June Photos

June is over and July is moving fast. The cloud formations in Southwest Florida in the summer time are ominous but beautiful through the lens of a camera. The sea turtles have been busy laying their eggs on Cayo Costa. As of July 1st, there are over a hundred nests and I love em all. The sea oats are looking tantalizing as usual this time of year. I can never get enough of that landscape. The bottom of my boat is painted. Yeah! I look forward to July and the full moon. I plan on taking three days off during the full moon and exploring around Engelwood and  fossilizing by boat. Then traveling back south and watching the full moon from the water, by one of my favorite places.. Cayo Costa.

New Discoveries and First Finds

I have not been north of Boca Grande in months and felt the need to travel and explore islands to the north. The thought occurred to me while on the trip with the Florida ladies. They talked about fossils and a particular coral that I have had on my list of things to find since observing a beautiful piece at the shell fair - Agatized Coral. This is the Florida state stone.  Agatized Coral occurs when ocean water hardens replacing the limy corals with a form of quartz.  This process takes 20-30 million years.  Three locations in Florida are known to have this type of coral.  I was lucky enough to receive a recommendation from one of the Florida ladies on a possible location to explore and search for Agatized Coral on an island originally known as Hog Island which is located 3 hours north of Cayo Costa. 
So, the story begins early Sunday morning, armed with an empty 5 gallon bucket and 3 Publix shopping bags in search of Agatized Coral.  I began a 2 1/4 mile walk to the north end of the island.   I made it 5 steps before I found 5 Turban Shells.  I knew right then, this was going to be a long walk.  I continued to discover more and more Turban Shells until I told myself, "stop!".  So, I did for a while as I kept trekking down the beach with my bucket in hand.  I finally made it to the northern tip where I hoped to discover Agatized Coral, but much to my surprise, while cooling off in the water and randomly grabbing shells, I felt something unique that I knew was an unusual find for me.   Not long ago, someone had given me a handful of these particular shells and told me they were "mermaid tears" from a private collection but they didn't know where they were collected.  I had no idea that you could find these in the United States. Now, I was holding one in my hand. I scanned the beach, and much to my delight, I found more. When I arrived home, my interest was peeked, so I researched a little on "mermaid tears" and found out these small shells are known as Shiva Shells and hold the door (Operculum) to the Turban Shell.  The Shiva Shell has been known to symbolize the flow of life, constant change of the universe and creative visualism in the Hindu world.  Some of the largest Shiva Shells are 5 inches in diameter.  Wouldn't that be a find?  There's always tomorrow and more beaches.
  The tide receded on my walk back and I focused more on the rock formations on the beach.  This is when I discovered a small piece of Agatized Coral and other fossilized rock formations.  My bucket was heavy and my tracks were deep in the sand as I made my final steps off the beach.

Cool Discovery

I never thought in my wildest dreams that I would ever find what is pictured above.  I will post more later of the finds and the history.  I  look forward to telling the story. 

A Good Day for Worm Shells

The tide was super high a 2.1. I grabbed my camera and set out to take pictures of the beautiful sea oats on Cayo Costa. After walking a few steps I noticed a worm shell, then another, and another. Three hours later with no pictures of the sea oats, I realized I missed my opportunity of the early morning light on the sea oats. However, I found many great worm shells.  The worm shells I collected in three hours are probably half of what I collected in all of last year. You never know what a day of photography can bring, this day it brought worm shells.

Fresh Coat of Paint

The bottom paint on my boat was long over due. I had a window of opportunity to complete this project. I pulled the boat, power washed it and scraped the barnacles off. Next came hanging the boat and sanding the bottom. I always like when the sanding is done. Two coats of paint were applied  on the bottom and three on the sides( 1 gallon total).  My favorite part is pulling the tape off . Ahh... The most enjoyable part is seeing the boat anchored at Cayo Costa.

Snowy Egret

The snowy egret  has orange feet and coloring around the eye for only a couple days a year. The other three hundred and sixty three days  the feet and eye patch are yellow. This is part of breeding plumage/ coloring. Observing this in the wild I find very rare. I have witnessed this occurrence one time before in 1996. I was delighted to take over 200 pictures of this bird and lucky enough to get pictures of the snowy catching and eating fish with it's orange coloring.