Linear view vs. Masonry View

Kayak to Shell Key

Thanks to a birthday gift from my thoughtful cousin, Shane, I finally made it out to Shell Key. Since we were heading west you would think having the wind out of the east would make paddling to the island a breeze.

Except for the minor detail that it was low tide and the wind was pushing the remaining water away. Our shallow crossing became more of a wet slog as kayaks ran aground and some folks had to get out and pull their way across the bay.

The water was chilly but not unbearable and our guide Chris had everyone laughing about the situation. At least we knew nobody was gonna drown!

After reaching the small sand bar we had about an hour to wander and explore. The beach lived up to its name as the sand was covered with shells and sand dollars. Since I already have quite a collection I happily shared my finds with a nice lady vacationing from Indiana.

On our return trip we were accompanied by a small pod of dolphins. Couldn’t have asked for a better morning!
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Six Degrees (Or Fewer)

At work we receive random donations of food, hygiene products, and other items from the public everyday. We weigh the incoming items and then sort them into the proper areas for distribution to our clients.

During sorting duty this week I came across this vanity pack with a logo that I recognized instantly. The Arizona Inn is a small, cozy, long-time Tucson institution that I had the pleasure of working at not once, but twice. Odd that something from over 2,000 miles away ended up in here in St. Petersburg!

I showed it to my coworker, Andrew, and explained why I was taking a photo of it. He looked surprised for a second and then said that he lived in Tucson in the early 2000s. That started a fun conversation about some of the great places we both used to visit.

Just this evening as we were all leaving work, I mentioned this little place that served the best milkshakes, right outside Glacier National Park. My coworker Ben exclaimed, “Wait, don’t tell me. Park Cafe, right?” Turns out his brother worked at the cafe the same summer that I worked at the park.

What a small, interconnected world this is. Move over Kevin Bacon, I’m working on fewer than six degrees!

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Jump for Joy?

Mullet jumping may sound like an event from the redneck games involving beer, bad haircuts, and 4wheelers. It’s actually far more interesting (though just as poorly understood by science).

The main theories are that mullets jump to avoid predation, to remove parasites, or to break open their egg sacs during spawning season. Much less popular among researchers is the idea that mullets throw themselves out of the water because it’s just plain fun.

In my, albeit limited, experience these past couple years living along the Gulf of Mexico, I noted the mass jumping events during December and January. This lends merit to the sac breaking theory since it happens to correspond with the mullet spawning season (November-January).

No matter why they do it, it does look like they’re having fun!
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Jagged Tooth*

There seems to be an uptick in shark activity in the waters off the Florida coast. There’s a video of a Great White Shark (Carcharodon carcharias) biting a boat that circulated last Friday.

Just a couple days earlier an eleven-foot female pinged in the Florida Keys. Affectionately called Acadia by the OCEARCH research team, she was tagged this past September off the coast of Nova Scotia. (When they say everybody heads to Florida for the winter, they mean everybody!)

She has now rounded the corner and entered the Gulf of Mexico. Just this morning she pinged down near Cape Coral (about 120 miles south of me). It will be interesting to follow her progress!

Much closer to home I came across this small, deceased Great White on the beach at Sand Key. Such fascinating creatures!

*Derived from Ancient Greek, carcharodon, means jagged tooth.

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Super Star

The recent riptides and swirling currents along our coast stirred up a bunch of debris from the shallow sea floor and tossed it up on the shore. While some visitors were disturbed by the mess, to me it was a beachcomber’s paradise.

The most exciting find of my day was this small brittle star. Does that central disc remind you of something? A sand dollar, perhaps? You’re on to something!

Brittle stars, sea stars, sea cucumbers, and sand dollars are all members of the same phylum, Echinoderm (Greek for spiny skin).

Like their multi-armed counterparts, brittle stars can also regrow their limbs. In fact, they earned the moniker brittle star because they shed their arms so easily (as a mechanism to avoid predation).

But brittle stars take regeneration to the next level with their ability to completely separate from their central disc and organs: a single arm can produce an entirely new brittle star. That’s so amazing that it is almost creepy.
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Busy Boy

According to the All About Birds website the Blue Gray Gnatcatcher (Polioptila caerulea) “makes itself known by its soft but insistent calls and its constant motion”. Now add in the fact that it prefers dense foliage and you’ll begin to understand why I am delighted to have captured a decent shot of this energetic bundle.

If you look closely you can see the hint of a dark eyebrow, meaning this little male is preparing for mating season.

In case you were wondering, this is what most of my photos of him from that day looked like:

Buh Bye!

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