East Coast Treasures
Trip Start
Nov 19, 2007
1
142
171
Trip End
Ongoing
Flagler Beach, Florida, United States
Saturday, June 27, 2009
We have almost made it to July! Andy and I have decided to stay in Florida to see if we can actually handle the heat and humidity. Here we are checking out real estate everywhere we go and aren't really sure if we would have to leave every summer to get away from the 'dred heat'!! We figure it is a decent trade off: -- inside or leave all winter when living in NY or inside or leave all summer living in FL--. Our thinking is that leaving in summer is a good time of year for visiting family and friends who live in more comfortable places like West Coast and North East. But...we never like the idea of having to do anything...so we are doing our research.
Anyway....we have not melted and are finding the early mornings to be gorgeous and from 4:00pm on into the late night, we love being outside
Martin County Nature Center
. Atlantic breezes and starry skies with a balmy 80 degrees and high humidity to keep the skin hydrated. Not a bad deal. We shall see what July and August bring!!!After our disappointment in not getting our Nokomis house we took off for Stuart, Florida. Andy's tooth had gone through another root canal and now had a temporary filling that needed to become permanent. He very much liked Teddy's dentist recommendation when we were in Stuart early this year....so off we drove into the sunrise. Johnathan Dickinson is a terrific park that we are really getting to know well. If you drive s-l-o-w-l-y after sunset on the miles of park road you almost always get to see incredible snakes out languishing on the warm pavement. I expect lots get squished this way but we used their habit as a way of nature viewing. Fabo! Corn Snakes, Rat Snakes, Ruby Rat Snakes...etc...some I have no idea what color they really were as they took off too fast for me to get a good look. Snake Patrol became a regular every night adventure before closing down into Crazy Fish for the night.
While in Martin County I wanted to check out the Nature Center only about 1/2 mile north of the campground. We never got to stop in the last times passing through. This time we squeezed it in between going to Hobe Sound Beach swimming and walking and fishing
Janet and her salt tank
. What an unexpected delight! I really should not be surprised by anything these Rangers and Nature Center volunteers and employees put together. It is always of a high level of quality, knowledge and creativity. This Center is privately owned, operated and run and works in conjunction with the Preservation Foundation of Martin County. They have been working together for many years and it is a good marriage for all concerned. Please see the pictures of the center to really understand how interactive and fully active this center is in it's mission to educate people on how to bring safety to the critters and flora of Martin County. We were given a personal tour of the Center by Janet who has been the lead person in keeping the salt water tank up and going. She has many great ideas about using mangrove roots as the filters instead of the usual fiber glass filters, mimicking nature. Quite an impressive vision going on in her mind. Her devotion and enjoyment had us ready to sign up as volunteers if we were to stay around!! But with these nomadic toes always itching to tip toe on, we opted to sign up to join a "Turtle Watch". We were instructed to come back to the Center at 8:30pm in two days wearing clothing for a long walk on the beach and plenty of bug spray. No flash lights and no flash bulbs (sorry no pix). We were so excited we arrived a day early and were afraid we had somehow gotten the instructions wrong about where to meet when it hit us it was Tuesday NOT Wednesday!
Nature Center display room
!After handing over the $5.00 per person, we were led into an annex room at the Center and were given a very informative movie to watch and a short lecture to listen to so we would know how to behave appropriately towards these magnificent creatures. There are Loggerhead, Leather back and Green Turtles that are laying their eggs nightly on the Hobe Sound beaches. The Loggerheads are the least shy and least endangered so these are the turtles we are allowed to watch. They have been around for as long as dinosaurs!! Actually they are dinosaurs that made it through to now!! They deserve our respect and protection. Only 1 egg in 1000 laid will actually make it through to adulthood. That is not good for the Loggerhead population but does make some good eating for birds, crabs and fish.
We then all filed out to our vehicles and met up at the pavilion at Hobe Sound Beach. We all sat on the picnic tables there while the Turtle Watch volunteers scouted the beach for turtles, particularly for Loggerhead Turtles, trudging up the sand from the surf finding themselves a perfect nesting spot to dig a hole and lay her eggs. Often, we were told, groups of tourists like us can come and just sit on the tables and never get a call to watch.....not us....the Andy Block "luck" solidly in place, our Ranger got a call on her walkie talkie that Loggerheads are marching!!
