Turtle Eggs and Hurricane Irene

I walked to the beach shortly after sunrise this morning to see how big the Irene driven waves were. Although they were not as big as I expected, they were by no means small. Several surfers were there without their surf boards watching the waves and planning when they would be back with surf board in hand.

It was obvious that the beach has suffered some serious erosion. Being that this area of beach has been renourished (if my memory serves me) 3 times in the 10 years that I have lived here, Irene washed millions of dollars of sand out to sea. Experts, however, say that wave action will eventually bring back some of the sand and deposit it on the beach again. That is a good thing.

What isn’t good, however, is another sight that I witnessed. Undoubtedly thousands if not more of turtle eggs were strewn along the beach. The strong waves washed out the turtle nests that were buried in the sand. It looked like the beach was littered with an uncountable number of ping pong balls.

Fortunately for us, Hurricane Irene missed us unlike Frances and Jean in 2004. My prayers are with those in North Carolina and elsewhere who are about to experience Irene's fury.

Atlas V Rocket Launch

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The beach at Indialantic is close enough to the Cape to get some nice shots of rockets when they are launched. There will be no more shuttle launches, but there will be launches of other rockets.

At about 12:25 PM today a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket launched from the Cape. From my vantage point in Indialantic, I took several photos of the launch, which I have posted here.

Sea Grapes or What?

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When I walked to the beach last night, I noticed two kinds of plants or shrubs growing next to each other. The one plant or shrub I always called sea grapes. It is a shrub that grows on or by the sand dunes. Obviously it loves the salt air. Birds love the berries growing on these shrubs. This is the first picture above.

I’m not sure what the other plant is called. I’ve included a couple of pictures of it. Is this mystery plant also a type of sea grape or does it have another name?

When I took biology in high school, it was not my strongest subject. There were just too many strange sounding names for me to remember and keep straight. Some people can walk in a forest and identify every tree by its leaf. I can’t remember much beyond an oak and a maple.

If anyone reading this blog knows the name of the mystery plant, please feel free to identify it in a comment.

Beach Rainbow

There is a named tropical storm, Bret, swirling off the east coast of Florida. On Sunday it brought little cells of rain ashore a few times in the Indialantic area.

Late Sunday afternoon my wife and I walked down to take a look at the ocean. A day before the ocean had been fairly calm and the water very clean. A northeasterly wind usually clears the ocean water here. This evening, however, the water was on the rough side and the water had a brownish tint to it as the first picture shows.

As my wife and I were watching the ocean, it began to lightly rain. Then a rainbow appeared towards the horizon. At one point, there was actually a double rainbow.

I only carry an older, small pocket-sized camera to the beach, so I don't get the shots a DLSR would get, but I did get a couple pictures of the rainbow. One is taken looking towards the southeast side and the other looking toward the northeast.

Fortunately for us, Bret will only be a tropical storm and it will be moving away from Florida.

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Beach After the Rain

In recent days we have been receiving some much needed rain in east central Florida. After one rainy afternoon I walked down to take a look at the ocean. The pictures give you an idea of what I saw.

The ocean was pretty flat. In fact, it reminded me of what Lake Huron looked like when I saw it. There was hardly any wave action nor was there wasn't much in the way of wind.

Some people like to walk the beach is after an afternoon rain. There is a freshness in the air and the beach is pretty well deserted. There often isn't much of a breeze, however, and there is a lot of humidity.

Walking the Beach in Indialantic!

Yesterday was a hot, humid day in central Florida as temperatures reached into the upper 90s in some places. It was not quite that warm in Indialantic where I live, but it was hot enough. About 7 PM I headed for the one outdoor place where I knew it would be cooler----the beach!

It was a beautiful evening to be on the beach. The air was noticeably cooler because of the nice sea breeze. The sun was not so hot and the condos cast their shadows providing shade.

It was so ice that I wanted to share the experience with anyone who might read this blog. So, I shot a short video. I faced north as I begin to shoot and gradually panned the ocean and ended up looking south which was down the beach. As you can see, I pretty much had the beach to myself. The noise that you hear is a combination of the wind and the surf.

Indialantic is on the Atlantic coast about 60 miles east of Orlando and 18 miles south of Cocoa Beach. Admittedly Cocoa Beach has a nicer beach. It is much wider but is also much more crowded and congested. The beach in Indialantic is not nearly as crowded, but it is still nice. I much prefer it here. It is a nice place to get away from the hustle and bustle.

Indialantic has a nice boardwalk area, but I was walking north of that. Anyway, I had a nice walk and it made the rest of the evening more pleasant.

Sea Oats and Sand Dunes

I walked to the beach last night just to look at the ocean. The breeze made it feel pleasant despite the warm temperature. From my position at the top of the stairs leading to the beach, I had a great view of the ocean. As I watched, I couldn’t help but notice the sea oats swaying in the wind along the beach.

Some of the sea oats that I saw were planted after hurricanes Frances and Jean in 2004 by members of a condominium association to protect their property. Others were propagated naturally. Sea oats grow long roots that help give the dunes stability. During recent years I have watched some of the sea oats trap the sand that the winds carry and begin to form dunes.

One picture shows sea oats relatively close up for those who don’t get to the beach and may not know what they look like. Another picture shows the sea oats growing by vegetations that is commonly known as sea grapes. The picture looking up the beach shows little patches of sea oats growing in front of the main dunes.

Morning Beach Walk

I woke earlier than usual this morning and decided to take an early morning stroll on the beach. It was a beautiful morning for such a walk, and I arrived about the time the sun was rising.

As you can see, there are not many people on the beach at sunrise in Indialantic. Along with the crabs and birds, I had the beach pretty much to myself. There was a young couple who had come down to observe the sunrise from the top of one of the accesses to the beach.

The beach was littered with fresh sargassum. Strong easterly winds have been bringing in a lot of seaweed in recent days. Under penalty of law, you are not allowed to remove any sargassum from the beach. Apparently it is good for the beach eco system.

After a pleasant and refreshing walk, I returned home to face the rest of the day.

Jellyfish and Sargassum

This is my first post in over two years! Hopefully I'll now be able to get to the beach enough to make at least some postings in this blog.

I just had to get to the beach to see the jellyfish that the news mentioned that were stinging bathers along beaches in Brevard County. I carried a camera so I could document my find. Along the stretch of beach that my wife and I walked Friday in Indialantic, we didn’t see a single jellyfish! We did, however, see lots of sargassum brought in by the strong easterly winds.

Perhaps the jellyfish were only further north in the Cocoa Beach area. Maybe they will show up today.

I did, however, take a couple pictures of the sargassum on the beach which I am posting here.

Interestingly, I did notice that turtle nesting season is underway. Pictures of their tracks will make for a future posting.