I've been lazy about posting, and taking pictures. I've been too busy with my book, but that's a lame excuse! This seagoing warrior even took a rest on our shores today.



He (or she) has so much expression in his face. I wonder what he thought as I took pictures and scared him, checking to see that he wasn't injured or entangled.



It was a gorgeous day today in Pensacola Beach. All the spring break visitors seemed to enjoy our blue skies.




I spent some time searching for gopher tortoise burrows in the Naval Live Oak woods over the weekend. Since it's been rather cold over the past few weeks, they haven't been foraging, and the fires were pretty recent, so I didn't have much luck. Maybe next week!



What really surprised me in the forest was the amount of green already showing up, just three days after the last flame was extinguished.



I always think of these sandy soils as being desert like, struggling to support plant life, but they do a great job supporting local species like long leaf pine. It's great to see the forest bouncing back from all the recent hurricanes and drought events.

Strandings and Trees

We had the first stranding of the year today, a beautiful little loggerhead that still had a keel on his/her central scutes. I've never seen a turtle of this size -- I've seen smaller and larger, but this is about the size they are when they first return to shore after "The Lost Years". I've seen greens like this, but it's my first loggerhead. Just wish it was alive!



Earlier this weekend, I spent a warm early morning at Santa Rosa, GPSing the north shore tide line. It's always fun to wander around there in areas that are not normally dry enough to get to. This little sculpture of tree and trash was hidden in one small marshy areas.



If it was in Thailand, I would call it a spirit tree. Here, it's likely someones excuse not to take their trash off the beach.



A lot of trees along the parks beaches died during the hurricanes of recent years, mostly from salt water intrusion. These roots have been exposed since the storms, wearing away more in the tides and weather. It seems impossible that some of them are still standing!



This was another weekend find, on low tide at the rock jetty on Perdido Key. Wonder who Cameron is, and how he or she carved this is the wet rock.