ON A BEACH SOMEWHERE..............................

Definitely do a double-click on this heavy-metal mailbox.

Someone (no names mentioned, of course) posted the comment on our last blog entry that...... "You should be on a beach somewhere............", well that one came in at the same time as we were on a beach somewhere. An endless beach along the Atlantic Coast, south of VERO, that disappeard at both ends into the haze. We were doing our powerwalk thing in the morning. The tide was high and the sea dead calm, despite the fact that Hurricane "BILL" is out there somewhere towards Bermuda, wreaking(wrecking) havoc. Lots of tracks on the beach from a 4-wheeler ATV, which we eventually tracked down to a sporty young guy with a clipboard, a laptop and a hand-held GPS. That GPS stands for 'global positioning system'. Allows you to pin-point yourself anywhere on Earth, and with a shout of "Eureka", and some finger-pointing, declare loudly...... "I am here". Well, the ATV guy is actally a scientist recording all the location of the sites, where sea-turtles have left tracks during the night when they have come ashore to lay clutches of eggs. These are mostly 'loggerhead' sea-turtles. The buriel sites are marked off with stakes, numbered and dated and the expected young 'flip-floppers' emerge between 52 and 85 days later. Little point in spending 30 nights sitting next to such a site waiting for the big moment........ but it would be awesome to see new life emerging..............and the frenzied crawl to the sea on tiny little flippers........... (double-click on the pic, if you want a better look at the sand)




That little gadget, in the photo on the right, that looks like a vintage cellphone is the hand-held GPS. We asked him if there were any vacancies in his line of work, but he only smiled...................Imagine being paid to do this................



What is truly amazing is that the surviving female sea-turtles (and the mortality rate is high) when mature, return to the very same beach to lay their eggs, in turn. The amazing part is that they don't even have GPS. The egg laying takes place from June to October, which co-incides with the hurricane season................ bad plan, if you ask me........................



We found this piece of intersting wild-life on the way back. A very fat, and fast-eating locust specimen, who had systematically devoured the three periwinkle plants in the foreground, which used to look just like the row in the back. You may have to double click on this photo, to see his munch marks, and when you do, you will notice that the locust is actually smiling at the camera...............in an off-handed sort of way. This is not an endangered species, unlike the sea-turtles, although it will be, if the home-owner catches him in the act.