Turtle & Tampa [History] Safaris

5,943 loggerhead nests as of 22 June

In order to see turtles on the beach nesting at night, we decided we needed to travel to the East Coast of Florida where the turtle nesting density is much higher. This involved a 200+ miles four-hour journey each way driving Southeast across Florida to Juno Beach and the Loggerhead MarineLife Center.

The journey is flat, flat, flat with little choice of roads; the center of Florida is orange groves and cattle farms. So we had one two-lane highway to travel and we climbed one hill on the way there and the same hill on the way back. Through Brighton,past Kew Gardens with weird sight of cows shading under palm trees (for our English friends). At times it was like driving through a tunnel of low trees lining the road, very monotonous with constantly moving water mirages on the road ahead. Florida drivers, notoriously frightening in their driving habits, kept us on our toes as one has to anticipate their moves and compensate for their atrocious antics.

We did, however, get to see a bit of wildlife - a couple of beautiful Sandhill Cranes with brilliant red heads roadside stalking their prey and an endangered Wood Stork in flight - a lovely white body fringed with black on its' wings.

With such wide open spaces and little population you may wonder about local fun. We didn't stop, but did discover this advertisement.

Tracks & nest among seaweed
at daybreak

Sea turtles nest (and hatch for that matter) primarily at night and spook easily. So, to see a turtle crawl up the beach and nest, one has to:

• be up at night
• wear long sleeve/leg dark clothing
• have a red light torch (as they don't see this spectrum of light so well)
• put on plenty of bug spray!! And then some more!
• be tolerant of hot muggy nights
• have tons of patience
• and be very quiet with good night vision.

notice turtle tracks in foreground - sunrise!

We interviewed a volunteer named Susan at the Loggerhead MarineLife Center asking how best to spot turtles. They don't encourage visiting the beach at night (turtles spook easily), but as we volunteer here on the west coast to monitor the turtle activity she was sympathetic to us.

There are different schools of thought about sitting still on the beach and waiting or walking the high tide line looking for a track up the beach without a return. We did both & got up for sunrise to see the overnight tracks. Look'in for the turtles? Me too!

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We found a few crabs - signs of a healthy beach. Juno/Jupiter beach is much steeper than ours making it a real haul for those mama turtles.

steep beach profile

Plenty of morning tracks, but nighttime turtle spotting wasn't looking good for awhile and there was spectacular heat lightening out both nights we visited (see previous post on avoiding beach during lightening - yup I ignored my own advice but watched the distance very carefully).

YES we spotted five turtles in all. It took time to adjust our night vision and tune in to seeing the turtles. One crawled right by another guy on the beach and he was oblivious. They don't really make much noise and are intent on their mission - to find a nesting spot and lay circa 100 eggs in a deep chamber and then camouflage the nest.

Hubby was the better spotter; in the darkness the turtles are large dark ovals very low to the ground that one can easily mistake for seaweed. Our viewing got progressively better as we saw (in order) the turtles:

This is Bowden; best pic, as we chose to respect the turtles &
avoid night pics (no flash) which don't come out well

• one in water swimming away
• one just slipping into the water
• returning from nesting into the water
• just in front of us on high tide line walking into the surf
• one finishing her nest and sliding down the beach slope to the water - an image that will stay with me for a long time!

and all too soon it was time to return home.

After running a Facebook workshop during the week for a local historical society, Friday we were off for a bus tour of Old downtown Tampa - not a place we visit very often as the beach is too alluring and it is about 1 hour from home, depending on traffic and those crazy Florida drivers.

Sargassum seaweed that supports
baby turtles

Mini Me explained in an earlier blog (28 February 2015) that Florida was once roamed by saber-tooth tigers, giant sloths, and mammoths with a vastly differing land mass as the seas rose and fell. Native American Indians have lived here for thousands of years. Following the official 'locating' of Florida (means Feast of Flowers) by Juan Ponce-de-Leon in 1513, Pánfilo de Narváez, a Spanish conquistador, came in 1528 search of gold and slaves. He was followed by Hernando de Soto in 1539.   Narváez sailed into what is now known as Boca Ciega Bay very near our home and landed in the jungle areas later named Jungle Prada, now on the National Register of Historic Places. Jungle Prada is the site of the first exploration by white man of the North American continent and is older than Plymouth Rock, Jamestown, or the Lost Colony of Sir Walter Raleigh. However, the early Spanish explorers didn't fare well with the Indians and Florida was controlled by Native Indians until the early 1800 Seminole Wars.

