascularization during the breeding season; this bird, as are most found, is not in breeding condition. (Thanks to Bruce Anderson, amongst other things the Regional Coeditor, Florida Region, "North American Birds", for this great explanation.)

This photo by Jim Angy shows a more typical Laughing Gull in summer plumage (in the winter, the head is frequently grey-white).

About a year ago, Margie sent a photo that allowed me to use the term "many ribbed hydromedusa" in a sentence. We will add "aberrant soft parts" to the list of things you don't often get to say, although in thinking about it, this new term might well work its way into a conversation :) Meanwhile, we'll continue to think of Margie's Laughing Gull as a tricked-out chick with great accessories.

Too cute for words!

2009-09-01T21:01:00.005-04:00

Margie took this photo while she was at the Florida Wildlife Hospital the other day. Love the smile! Be sure to click to enlarge.

The Beaners

2009-08-31T20:22:00.000-04:00

A welcome new reader, Sylvia, left a comment on one of the blog posts a few days ago, as follows: Hi, is the Bean symposium a club you have to join or can anyone come in and participate? Are kids welcome?

Gotta love a question that prompts you to talk about something near and dear to your heart - in my case, it's the Sea-Bean Symposium. We're fast approaching our 14th annual Symposium, October 16 and 17, Cocoa Beach Library. Everybody is welcome, and children (preferably well-behaved) are particularly welcome! It's free, and there are lots of displays and presentations. As we get closer to the date, I'll include a program schedule. Dr. Curtis Ebbesmeyer is the keynote speaker that Saturday evening - those of you that have met Curt know we'll be in for a treat. Meanwhile, look at the slideshow on the right-hand side of the blog to get an idea of last year's event, or check out the posts in October 2008. This is such a neat, mellow event - we get visitors from all over, so even if you don't live in Brevard County (Florida Cracker - I'm talking to you), plan to make it over for the Symposium. (This photo is one I took at last year's event.)

Sylvia, when you come to this year's Symposium, you can register to receive the newsletter, or read it on-line at the official sea-bean web site (see link below). Meanwhile, thanks for the question. (I've included a link to Sylvia's site below - she loves Florida plants.)

Reference Links:

Sea-Bean Web Site

Sylvia's Web Site

It's Cabbages and Kings Time

2009-08-30T20:01:00.011-04:00

I suspect many of you are like me - Sunday night is get-ready-for-work, catch-up-with-stuff time. So let's get with it.

For you bloggers, friend David found a new toy called Screenr - if you have bloggers you follow, you can use Screenr to capture one of their posts and talk about it while scrolling through it. David is a beach blogger, so he used Screenr to "show and tell" about five of his favorite beach blogs (we were one of them :) . Follow the link below to his BlogTheBeach.

Margie sends the following news about the Skimmers: It looks as though the skimmers have abandoned the posted nesting area for good. After last weekend's high tides, which inundated parts of the site, all the families with chicks moved to a location outside the posted area. They have remained there, and have been joined by the families with chicks which hatched over last weekend or early this week. Each day there were fewer and fewer pairs still sitting on nests inside the posted area. Finally this morning there were none. There are still two nests with 3 or 4 eggs in them, apparently abandoned. There are other abandoned eggs scattered around the site. I counted 19 this morning. (Click on photos to enlarge)

Yesterday I sent one of the chicks to Florida Wildlife Hospital, after observing that it could not stand or walk and the parents were unable to feed it. The rehabilitators did not find a leg fracture, but observed that the left leg was splayed and the chick could not use it properly. He/she was kept for feeding and observation. An update email Saturday included Margie's photo of the Skimmer chick being cared for at the Wildlife Hospital and this news: Here's the skimmer chick that came from the beach on Thursday. He's eating well and his leg seems a little better. But when he tries to stand on a normal surface, his left leg still splays out, so he has a ways to go still.

For the Beaners amongst you, Margie reports finding some sea-beans, and says the beach is loaded with sand collars right now. I've been seeing them for a week or ten days, but today they showed up by the thousand. Sand collars are the egg masses of moon snails, and consist of sand grains cemented together with gelatinous stuff and embedded snail eggs. Wikipedia goes on to note that after the eggs hatch, the collars disintegrate.

Reference Links:

Blog the Beach (David's blog)

Florida Wildlife Hospital

Blinded by the light

2009-08-29T10:54:00.010-04:00

Our Space Coast sky lit up at 11:59 p.m. last night with the launch of STS-128. This graphic is courtesy of NASA TV. For a moment, think about what it must be like to be an astronaut when this thing fires up, sitting atop a firecracker comprised of parts purchased from the lowest bidders (as some astronaut so wisely noted back in the early days). All astronauts are heros in my mind, but there were a couple of side stories that I particularly liked about members of the STS crew.

Astronaut Jose Hernandez grew up in Mexico and California, the son of migrant farm workers who put an emphasis on education. When he was nine years old, he and his family watched the moon landing on a small tv with rabbit ears (you young folks used to cable will have to ask your parents about those), and as the youngest child, he was assigned the task of holding on to the rabbit ears to improve reception during the moon walk. He jokes that he became an astronaut through osmosis. There are interviews with all the astronauts - I've included a link to his under Reference Links. Good stuff. He twitters, by the way.

There's no twitter link for astronaut Nicole Stott, but she blogs (see Reference Links). She worked for NASA at the Cape as an engineer before being accepted into the astronaut corps, so we consider her "local" talent. She'll live at the International Space Station for the next four months, so I'm sure she'll have some interesting blogs! (I was unable to add her link to my Google Reader - have sent an inquiry off to NASA.)

This is a 13-day mission. Discovery will dock with the International Space Station on Sunday. Amongst other things that will be left at the Station is a C.O.L.B.E.R.T. treadmill named in a contest after comedian Stephen Colbert. The Combined Operational Load Bearing External Resistance Treadmill is designed to keep the international crew healthy while in orbit and prepare them for return to Earth. It is also a testament to NASA's ability to turn almost anything into an acronym.

Bruce Springsteen wrote "Blinded by the Light" in the 1970's - I didn't understand it then, and I still don't, but the title is what came to mind when I sat down to write this, so ...

Reference Links:
http://www.NASA.gov/ (main NASA site)
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/main/index.html (mission news)
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/shuttlemissions/sts128/interview_hernandez.html (Jose Hernandez interview)
http://blogs.nasa.gov/cm/blog/1831 (Nicole Stott's blog)
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/behindscenes/colbert_feature.html (Colbert story)

Over the Rainbow

2009-08-27T21:05:00.008-04:00

Ann walks the beach early each morning as part of her Sea Turtle Preservation Society (STPS) volunteerism. As she said in yesterday's email that accompanied these photos, Wanted to send you a picture of what we saw on nest survey this morning. Just one of the benefits of being up early to walk the beach at 6:30 am!

Isn't Ann's rainbow just pure bliss? Be sure to click to enlarge it.

The STPS is gearing up for another season of monthly membership meetings (open to the public). There's an impressive list of speakers, and I was delighted to see that Terry O'Toole leads off with a talk on Thursday, September 3. Terry is a Park Ranger at Sebastian Inlet State Park, and he'll talk about sea turtle activities at the Park. The adult loggerhead photo on our sea turtle reference cards is Terry's, and we are most appreciative of his allowing us to use it these past two years. Jim, Matt, and I will certainly be there to listen to his presentation - 7:30, Melbourne Beach Community Center, Thursday, September 3 (will somebody please tell me where June, July, and August went?).