{"id":5858,"date":"2010-04-09T21:54:51","date_gmt":"2010-04-10T02:54:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/?p=5858"},"modified":"2010-04-10T06:30:26","modified_gmt":"2010-04-10T11:30:26","slug":"a-walk-on-the-beach-southwest-florida-style","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/?p=5858","title":{"rendered":"A Walk on the Beach — Southwest Florida Style"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"calico<\/a><\/p>\n

Florida Calico Box Crab (Hepatus ephiliticus)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Sue Wieber Nourse of Turtle Journal spent the morning exploring Vanderbilt Beach on the Gulf Coast of Florida.\u00c2\u00a0 Increasingily powerful rays warm beach, water and abutting uplands, beginning the annual transformation from leisurely winter\u00c2\u00a0adagissimo\u00c2\u00a0to the quickening cadence of springtime.\u00c2\u00a0 Researchers have begun patrols along the shoreline in anticipation of the first nesting loggerhead sea turtles that may arrive any night.\u00c2\u00a0 Gopher tortoises can be spied each morning\u00c2\u00a0moving slowly deep\u00c2\u00a0inside their burrows and beginning to venture into the midday sunshine in search of prospective mates.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"calico<\/a><\/p>\n

Calico Box Crab on Vanderbilt Beach in Naples, Florida<\/em><\/strong>\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

One of the first critters to\u00c2\u00a0greet Sue\u00c2\u00a0in the warm April sunshine this morning was a rather\u00c2\u00a0clownly attired calico box crab.\u00c2\u00a0 Clearly ready for action, it seemed prudent to snap a few pictures and move on down the beach.<\/p>\n

\"shark<\/a><\/p>\n

Juvenile\u00c2\u00a0Shark Hooked off Vanderbilt Beach in Naples, Florida<\/em><\/strong>\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

A fisherman had hooked a\u00c2\u00a0juvenile shark while bottom fishing off Vanderbilt Beach and Sue happened by just as he attempted to remove the hook and release the animal back into the Gulf.<\/p>\n

\"sea<\/a><\/p>\n

Sea Hare on Gulf Coast Florida Beach<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

One of our\u00c2\u00a0favorite Florida creatures is the sea hare.\u00c2\u00a0 \u00c2\u00a0When I think of the oft recited fable of “The Hare and the Tortoise<\/em><\/strong>,” and its ironic outcome, I’m convinced that Aesop must have been thinking of the sea hare as the turtle’s competitor.\u00c2\u00a0 Yes, I understand that it would ruin the moral of the story, but it would be a great deal more\u00c2\u00a0faithful to natural history and a little more believable\u00c2\u00a0…\u00c2\u00a0even for a turtle lover.<\/p>\n

\"snook<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00c2\u00a0Snook<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Illustrating the wide variety of species dotting the Gulf coastline of Southwest Florida, a snook had washed ashore on the beach by the Ritz Carlton Naples Resort Hotel.<\/p>\n

\"seastar<\/a><\/p>\n

Southwest Florida Sea Star<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

I guess it was inevitable to find a star basking on Southwest Florida’s golden beach in hope of discovery by\u00c2\u00a0some modern day Cecil B Demille.\u00c2\u00a0 Long gone\u00c2\u00a0is the era\u00c2\u00a0of soda\u00c2\u00a0fountains at corner drug stores, so perhaps starlettes today can only be found bathing in southern sunshine.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0This specimen\u00c2\u00a0does seem perfectly shaped for the\u00c2\u00a0glitsy Walk of Fame at the intersection of Hollywood and Vine.\u00c2\u00a0 Who cares that it has three extra points.\u00c2\u00a0 Wouldn’t you prefer an eight star restaurant over an ordinary five star eatery?\u00c2\u00a0 If five is good, eight must be so much\u00c2\u00a0better.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Florida Calico Box Crab (Hepatus ephiliticus) Sue Wieber Nourse of Turtle Journal spent the morning exploring Vanderbilt Beach on the Gulf Coast of Florida.\u00c2\u00a0 Increasingily powerful rays warm beach, water and abutting uplands, beginning the annual transformation from leisurely winter\u00c2\u00a0adagissimo\u00c2\u00a0to the quickening cadence of springtime.\u00c2\u00a0 Researchers have begun patrols along the shoreline in anticipation of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[824],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5858"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5858"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5858\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5891,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5858\/revisions\/5891"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}