Rosy fingered dawn

My four-footed furry alarm clock thought that I ought not to sleep in this Sunday morning and as I looked out the kitchen window saw the most incredible colors in the sky. As dawn is fleeting there was no time for donning apparel (gay or otherwise) and going to the beach so I grabbed camera and ran to the backyard for photo on the left, then raced to the front yard for the photo on the right. Incredible! Then in a wink of an eye it was all gone. Glad at least that I was able to capture this pictorial memory. Though the colors on the computer don't do it justice, the pinks and blues were crisply and intensely stunning!

Tern, tern, tern

I can't help but have that wonderful Byrds song drift through my mind whenever I see these dignified little terns. "There is a season, tern, tern tern... " and winter is definitely here since these Royal Terns have arrived again. 'Tis their season to grace our beaches. These guys are 18 to 20 inches long and in the spring the tops of their heads are solid black. They have quite a society, talking to each other, squabbling over food, and though each pair looks after their own chicks (usually just one or two) they all nest together in the spring. I'll look forward to watching the parents dote on the little ones. "And a time to every purpose under heaven."

Chilly but blue...

Wish you could feel the chill in the air. Br-r-r-r. The sky was beautiful and the jet contrails were striking but it was chilly for central Florida. Here I am complaining about temperatures in the 40s and a friend in North Carolina had a dusting of snow this week and reminded me that at least I don't have to deal with that white stuff! Yes, thanks for yanking me back to reality. It really was a beautiful day and I am grateful to be able to walk on the beach without being bundled up like a snow bunny. The ocean (sorry my photo didn't capture more of it) was equally alive and invigorating.

Sensational Shuttle

One of the advantages of living on the East coast of FLorida is being able to view our shuttle launches either from the beach or even from our own backyards. I still get goose bumps whenever I see one lift off. Unfortunately I have yet to get a good shot of a nighttime launch with my own camera, so I borrowed this one from NASA's website. What was amazing was a simultaneous (almost) full moon. It was quite a sight on November 15, 2008 at 7:55 p.m. EST. The fire in the sky, the amazing rolling thunder-like sound, and the faint tremor of the earth is truly stimulating both mentally and physically. WOW!

Cotton Ball Skies

Where does time go? Maybe it rushes by as quickly as these clouds that look just like big white cotton balls. They flanked the river both east and west on this beautifully warm and bright fall day here on the coast of Florida. The barrier island is on the right and it is just a half mile to the Atlantic. How lucky I am to be right here!

The Hatchlings

The turtle's eggs are off-white, about the size of a ping pong ball but leathery in texture. After approximately two months, the eggs hatch at night and the tiny new turtles head toward the sea guided by the light of the moon. (People living and working by the ocean are warned not to have outside lights on or the hatchlings get disoriented. Some have disastrously headed toward the highway instead of the sea.) Nests hold from 50 upwards to 200 eggs but only a small number of the hatchlings survive to adulthood. They are surprisingly tiny. Though this photo is not one of my own, it gives you an idea of their size. The hatching process is a wondrous sight with the tiny turtles digging out of the sand scurrying over the beach. Their itty-bitty little tracks in the sand are a tiny mirror of the larger ones I thrill at seeing when the adult comes to shore to nest. I'm already looking forward to May when the nesting season begins again.

Headed back to sea

This, the nesting turtle mom highlighted in the previous post, spent a total of about two hours on shore. One of the onlookers saw her as she came ashore about 6 a.m. and it was almost 8 a.m. as she slowly made her way back to the cool waters of the Atlantic. There she could again feel almost weightless, so unlike her ponderous stay on dry land. It was hot too, summer's early morning temperatures were already in the mid 80s. The on-scene turtle patrol told us that she could be as old as 100 years old because of all the barnacles on her shell, and that she was hatched along this stretch of beach and returned to this area to lay her own eggs practically every year. What brought that all to home for me, was that my Dad was also born and raised right here along this same stretch of beach almost 100 years ago. Would it be weird for me to wonder if he had ever encountered this same turtle?

Another day, another turtle

After my first up close and personal turtle encounter, imagine my delight a few weeks later when I again encountered a turtle — this time in the process of laying her eggs. There was a group of curious onlookers but at the time I arrived, the sand was flying and she was intent on covering the eggs she had just laid. The turtles nest beginning generally in May and continue through August and some late girls into September.

Unfortunately I again only had my cell phone camera available and didn't want to get too close and disturb the nesting Mom. She was a loggerhead, so called I am told, because their big thick necks and heads that look like logs. In this photo she is facing away from me.