Fossil Hunting in Venice Beach

On July 14th we needed a little adventure so we packed the car with SCUBA gear and headed to Sharky's Pier in Venice. Today's mission was to find some Megalodon Teeth buried in the sand for millions of years. Visibility was nonexistent but then again you can't see through sand anyway so off we went. We didn't find any megalodon teeth but we did find several fossilized carcharidon teeth and the crown jewel for this trip...a fossilized dugong rib. For those who don't know, the Dugong is a relative of the manatee who's habitat existed in North American during the Eocene period. Today they are only found off Australia.

Photoshop can make any beach beautiful!

what it actually looked like that day as we prepared to dive!

this guy pinched my fingers and almost gave me a heart attack since I couldn't see what grabbed me.

the day's treasures,
the long fossil at the bottom is the dugong rib.

Blue Springs

Blue Springs State parks boasts the largest fresh water spring on the St. Johns River, it was originally settled by John Thursby and his family in 1856, the house still stands and can be toured during park hours. Of more interest to me personally was the spring itself which is a designated manatee refuge from November to March. No manatees today. but the waters from this spring run crystal clear and maintain a temperature in the low 70's pretty much year round, making it a great place to cool off and relax after our 4th of July weekend in Orlando.


Water is amazingly clear, this picture is taken from the bottom of the river looking up

heading into the mouth of the spring,
depth is about 25'



this is where the spring feeds into the river, you
can feel the water pushing you back out



Looking back up from the mouth of the spring through 30' feet of water
you can see how clear it really is!

What trip would be complete without a couple new friends?

A friendly little turtle....
 

and this one is a gar.

Isle of Capri

Nestled just a couple miles from Marco Island is a little park specifically for non-motorized water craft. It is called Isle of Capri Paddle Craft Park. This park was built in 2011 after a property designated for a hotel was sold back to the state. The Rookery Bay Reserve restored it as the park to provide an area where non-motorized vessels could explore the back bays and mangrove swamps. It sounded like an ideal place for a little stand-up paddleboard workout since the would be no wake or fuel fumes generated by boaters. After a short drive down to the area what we found was another shining example Florida's many treasures.


Look Mom, No motors!
 

Beautiful view
 



calm waters
 

Young, healthy mangroves along banks.
 

 



How it all began!

Historic Fort Myers

Class Trip! on June 27th we took a field trip to Downtown Fort Myers to learn a little history. I had no idea the history of this place was so long and colorful. Not being a Florida Native I found it very interesting to hear about the Seminole Indians and the early European settlers in this area It was also interesting to note the fact that even though Florida is deep in the southern part of the United States, Ft. Myers was actually a Union Fort that never fell to the Confederacy throughout the Civil War. The history of this city is captivating and well worth learning for any US History buff. You can also find several statues and murals throughout the downtown area depicting a visual history of this place. I am anxious to learn more!

'Uncommon Friends'
This statue is a  tribute to the bond shared by three of the city’s most famous winter residents, Thomas Edison, Henry Ford and Harvey Firestone that commemorated the first 100 years of Fort Myers.

'Fort Myers: An Alternative History'
This ceramic tile mural is 20' high x 100' long and depicts the first 50 years of Fort Myers History, representing the removal of the Seminole, the 2nd Regiment of US Colored Troops who defended the fort throughout the Civil War, Cattle Ranchers, the first railroad and even a public hanging. The mural is located overlooking the courtyard of the Federal Courthouse in Downtown Fort Myers.

Collier-Seminole State Park

Continuing on in the tour of State Parks, a few days after we returned from Key Largo we got the itch to do some paddling, so we rented a canoe at the Collier-Seminole Park in the Everglades. It was a nice relaxing day for the most part...

The journey begins as we head across the "dry lake"

This looks like a nice peaceful route!



Great place for a little lunch, but maybe we spoke to soon.
This guy looks like he might be in the mood for some lunch too!


 

Pretty sure this is the way out, where's the map?

We made it back to "Dry Lake" now I understand the name, guess we should have paid more attention to the tides!
nothing to do now but take a nap!

We did finally make it out and I am happy to report that we survived, all in all it was a pretty great day.





Key Largo

 

A few weeks back, my wife and I decided to take a road trip down to Key Largo and visit the John C. Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park. Pennekamp is a unique experience available here in southern Florida and is the 1st undersea state park in the United States. It allows visitor's to view our undersea  treasures in a protected sanctuary that has not been destroyed by other fishing or harvesting. On this trip we went diving in the sanctuary and were rewarded with a variety of sea life that popped out to say hello.