Nature Center displays and activity room
! She kept saying, "this is amazingly good luck!" Andy and I just nodded to each other as we so often do....our lives being so blessed so often with the magic and wonder of nature being offered to us for our viewing enjoyment. Our guide kept us all behind her and her red beamed flash light. There was plenty of moon to light our way no problem. We could easily make out the white surf and the dark grasses on the dunes. As our eyes got more adjusted we could see large mounds slowly climbing out of the surf onto the sand. SSSHHHHH............. Loggerheads ! She told us that if we spook them while they are still climbing up onto the sand to find their nesting spot, they will just turn and go back into the ocean. They may come back in a bit or they may get too spooked and lose their nights batch of eggs. In the course of a season they lay about 100 eggs at a time every two weeks or so. They grow and carry their new batch of eggs during those weeks under the outer edges of their shells on both sides of their bodies. When the eggs get fully developed for laying, they travel on down their bodies to their tail area where they most expertly lay them two and three at a time into a perfectly dug 2-3 foot deep hole in the sand. This beautiful Earth Mother then tediously uses her flippers to cover and pack the sand over her nest to protect the eggs from temperature changes and predators
pelts we could touch!
. Loads of animals love to eat eggs. I know I love eggs...I haven't ever had a turtle egg but I sure enjoy a chicken egg! We were kept back away from the Loggerhead as she completed digging her nesting hole with her back flippers used as diggers and her front flippers used as pushers. She then settled her tail end over the hole and began laying her batch while we were allowed to slowly come around her back end only. No one is allowed to come to her front side as she may get unnerved by such behavior. The volunteer had dug out around the nesting hole and placed a small white beamed flashlight in the sand shining right on the eggs as they fell into the nest. The eggs are leathery soft and the size of a ping pong ball. Pure white and breathtakingly beautiful! My eyes filled with tears as I thought of how vulnerable this beautiful ancient mother allowed herself to become every two weeks all summer while she did her part in keeping Loggerhead Turtles propagating against huge odds. We were all silent or whispered our amazement and our love for her as she completed her job. Once she was finished laying and began filling her nest in with sand, the guides allowed us to touch her back. As we stroked her back with our hands and gave our thanks with our hearts we were surprised and delighted by the phosphorescent path our stroke created. She even has "bling"!!! What a magnificent goddess of the sea!
display of thinkgs to touch and hold
!She then began to turn to reorient herself for her walk back to the ocean and on into the night. The guides quickly made sure we all stayed away from her head so we would not make a difference to her orientation. She did beautifully and we all followed her down to the Ocean and said our silent but fervent goodbyes as she effortlessly slipped into the surf and was gone. I know we will probably not be there for the hatching of these tiny turtles but I sure wish we could be. I am totally imprinted on this batch!!!! My heart still squeezes a bit thinking I won't be there to make sure no birds or raccoons or crabs grab my turtle babies as they make their first treacherous hike to the surf.
Crazy Fish took us north to Flagler Beach and Gamble Rogers State Park where we have been ever since. When the "Andy Block Luck" has a lull in its strength we pop down to Tomoka State Park till another site opens up back at Gamble Rogers. So far so good.....We are enjoying the beach here and funky great town of Flagler. Once again thanks to Gerry and Susan Selby for their recommendation we come to Flagler Beach! Bravo for a good match of us to a town. The shops and restaurants are small and loaded with personality. The Farmers Market is every Friday and Saturday and is fabulous
King Snake
! Best blueberries ever --- other than my son's bushes in WA--. Zoning that doesn't allow buildings over 3 stories and all kinds of strickness in the living and building "Green" department! Hooray!! We are hooked up with a husband/wife team of realtors who we like very much. They are working hard and smart getting us into all sorts of properties. So far we are more confused than anything but that is perhaps the "dark before the dawn". At least we know we are OK with the heat through the end of June. The swimming, fishing, boating and biking is huge here and that attracts us enormously! We shall keep you all informed if there is anything to report.
Comments
flagler beach
this was the first place I camped out at and liked it allot because it was not over developed like so many places in Fl. glade to hear it is holding it's own.