The First of 2011

On first glance at this car I was happy to be behind them.  Very cute advertising gimmick which will certainly get your attention and make you read the second line.

This gal sure did have to climb a bit to make it up this escarpment to lay her nest.  An easy one to miss, a good thing that Marie my Park Ranger was on her toes in seeing it.  This week we have had very high tides so this one is safe from that at least for now.

Lisa who has an eye for spotting the tiny from a moving vehicle and not hesitant to yell stop.  I never know what the next adventure will be with her.  This is something we don't see that much, a Sea Urchin.  Unfortunately it was dead.  We see them sometimes after a storm and often they are alive.  They will spit water out of their beak located in the middle of this area if alive but we got no response from this one when we touched it.

The Osprey was perched on the Birding Area sign but not in good light for a good shot but just part of what we see when we are out doing turtle patrol.

Stop!!! Horseshoe Crab!!! As I hit the brake and Lisa bounds down the steep embankment to the river.  When I look down she has not one but three, two males and a female (the big girl) ready for transport back to the water.  Help was on the way and I slide down to assist in putting them back into the water.

As a very appropriate symbol of a miracle stands planted in the sand by some beach visitor and causes me to slow enough to grab a photo on my way to witness a modern day miracle, a Sea Turtle nest, which has produced new life.  Sunday is usually a more relaxed morning, one of the few where I don't have to rise at dawn, but this was a special Sunday morning and here I am watching the sunrise.  It was the excavation of the very first Sea Turtle nests on the island.  There would be two to see.

The first nest and it was like hitting pay dirt with a treasure trove of 20 hatchlings which did not get out of the nest.  It was a relocated nest and had been placed near some vegetation at the base of a dune.  Possibly the roots which had grown into the nest had blocked their way or maybe some other reason but here they were clamoring to get out.

Doug Stuber was doing the excavation.  He released them to the pretty large for an early Sunday morning crowd in groups of 5 or 6.  Better control of the situation that way because which direction they are going to head is not always predictable.

It was a perfect morning for catching good photos of the little ones as they head into the early morning sunshine to the water.

Sometimes they took a tumble or two as we rooted for their success.  You get a good look at a turtle belly button.

Doug holds one up for everyone to see.  When they are held like this they immediately think they are in the water and switch from their land crawl to their swimming breast stroke.  It makes them look like they are waving to you.

It doesn't take too long before they are into the water some quicker then others and then they are out of sight as once in swimming depth they are dead set on getting where they need to be, the Sargassum Sea, and the safety it affords them to grow up a bit.

As waves have a habit of doing they are a bit wishy washy and sometimes just when you think you have it made you find yourself high and dry again.

But you will always be given a second chance and all this activity and interaction with the water is supposed to help that instinct kick in which will get them headed in the proper direction.

Swim far and fast little one...

It took a while to get 20 hatchlings all in the water.

The process was repeated until finally they were all safely off the beach for whatever perils will face them ahead.

The next nest only had two very tired and hard working little fellows.  The funny looking nose I have seen a few other times before.  When they work so hard trying to get out and can't they knock off their egg tooth prematurely.  It usually falls off on its own in a few days.  They then have the look more like an adult with a sloping beak face instead of the black sharply pointed one with the egg tooth intact.  Once this falls off they look more like they have a little pig snout.

Another new nest on the river.  As of today we were up to 28 marked nests in the park.  These plants are very spiny plants and I feel sorry for this gals underside after crawling through these bad boys.

When I passed this unusual creature I thought it was a brown paper bag and thought when I come back I will pick it up.  On the return trip I realized it was a large Spider Crab.  I laid my sunglasses down to get an idea of the size.

When I realized it was still alive I picked it up.  It has 8 legs and a couple of claws hence its spider like appearance and is covered in a fine felt like covering unlike the younger one we found last week which only showed the hairy surface around its face.

I took it to the water and with incoming tide it should be OK if is still healthy enough to survive.

