A Trip to Sanibel Island

I have recently returned to Alabama from a trip to sunny Florida where it was cold, windy,overcast, and misty/rainy. I suppose I should have known better than to go south during spring break. Although the beaches where I was were not exceedingly crowded, I suspect the reason was the weather. But in spite of the weather, it was a lovely trip and was nice to be with all the family, and share some time away. We stayed in a condo just steps from the beach, we ate at the original home of Cheeburger Cheeburger (Yum for those chocolate key lime pie milkshakes), ate a meal at the Mucky Duck (Once is all we could afford), and cruised around looking for alligators which we never saw. We took the ferry from Pine Island over to Caya Costa State Park and spent several hours trolling the deserted beaches for sand dollars. (Found about 5 or 6,none of which were perfect, but were still good finds.)I managed to get my feet sunburned (a first for me-it's usually my nose). My nose sailed through unscathed due to diligent use of spray sun block (A new thing for me-I thought you had to slather it on) as well as a very wide brimmed hat. We found lots of shells, but not a lot of big ones. We found so many in fact that we were only able to bring a fraction of them home, but then, the joy is in the hunt anyway. I will post a few pictures later but will try not to run on forever like I did about Hawaii.

Rabbit on Fossil Trail Sanibel Island

 

My definitive killing frost happened December 7. Wipe-Out!!
Cold and miserable days make me take refuge in looking at some of my Sanibel Island pictures taken over the last year. This is one of a rabbit happily munching beside the road. This was taken in Ding Darling Wildlife Preserve where a road had been constructed out to a power line tower. The tower was built on a pile of rubble that had been dredged up for the purpose from the surrounding water covered area. It must have been covered with water for a long time because the whole road and base for the tower were made from fossilized shells. This rabbit is in no way connected to the fossils except it just happened to be there.

Driftwood

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Mangroves

 

 

 

At a nature center in Ding Darling preserve I finally got an answer to my question about what those bean looking things are that are often found on the beach on Sanibel and Captiva. The first picture is a poster showing the germination of mangrove seed. the flowers are pollinated by bees and the seed actually germinates and elongates through the fruit. It finally drops off into the water and floats away. Eventually one end of the propagule as the germinated seed is called becomes waterlogged and drops down in the water so that the propagule floats in an upright position.It will hopefully touch a suitable site and root there. the last picture shows the propagules floating vertically.
Mangrove roots form the basis of a nursery for many marine organisms including oysters, crabs, and shrimp. In the second picture you can see the shells clinging to the roots. Mangroves help prevent erosion by stabilizing and actually building land.
The area around the mangrove roots is very smelly as the root zone is usually anaerobic and produces such things as methane and sulfides. There are also a lot of mosquitoes and no-see-ems that are laying in wait for you if you get too close. so look quick and move on, but they have an important job to do for our world.