Florida Master Naturalist Award of Excellence Nominee

Some of you may remember that I earned the Florida Master Naturalist Credential in 2012.  Recently, I was honored to be nominated by a number of people for the Florida Master Naturalist Award of Excellence.  I learned today that I am not the winning recipient of this award and would like to thank everybody who wrote a letter of nomination.  I am very thankful that I get to show so many people the natural beauty of Southwest Florida which is the greatest award of all.  See you all soon!

    Capt Brian 

Into The Mystic With Caryn and Elizabeth

We left the dock in the fog and returned in the fog. The compass did its job but it was Van Morrison that lead us out of the marina and brought us back. Caryn and Elizabeth chartered the boat for the day and what a day it was. We covered miles of beach in the on and off again fog. Strangely enough in the fog, the water was very clear. We took advantage of this and walked the shallow waters looking for shells in the back country. I pushed the boat as we walked. The birds were hunkered down in the fog. We saw great egrets, snowy egrets and the rare reddish egret. We also witnessed an osprey on the beach with a sheepshead fish in its talons. The birds seemed to be acting different in the fog. When the fog lifted a little we headed to a local island outpost for a delicious lunch. Then it was back to the beach for more shelling. Caryn found a nice scotch bonnet, a britle star, kings crowns and they both found zig zag scallops.

It was a great day of exploring.....Into the Mystic. Thanks Van.

          Capt. Brian

Sandollars, Sun and Fun

Lauren, Grant, Dean, Beck and family traveled with me on another beautiful day. Lauren is the "sandollar queen". She has collections from many different locales.  She added a few more to her collection on this trip. Grant and the kids waded in the clear water and helped find sand dollars in between playing catch with the football. We also saw the manta rays again and a large live horse conch.  The rays cruised back and forth while we were cruising on the beach. The weather couldn't have been better. I was happy to have this fun family from Maine come down for a break from the snow. 

Beautiful February Day On The Water

Another fun adventure with Morgan, Chad and Chad's brother. We started on the flats exploring and taking photos. Many live shells were observed, but none taken. We headed off to secret spot no number for a quick stop, then onto secret Z spot. The beach was beautiful and the walk was full of surprises. On our return trip we watched a dolphin shimmy over a sand bar into deeper water. It was another beautiful February day.