Update on progress on the painting.  Added more dimension to the foreground and seaweed to the right background behind the sea fan.  I added a good bit of color to the background deepening this area in color with the plan to make the adult Sea Turtle pick up the warm colors of the bottom in its shell.  This will be an adult Sea Turtle with its favorite shell fish dinner in the foreground.

Before removing the masking agent I added a bit more seaweed and then removed all the masking agent to reveal the paper underneath.  Unfortunately I did not get my second coat of maskoid on before misplacing the bottle so will have to contend with a few areas where the paint got through.  I will lighten them as much as I can without scuffing up the surface and then try to work them into the over all design.  Not everything works out as perfectly planned so one has to be adaptable with watercolor.   A fun start of the Hatching season.  Please don't let this knee take me out of the loop!!!

On the Road Again

My eldest son, Eric, called with an interesting invitation.  My sister, Susan, was spending a few days with me when he called.  He suggested I come watch the Shuttle Launch with him and stay at his condo just across the river from Cape Canaveral.  I considered it for a while thinking of all the reasons why I couldn't do it.  As you know, the chances of an actual launch were not that great.  I turned to my sister and said, well, Thelma (as in Thelma and Louise) would you like to take a road trip.  I thought, "I don't want to go all that way just to see a launch that doesn't happen", been there and done that once too many times already.  But it could become a Sea Turtle trip with the Launch thrown in as a possible bonus.

And that worked out better then we dreamed.  Eric, Susan and I headed South from the condo about 9:00pm in the drizzling rain to hit the beach at Melbourne Beach and saw at least 6 Sea Turtles come in to lay, both Green and Loggerhead.  I saw one of the largest Loggerheads I had seen in the wild.  No photos were taken because it was too dark and using a flash on the beach with laying Sea Turtles would violate all the rules of turtledom.  But it was worth the whole trip just for that.  Next morning with a little more than an hour left before the launch with it still a "go", my son felt he could find a good view without getting caught in traffic.  That also turned out better then he thought by following a road around the marina area we found a dead end road with a relatively small number of people, ample parking, and some invited guests of the Army Corp of Engineers who ran the "lock" area where this was located.  It was still very iffy as to launch, but as the time drew closer, they opened up the wire gate in front of us and our spot turned out to be a perfect line's eye view of the launch site.  Only invited guests were allowed through the secure area in front.  Through the haze just to the right of the girl in the black shirt is the space shuttle launch site just 6 miles away.  Oh for a clear day, but you can't have perfection all the time.

At 31 seconds to launch they call a "hold".  Still expecting it to not be a "go" I shoot the wildlife around me.  This snowy was eating barnacles along the railing of the lock.  Looking good, with its yellow feet.  A manatee was also wandering around inside the lock.  I asked the Army Corp of Engineers worker, who with a hand held bullhorn was keeping us abreast of the launch details, if the Manatee could get out and he said they open and close the gates of the lock several times a day and they come and go with that.  He also said they would be bringing in the boosters after retrieval right to this very spot the next day.

The countdown resumed and then, without the sound, the blast off started to happen.  The sound got to us after the shuttle was already out of sight, lost in the clouds and haze.

Even though still hazy, the incredible sight was visible and it was an amazing piece of history to witness.  Through the fire and vapors we start to see the shuttle rising up off the launch pad.  I remember getting Eric up as a toddler to make sure he witnessed the first steps onto the Moon via the television so the space program has always been a family interest.  Younger brother was not even a glimmer in his parents eye at that time.

No trouble viewing this now with only a set of power lines obstructing the view.

In only seconds Atlantis has cleared the power lines...

...upward climbing with a clear view of the rocket fuel tanks and the shuttle as it slowly revolved around.

Even through the haze it is impressive to see.

It finally is about to clear the haze and by cropping in tighter I can see some of the details of the launch although the Shuttle itself is much higher, and not quite as visible.

Only a short time and it is high enough to be approaching the cloud cover where the sky is not so hazy but would take away the view for good.  Thankfully the clouds had broken through thin enough to allow the launch.  The round dot is a blemish inside my camera lens so don't get excited that we have a UFO.

