Nature you Will See in July St Pete

Beach(07.01.09)
by Cleo Robertson

July is hot. July can be rainy. July can be anything

actually. People often ask me if I leave in July and August
because of the heat. No, I don’t. I swim in the water,
garden, swim in the water, walk, swim in the water…well,
you get the picture. Stay out of the heat or get in the
water, is my advice.

Sunsets in the summer are unbelievable…go to the beach a half hour before and relax
your mind, body and spirit as you watch “the great artist in the sky” paint another
masterpiece! To see a slideshow of sunsets by local photographers—they are all from St.
Pete Beach--click on Local People and then Sunsets and start the slideshow. If you have a
sunset you want to add, click on Contact Us and send it in! We will be happy to add it to
our collection.

Turtles are here: Yes those big, wonderful Loggerhead turtles of the deep that come
back to their birthing ground to give birth as adults, are coming in to our local beaches.
Some years there are as many as 25 nests in all, so we are contributing to these animals
thriving. Some tips. Do not tinker with the nests—turtles hatch by moon and other
rhythms and no one should do anything to interrupt their cycle.

Bruno Falkenstein Turtle Update: He reported 118 nests by July 2 of this year; 4 on Shell
Island and 16 on St. Pete Beach, 30 on Fort Desoto and 68 at the Clearwater Science
Center. We’ll keep you posted as the summer progresses.

Sea turtles are air-breathing reptiles with lungs similar to ours, which allow them to
breathe air like us. They are cold-blooded and they get their warmth from the sun and the
water around them. There are five kinds of sea turtles found in the coastal waters of the
United States: Loggerhead (which lay their eggs on our coast line), Green, Leatherback
(biggest of the sea turtles), and Kemp’s Ridley (the smallest and rarest).
 Turtles have good sight underwater, but above water they
are nearsighted. They have good hearing even though they
don’t have external ears. Their sense of smell is very
good. Adult male and female sea turtles are about the
same size, except males have longer, thicker tails and
longer claws. The top shell is called the carapace. The
scutes, or plates on their back (carapace) form a design
that helps identify each kind of turtle.

Sea turtles have shells that are flatter than land turtles, with no space for them to use for
hiding. This allows them to swim swiftly in the water (particularly when escaping hungry
sharks). Some sea turtles may even swim as fast as 22 miles (nearly 35 kilometers) per
hour! During the day, they spend their time swimming underwater and foraging for food.
They swim to the surface about every five minutes to take a deep breath of air.

Sometime between the age of 25 and 50 (sea turtles can live to 80), the females come on
land to lay their nests on the beaches of Florida from May to October. They return to the
same nesting ground every few years (although some females may nest many times in a
season, laying hundreds and hundreds of eggs). After crawling ashore, she uses her rear
flippers to dig a hole into which she lays approximately 100 leathery ping-pong ball-sized
eggs. After covering the nest with sand, she enters the ocean, never to return to her
young. Now that is what I call tough love. It takes about two months for the eggs to
incubate and hatch. After leaving its nest on the beach, a loggerhead hatchling reaches
shelter in the drifting Sargasso seaweed if it can get through the dangers of bright lights
leading them in the wrong direction or birds and other predators eating them before they
reach the water.

Occasionally, sharks or killer whales attack adult sea turtles but humans are by far their
worst enemy. Humans want the turtles eggs, meat and shell. Many drown in fishing nets.
Some get sick from ocean pollution, and others die after swallowing trash that they have
mistaken for food. A floating plastic bag looks a lot like a jellyfish to a foraging sea
turtle!

Fossils of the earliest sea turtles date back to 150 million years ago. They have even
outlived the dinosaurs. All over the world, scientists, governments, corporations, and
volunteers are working hard to protect these ancient reptiles and to help them survive for
centuries to come. [For more information on turtles, see Our Wild World Series—Sea
Turtles, by Lorraine A. Jay.]
Now that you have a little background on these wonderful creatures, some evening take a
long walk on the beach late at night. You might see a female loggerhead dragging herself
along to create her nest. All she and I ask is that you not interfere or touch her in any
way. She’s on a mission so that one day my grandchildren and yours can see these
remarkable animals continue their evolution.

Shells you might see:

Cockleshells and Lettered
olives are coming in a lot
during this month. Cockles
are a form of clam and are
large shells the size of
one’s hand with ridges all
along the outside; they are
great to use for holding
paperclips, rubber bands, etc. Lettered olives look like bullets and dark ones have
lettering that looks like someone used a pen and wrote all around it. Both these shells are
local and come out from the bays where they birth, mate and grow up. If you fill a clear
glass bottle with Lettered Olives it’s a great gift. You’ll find them most often within 10’
of the shoreline.

Trees in bloom: As you walk around any neighborhood

or area, keep your nose alert. There are many trees that
bloom all summer and they let off a lovely scent. The
Frangipani flowers (Plumera) come in many colors—
white with a yellow center, deep pink, and light pink.
These are easy to grow trees. They have thick, sausage-
like twigs and branches, which jut out in various
directions, carrying large clusters of flowers on the end of
the largest branches, usually near the top. Each color has a
different fragrance, so just go around and check any out you see. If you find one you
really like, ask the owner if you can break off a small twig. Put it in the ground and keep
it watered and in a very short time a fine tree will emerge and give you your own fragrant
garden.
Birds of the air: Sometime when you’re on the beach, lie
down and look up, way up. Usually during the summer
you’ll see a very dark bird soaring around looking for
food (yes, even from way up on high). This bird is the
Magnificent Frigate, which spends much of its time in the
air. Its huge wingspan makes it hard for these birds to land
on water or beach so usually their flight begins and ends
from a large tree or pole. If you see one with an all-white
head and chest, those are the young birds of the season.
The female has a black head and white breast, while the male is mostly black except for a
red pouch that he puffs up the size of a balloon during mating season to attract his lady.
They steal fish from other birds often, but I have actually seen one dive on a choppy day
and catch his own fish and what a sight it was. Their wingspan can reach 6 feet.

A Wondrous adventure: Back in the 1940’s and 1950’s

when I was growing up, July was the time to look for
fruit. From black mission figs to mangos, papayas to
seagrapes, we always had an abundance of food. One year
my mother took my sister and me to St. Petersburg to visit
some friends of hers. Nancy and I went into the orchard
and picked the first mangos we had ever seen on a tree.
Oh, what a treat. Juices running down our arms, face
smeared with the orange flesh, we were in heaven. I don’t
remember how many we ate, but it was a good amount.

There was, however, a small fact we did not know. Mangos are related to the poison ivy
family and have the same kind of oil on their skin as that pesky weed does. It turned out
that Nancy was allergic and I was not and we found this out because in the morning we
could not see Nancy’s face—everything was hidden behind the most swollen skin I have
ever seen. Ice packs and time cured her face but let all be forewarned—if you don’t know
if you are allergic or not, have someone else skin it and just enjoy the inside (there is no
oil on the meat).

That’s July—full of life, weather changing every few minutes, storms around with rain
(we hope) and lots to see and do. Check out Things to Do for those times when you need
to get out of the heat, rain or to entertain family and/or guests. Enjoy!

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