Sanibel Sunday Sandspurs

It was another hot day, up to 90 degrees, with high humidity.  Early this afternoon I heard thunder, and looked out to see some dark clouds passing by.  After I realized it wasn't going to rain, I drove over to the end of Bailey Rd, thinking a short walk to look for Rose-petal Tellins would be nice.  It was nice, but produced no tellins.

I drove on over to the east end, Point Ybel.  I parked near the Sanibel Fishing Pier that overlooks San Carlos Bay.  From the parking area I took a shortcut using a small path that went through some bushes.  BIG mistake!  I was looking up at the clouds, of course, when I felt something sticking my feet.  I looked down to see stickers on my feet.  Ouch!  I hobbled on out to the sand where I started pulling them out.  It wasn't easy standing on one foot in the sand, especially if you are as off-balance as I am these days.  I got them pulled out of  one foot, then started on the next.  Yes, I did wonder how many people were looking at me!  But at that point I really didn't care.  You know what they say, 'walk a mile in my shoes, then laugh.'  When I finished with that foot and started to put it back in my flip flops, that's when I realized that the soft foam soles we completely covered with burrs.  Ugh!  My fingers were already sore from pulling them off my feet, so I had to find something else to use besides my bare fingers.  I gimped a few more steps down the beach carrying a flip and ouching with every step in the flop!  I found a small piece of driftwood, used it to scrape until I had all of the burrs off, put the flop on and took the flip off.  I just started to scrape the burrs and the stick broke!  I hobbled a little further until I found a shell big enough to finish the job.  By that time the idea of shelling had somehow lost it's splendor.  But, I believe the shelling gods tried to appease me, because I just took one more look down, before I turned to go, and there were two shells right in front of me.  I grabbed them and started back to the car, the LONG way, and never looked back!  But, I'm sure I was someone's entertainment for the day. :)

That whole fiasco should never have happened.  I know about Sandspurs, I've had them in my feet before, helped pick them out of other people's feet and pulled them out of grandchildren's clothing.  Those sticky things can even flatten a bicycle tire!  You would think that once would be enough for me; but nooooo! 

In case you don't know; Sandspurs are a grassy-type weed which produces spiny barbed seed-pods in the Fall. They thrive in well drained sandy soil, with lots of sunshine. So, where better than the dune area of a beach.  You might want to keep an eye out for them.

I felt like I really worked hard for these two shells. :)

A Button and a Melampus (coffee bean to me)

Another Cold Front For Sanibel

With yet another cold front passing through, our temperature dropped to 57 during the night. This morning we had some sunshine and a 69 degree temperature, but this afternoon it was cloudy and cool with SSE wind with gusts up to 20. The water was pretty rough. We have only had sprinkles and some very light rain this evening.

When trying to go to a West Gulf Beach this afternoon around 3, the traffic was very heavy. After taking Periwinkle Way and then CasaYbel as far as Pointe Santo, we sat in traffic so long waiting to get to the Tarpon Bay intersection, that we gave up and just stopped there. We walked out to the beach, where we hurriedly took a few photos and video. There weren't many people out, due to the chilly wind. I was in a short sleeve T and shorts, and didn't really get cold, but a sweatshirt would have been more comfortable.



There were some small shells in places and a lot of foam left from the waves.











Since the traffic was so heavy, we drove the Gulf Drives from Point Santo over to the east end of the island, instead of Periwinkle Way. At that point, we decided to make a stop at the fishing pier and check that beach for shells. After putting on a sweatshirt and getting halfway to the beach, it started lightly raining. It didn't really matter because there were no shells there anyway. I did see one fellow catch a small fish, which seemed to be the only action going on.

An Osprey standing guard on top the light pole.










Sanibel Causeway in the distance.


Osprey still on duty!

Sanibel Lighthouse and Osprey on a limb near a nest.




After waiting at the Periwinkle Way and Causeway Blvd intersection for about 15 minutes, while the traffic patrol kept motioning cars off island, I think you could say that the busy season is in full swing! :( If you have plans to leave the island for an appointment or for the airport, you had better factor in plenty of extra travel time.

Early Morning At The Sanibel Fishing Pier

Busy, busy!! I've been spending lots of time with family, which now consists of a total of eight visitors. Last night we all went out for dinner to celebrate Daughter #2's birthday. It was a fun evening. Dinner was followed by playing Rock Band and games of pool. I am no good at Rock Band, but held my own in the pool games. :-) We all stayed up a little too late.