...and now it is the last full view glimpse we will have...

...as into the clouds it goes, only briefly re-entering our visual contact for a second.

We are left with a large column of vapor trail and smoke and excitement at having seen it happen with our own two eyes.  I know that as my mom, who got to witness the previous one from the condo when she was down here, left in mid sight to say, "humph, I can see it better on the TV."  Of course you can, but its not the same as the real thing where you don't get reruns for a second look.  Our "UFO" is now in the lower left corner.  One day I will have to get someone to take that out, probably a grain of sand from the beach.

The Manatee flips his tail in disinterest of skyward things, only interested in the green seagrass on the bottom.

But the line of Great Blues (there were three) along the rocks seemed to be watching and pondering the event.

Across the fence the masses of people who had come in especially to see the launch that morning were packed tight.  We had even seen some getting their spaces the night before.

While our exit road, only traveled by locals, was empty as we leisurely made our way to a dockside restaurant to grab lunch and give the crowds time to thin before we decided whether or not to just stay another night.

Eric needed to go back to Orlando but decided to hang around a while and wait on roads to clear before heading back.  Although he waited until after 3:30 it still took him a couple of hours to do the usually 45 minute drive back to his home.  On hearing that, Susan and I decided to stay over and try to totally avoid the mass exodus.

After a long nap and a pool visit I had one more place I wanted to go.  Just in time for the 4:30 departure of the cruise ships we headed to Jetty Park just down the beach from the condo.  My son had told me that he had been seeing young Sea Turtles hanging out along the jetty and I wanted to see.  I knew they would be Green Turtles because they are the ones known for hanging out around the beach area here.

They are one of the prettiest of the Sea Turtles with their smaller, beautifully patterned heads.  Interesting seeing these heads pop up briefly for a breath of air then back underneath to grab a bit of the green vegetation growing on the rocks.  Green Sea Turtles are vegetarians unlike their counterparts in the Loggerhead world who will eat both meat and vegetables.  Susan became my spotter as I waited to try to catch them with the camera in that brief time it took to inhale.  They were larger than dinner plate size some even as large as a turkey platter.

We could watch them swim down out of sight and after what seemed like a long time, they would head back up for several breaths of air then back down.  This one had several barnacles and moss growing on its back and was one of the larger ones.

The pattern on the head is just so pretty with dots above the eye which look like eyelashes.

On breaking the surface I began to notice the big bubble of exhaled air before they opened their mouth to take in more oxygen.  Lisa says this is largely a carbon dioxide bubble.

This is a "Dock Roach"; they are a Crustation not a bug.

One plant they have growing down there abundantly is the Sea Grapes which can be a ground cover, shrub or in this case an actual tree.  I brought home some seed to see if I can grow one for indoor use.  The leaf pattern and way they grow out of the stem is very different from most plants.

Some beautiful creatures wandering around at the condo and surrounding area, are these Peacocks.  Horrible things to have in your neighborhood even though they are intriguing to look at.  As my mom always said, pretty is as pretty does.  In that case these are not desirables.  First of all, at the crack of dawn we were awakened by what sounded like a cat with its tail caught in the door just outside our window.  WHAT IN THE WORLD???, was our reaction.

But what beautiful colors and patterns these fellows do have.  I'll take them in a painting rather then real life.  They are very destructive and can scratch the paint on your car by sitting on top, but also as one fellow who was on the local news the other night had his roof destroyed by them pecking holes in it.  Thanks but no thanks to having these wandering around my neighborhood.

As promised here is the painting that was accepted in the Florida Watercolor Society's Annual Exhibition.  It is called "Green Spaces" because it looked to me like a layout for a city landscape with small green park areas planned into the overall plan.  At least that is what I saw in it once it was finished.  When I am working on something like this I don't think of things like that only, how I want the colors and shapes to interact.  This painting was created with many layers of paint, initially nearly transparent, but then going toward opaque colors toward the end.