Sticks of Fire Statute

Tampa, originally Tanpa, means 'sticks of fire' in native language and is the lightening capital of the world.  Here's a potted history as mini me has been able to piece it together.

Tampa was settled by Crackers (cow man or cowboys) and became an active trading port in the 1800's, founded on the site of Fort Brooke on Tampa Bay.  Tampa is now the State's largest trading port complete with a cruise ship that sails to Harwich, UK (yeah!). 

For 20 years Florida was ruled by the British who acquired the land in 1763 as part of the treaty which ended the French and Indian or Seven Years' War. The local county, Hillsborough, is named for British Lord Wills Hill,the then-Secretary of State for the Colonies and Earl of Hillsborough, although he never set foot in Tampa.

Spain regained control of Florida in 1783 as part of the Treaty of Paris at the end of the American Revolution and was purchased by the US in 1821 ending European control; neither Britain nor Spain really had much interest in Florida being preoccupied by other colonial interests.

Oaklawn  Cemetery
Spanish moss on trees

The US promptly built Fort Brooke (beginnings of modern day Tampa) on an Indian site and began resettlement of local Indians into reservations sparking the Seminole Wars of 1830's - 1840's. Much of Tampa was washed away in the 1848 hurricane that also shaped our barrier island home.

Florida joined the Union (USA) in 1845, seceded in 1861 and rejoined in 1868, but did not play a major role in the Civil War.

Victorian Style Plant Hotel/Folly

Yellow fever and conflicts with the natives kept Tampa small until the arrival of the Plant railroad & hotel system in 1884 and the discovery of the mosquito as the carrier of yellow fever by Dr. John P. Wall in the 1870's; he used air blown over ice (early form of refrigeration) to cool his yellow fever patients.

Tampa grew with the railroads and port, attracting the cigar manufacturing industry out of Cuba and Key West; the warm, humid climate of Tampa is a perfect humidor for keeping tobacco fresh and easy to roll. Ybor City in Tampa was founded by Vicente Martinez Ybor in 1885 and at one time produced over 1 million cigars/day in over 200 local factories attracting many Cubans and Italians who were provided with housing and educated by lectors reading to them as they rolled. Thus cigars dominated the economy along with related industries of box construction, lithography and beer, these brought by the Germans. Tampa was also a major staging ground for the Spanish-American War of 1898 with Teddy Roosevelt and his Rough Riders congregating here before intervening in the Cuban War of Independence.  WWII also brought many military personnel to Florida 

Post WWI, Tampa's economy diversified first into heavy manufacturing.  The Civil Rights movement was largely peaceful demonstrations & sit-ins here in the 1960's.  From the 1970's employment shifted into services - financial, aerospace, medical technology, electronics - as well as becoming an agribusiness center and a foreign trade zone. 1/3 of Florida's population lives around Tampa/St Petersburg area. 

1970's inverted Pymarid Pier

Our favourite, St Petersburg is almost as populous as Tampa and a bit edgy with a more attractive waterfront.  St Pete developed as a tourist destination from the start in 1875, taking off with the railroad arriving in 1888 and became a baseball spring training location (today home to the Tampa Bay Rays at Tropicana Field). The city's claim to fame is the world's first scheduled airline flight of Tony Jannus from St. Petersburg to Tampa in 1914. The Mediterranean Revival architecture of the 1920's - it's heyday - is still evident today and inspires an active preservation

1920's Vinoy Resort Hotel

society.

St Petersburg revived after the advent of air conditioning in the 1950s and today is renown for its diverse culture and 6 art districts with the opening of the new Dali Museum and the Chihuly glass collection.

There is an excellent Tampa history here and St Pete here.

Watched the moon set over the Gulf 1:54 am Wednesday night - heaven!

Florida News Flash: Florida hunters will soon have the ability to take part in black bear hunts for the first time in two decades.. Thinking it is a way to stop human/bear encounters, Commissioners were in favor of the measure.