Two Grandsons made plans to get up at 5:30 this morning to go fishing. I got up to take them to get fresh bait and then to the Sanibel Fishing Pier. There were already 5 or 6 people there. I stayed with them for a while and watched the sunrise. I also enjoyed watching the birds. There has been a lot of brown algae on Sanibel beaches recently. SCCF’s Marine Lab and the City of Sanibel identified it as Sargassum; it is not red drift algae. Sargassum moves in floating mats on the ocean’s surface. Both the Sargassum and this past June’s accumulation of manatee grass on Southwest Florida beaches may be related to storm events and larger regional issues. Sargassum weed is like a floating home for many organisms. Young sea turtles swim near the seaweed for cover and an easy meals of the shrimp and crabs that live there. The loggerhead turtles now hatching on island beaches swim thousands of miles and spend as many as 11 years feeding on jellyfish, snails, crabs, and shrimps protected from predators in the Sargassum. So, even though it is very annoying to us and rather unsightly, we have to remember that it is breakfast, lunch, dinner and home to them.






















After that, I drove over to The Dunes tennis courts to meet Daughter #2 and Son-In-Law, who were dropping their two kids off for their tennis lesson, which was to begin at 7:30 and last 2 hours. The three of us, then went to the Sanibel Cafe for breakfast.


The two fishermen called to say they were ready for pickup. When I got there, they wanted to show me the big snook that were swimming all around the pier. Two men had caught one of them. They were using different bait than the boys and offered to share some of it with them. But, they still didn't have any luck. They said it was fun anyway. We stopped to get donuts to take home. After they had those and some milk, they were ready to go pick up their cousin and head over to the Sanibel Recreation Center for some basketball and a workout.

That gave me time for a quick trip to the grocery store and a stop to pick up contacts that had been on order for one of the boys. By that time, they were ready to be picked up and taken to join the others at the beach.

Next on the agenda was a trip across the Sanibel Causeway to get a Grand Daughter's laptop that was being repaired.

It had been a busy day, so after returning to the island, I had a nap, that lasted much longer than I had intended. Tonight is going to be an early night, in preparation for tomorrow.

Too Much Excitement/Not Good

I had to do an early post today, just to make a point that too much excitement isn't always good. You know from my previous post that I was getting pretty excited about the possibility of good shelling the next 3 days, due to a very low tide. And of course a high surf advisory always gets my curiosity peaked. It makes me want to see how high it is and what it looks like. When I'm excited, I can't sleep. Yes, I know what you're thinking....the High Surf Advisory wasn't until after 10 AM today and the really low tides aren't until FR, SA, & SU. But that didn't calm me down any; you never know, things could get rolling a little sooner. Right? So, at 3:30 this AM there was a drive made to Lighthouse Beach just to check out the situation.

The temperature was still warm, so the cooler air hadn't moved in yet. The wind was blowing, but not very strong. But, wow!! The tide was out really far. Woo~Hoo!!! Now, about here, I should probably point out that I figured it would just be a quick look see and after realizing everything was normal at the beach, it would be right back home to bed. I think that's why I didn't bother to put my beach shoes on, wearing instead a pair of good flip flops.

OK, just had to walk out to the water to check the shell situation. At first glance there didn't appear to be many, but started walking anyway. Then...a paper fig! Walked a little further; started seeing lots of Channeled Duck Clams (Sailors Ears) and tons of sea squirts. So, if those are here, maybe there will be more of something I want.

I think it was about this point that I did notice something nice. There were Christmas lights on the houses by the Lighthouse. Pretty neat looking in the dark, from the beach. I took a picture that, of course it's all black except for some of the Christmas lights, the beacon on the Lighthouse and the moon in the clouds.



I don't think I've mentioned yet, about how bad the sand smells when the tide is out further than usual. And, it was sort of like walking on an inch of wet cement mix. With it still being wet and little puddles of water in it, my leather flip flops were now covered with the cement mix too and my feet were slipping from side to side in them. I thought it was time to give it up.

But, NO there are a couple more Paper Figs! And there are Dosinia shells scattered here and there, maybe there will be more around the corner. Wrong! Just more, even nastier, wet cement mix. After getting to the Fishing Pier, I was done! Back to the parking lot, via paths instead of the beach.

Now, back on the road again and being a little disappointed, I thought hmmm, if the tide is out that far, maybe I should check the beach at the end of Baily Rd on the Bay side. Maybe I could find lots of Pink Telons there. So, another stop, just to check. Wow, the tide was out further here than I had seen it before, there were sure to be telons all over the beach! NO none!! Just one teeny, tiny piece. :-( OK, I'm walking back to the car and bright car lights were coming up the street. I hurried a little more to get back, just as I jumped in the car, I noticed it was a Sanibel Police car, I was relieved but not! Ooh crap, am I going to jail? He just turned around and went back the other way again. SHEW! It is time for bed!

Alrighty then, that's my story! Now I want to show you how my booty looked when I got it inside and in good light.



I guess we won't need to do a survey to find out if you think the efforts were wasted or not. If you know how thin Paper Figs are, then you probably know they'll most likely break when trying to get all those barnacles off and the smallest one is all broken on the edge too. There was one good shell. I was so lucky, I have a wonderful, perfect Paper Fig.