Journal Observations 9/20/21
SUNDAY 9/19/21
“Picking a Spot”
Full Moon tomorrow night
Rising Tide at 10AM High at 1:25PM
Manasota Key North Beach
Full sun
Lots of People on the Beach
Big AA meeting in outside pavilion
Few Birds
Sea Oats on dunes
Cool side trail into dune woods with:
Shade
Insects
Cactus
Spiders
Lovers in bush (?)
Middle Beach: Blind Pass 10:20 AM
Puddles in parking lot too big to cross
Englewood Beach 10:30 AM
Pleasant south breeze
Full sun
The Beach Guy is operating for many sunbathers
Gulls seeking handouts
On Dune, sea oats, sea grapes, cabbage palms, muscadine vines; also, a lilly(?) with one large white flower
White birds flying south; gray birds flying around in dune undergrowth; calls of doves
The only shady observation point is under a palm on the northernmost boardwalk, from which I see:
Small yellow and brown flowers (later identified as West Coast Dune Sunflower)
Ants
Black fluttery moth
Stump Pass State Park 10:45 AM
Beach crowd sparse and spread out
At top of beach where the dune rises, some dead fish skeletons poissibly lefdt over from last week’s red tide.
The shade is in the mangrove forest at the top of the dune where the trail runs on the narrow strip between beachside and bayside
More of the Dune Sunflower
A jet skier with country music
Tree identified as Hercules Club (“toothache tree”)
Cactus
MONDAY 9/20/21
“My Spot” at Stump Pass
Full Moon tonight
Rising Tide at 9:15 AM High at 2:11 PM
Wind: Slight NE breeze
Bright Sun and very few people
About 150 yards down the trail from the restrooms I sit under a white mangrove looking in front of me to the top of the dune and the beach, and behind me to the Bay; nearby a squirrel
Crest of dune covered in sea grass, the Dune Sunflowers, and a vine identified as a Golden Beach Creeper
My spot is peaceful and quiet. The only human sounds are the ranger’s Jeep running down the beach and snatches of faraway conversations. Hardly a boat on the bayside, but people were launching kayaks from the parking lot when I started
A woman alone on the Beach is fishing standing up while smoking a cigarette and being watched by that egret.
Plants:
Sea Grapes, Palmettos, Cabbage Palms, cactus, that Golden Beach Creeper, and a pretty blue flower on a tiny ground vine
Animals:
Squirrel, Mullet jumping in the Bay, Small grey lizard on a twig,
Reddish Egret on beach watching a fisher, and a flock of four brown pelicans pass overhead
Insects:
Fast-buzzing flies or bees; Tiny spider on a delicate web in the mangroves; Dragonflies, and a curious black, yellow and green bumble bee among the sea oats
History:
I brought a book about the “Marine Archaeology of Lemon Bay,” and in a few pages I learn that this key may have been occupied for 4,000 years, and there is evidence of “a social organization” from A.D. 200 to 1250. While life centered on fishing, also had to dig clay for vessels, collect firewood, weave nets, and cultivate gourds and Gumbo Limbo (for bark and sap?). The nativess likely maintained their own local social identity, but late in cultural identity likely paid tribute to chiefdoms such as Estero Bay Calusa or Tampa Bay Uctita or Mocoso.
Complex social organization is evidenced by burial practices, which required marshalling labor, etc. A large network of mounds was destroyed about 1926 around Englewood Beach (Chadwick Beach) within a mile, but that scientists believe the dead normally burned in charnal houses but major bones were kept to represent the souls of the deceased. The mound is built, possibly when an important person dies: a shallow pit about 53’X20’ is dug and then tightly packed with all of those burned bones, 100 or more souls, and covered with a layer of red ocher and sand to form a slight mound. Then more sand, then shards and shells, then if another important person dies the process is repeated till you have a big mound.
Park Ranger:
I located Melanie Luce in the maintenance shed. What she likes best? “The nature, the mile and a half with no buildings. Everything nature has to offer is here.”
Interpretive Idea:
I learned that the park is not offering interpretive tours right now due to COVID. My thought is that when they are resumed, I’d like to take such a tour and then possibly volunteer to conduct one myself.
Comentários
Adicionar um Comentário