Natural reef in protected marine sanctuary.


A few new friends we made:



Nurse Shark!

Amberjack off in the distance, he was not quite
as friendly as most of the sea life we encountered.




This little guy dreams of being a model and was all about
posing for a few close-ups.




Barracuda - a little shy but watch out for those teeth!



 Dude! It's Crush the Sea Turtle.



Air is just about gone, time to head back to the boat.

 

For more info on Pennekamp Coral Reef Park and what it has to offer just click this link http://pennekamppark.com/

FGCU Food Forest

Took a walk through the FGCU Food Forest today, the "Food Forest" is a special student run botanical garden showing the sustainability of southwest florida with the majority of the plants and trees grown here being edible. Today it was pretty dry and most of the fruits have been harvested with the exception of a few papayas and bananas that were not quite ready. The bees and butterflies were very active with their jobs of tending to the garden and we were paid a special visit by the local supervisor who sat high in his perch overseeing everything from the garden to the surrounding nature trails.

 

 

 

Unfortunately, I had to cancel the walk through the nature trail due to flooding from all the rain this past week. Hoping to find time to do the walk within the next few days.

 

Erosion at work

Feeling inspired by the trip to ECHO, I decided I wanted to try my hand at growing avocados, I figured since avocado trees need to be elevated to prevent root rot here in Southwest Florida, I would create an elevated island for the trees and surround it with a pond in which I could raise tilapia. With trusty shovel in hand I began digging up my backyard. Of course, believing I am way smarter than I actually am ( I am a guy afterall), I realized that I would need to construct a retaining wall as I went so I set out to create a little island oasis in my backyard. The island itself went fairly well, I dug about 18" down and created a nice level area around which I set-up a retaining wall and then filled it all in so I could plant the trees.

Once the pond liner is in place I plan to add 4 more inches to the retaining wall and also raise the island and use plantation peanut as ground cover and for nitrogen fixation for the trees.

Feeling very pleased with this phase I begin digging out the pond...

making sure to build the retaining wall as I go! Everything is going well but as I am only one man, this project has taken several days and of course Mother Nature would not be denied her chance to assist me and sent a couple days worth of major rain and wind. My efforts to build a retaining wall as I went coupled with only having one side of the island dug out made for a very nice focusing of all the rainwater through my "trench".

You can see in this picture how the water was able to erode a nice shelf about 8 feet beyond where my planned pond would stop and create a nice hole about 18" deep that flowed through the tranch and washed everything into the canal behind my house. This will easily add an extra day or two to my project since now I will need remove all the deposits of the runoff and fill the hole in my yard. Maybe this was nature telling me that I needed a bigger pond for my tilapia? Either way, I got a first hand introduction to erosion in the form of a mudslide washing out a good portion of my backyard in just a few hours of rain. I just hope the next big storm can hold off long enough for me to finish the walls before it all washes away again.

A trip to ECHO Farm

Another hidden treasure here in SW Florida that I was fortunate enough to visit thanks to the Colloquium was ECHO Farms. Here, volunteers work to "solve the problems of world hunger" through sustainable, environment appropriate development and training. This is really an amazing operation where one can learn about how to work with a given environment to sustain both the ecosystem and the people. We went on an eco-tour where I learned alot about how people can interact with their environment to provide nourishment and sustainment for both. After leaving here, I decided to add a Moringa tree to my own garden at home for a nice nutrition packed leafy green addidtion to my familly's diet and also I am thinking about a Tilapia instead of the Koi pond I had been planning. This trip made me think about my current lifestyle and the stress it creates on our planet and I would like to become more self sufficient instead of supporting the destruction of our natural wealth by supporting businesses with unethical practices. It also got me thinking about ways I might help educate future generations to be more aware of how our actions affect the sustainability of the planet.

A walk through six-mile cypress slough

Wife and I decided to check out the Six-Mile Slough, the cypress swamp here is not quite as old as the one at the Corkscrew Sanctuary, but this little boardwalk is still well worth the trip. As we walked we were able to distinguish the call of the pileated woodpecker, after we located it, he decided to stick around and pose for a few pics :)

 

 

The resevoir area was also buzzing with more dragonflies than I have seen in a long time.

As we continued on our walk we came across a great set of tracks leading toward the swampy water...

 

leading to this guy, 

just a few feet away.

 

 

This was turning into a very exciting trip when we heard some grunting and rooting off in the distance and stumbled across this fellow and his sister digging up some breakfast...

Another exciting adventure in the wilds of Southwest Florida, here are a few more pics from our day, can you identify them?