A Walk in the Surf! 8/7/2011

As I drove to the beach today, I wondered if there would be anything that would captivate me today.  After yesterday's pelican experience, and the blue heron eating his fish the other day, I just didn't know what would keep me entertained today.  

As I arrived at the beach, I was greeted by a new welcome sign.  The turtle is really cute!

They have also put up an information tower.  While it is nice and the information is interesting and useful, it is just in the wrong place.  It is right at the bottom of the pier entrance and at the beginning of the one entrance to the beach.  As I approach the pier, this seems to be in my way.  A little annoyed but I stop and take pictures of it.

This welcome sign has information on the pier history, amenities offered at the pier, talks about the pier fishing and the animals at the beach.  The turtle and welcome sign sit to the right of the flag pole with the purple and yellow flags.

I always make a pit stop at the pier before I start my walk on the beach.  After all, I drink a lot of coffee to help wake me up since I am getting up at such an early hour.  So in order to enjoy my walk this is a must before every morning walk!  

As I walk up the pier, they have added information plaques on each side of the rails all they way up the walkway.

They pick one topic and give you a little info on each topic.  There is one sign that talks about the "Shifting Shores" which I found interesting as this is something I have witnessed and discussed here the other day.  

Some of the topics are sea turtles (haven't seen any of these yet), sea shells, the dunes, the birds, beach mice (didn't know there were mice at the beach - hope I don't ever see one!), and the litter on the beach.  

The signs are a nice touch.

As I make my way down to the beach today, the first thing I see, is a bride and groom!

They are with a photographer.  They looked really cute.  My first thought was if they got married last night, don't they have something better to do than be at the beach at 6:30am to take pictures!

As I turn to head down the beach, I see the BP convoy.  I am late today.  They are already out. 

Because I am running a little late today, the sun is up too high to get a sunrise picture.  It is a clear day and the sun is shining brightly.  I worry I might get burnt today.

The shoreline appears the same today.  No real change.  The seagulls are down by the water.  They usually all gather up on the soft sand so this makes for a nice beach shot!

As I continue on I see my friend "Stretch" down in the surf.  Guess he is looking for his breakfast.

I continue on and come across his family members "Legs" and "RN" (short for Rubber Neck).

It was so funny to find the heron up on the garbage can.  This was just the cutest thing to see!

I couldn't tell if this was a "brother/sister" or "husband/wife".  The one heron, I'll call him "RN", slowly approached the one "Legs" on the can.  RN circled the can a couple times and then he decided it was his turn on top of the can.  He jumped up on top and chased Legs away.

This made me think they were siblings fighting over the special spot.

Leggs is not too happy and she walks away.

Well this was just too much fun to watch!  I now head on back to the surf.  

When I walk the beach, I like to walk on the edge of the water.  When I walk in the surf, I always look down into the surf to see if I can ever see anything interesting. Most days, I really don't see much.  Maybe a crab or some seaweed.

Today was different, there was so much sea life in the surf, I never moved out of it and I never got the power walk going at all!  It was taking me so long just looking and taking pictures, I didn't even walk down to the 30 minute mark.  Although, I was at the beach for almost 2 hours!

The first thing I noticed were minnows.  They were swimming right at the edge of the surf and they were there the whole way down the beach.  

You could have had a field day catching minnows for bait today!

In the video at the end, you can see a school of bigger fish swim into the picture.  I saw several schools of these larger fish.  I was able to get a picture of one swimming off alone.

When the school of large fish swam off, I continued to watch the minnows.  While I was looking at the minnows, there was something in the sand moving beneath the surf that caught my eye.  Upon further inspection, I noticed that they looked like little teeny tiny sharks, about 2 inches long.  I tried to get pictures but it was hard because of the surf.

If you look closely you can make them out in these two pictures.  I probably took 30 pictures and only these two turned out.  You have to look hard but you can see them.  

In this picture look to the center of the picture.

In this picture look to the bottom center of the picture to see the fish.

The water was very clear today.  So I wonder if that is why I was able to see all the sealife today and don't usually notice it on other days when the water is not clear.

Also, I guess when I am power walking you just miss a lot because you are walking fast.  I seem to only notice the bigger things when I am walking fast.

I continue along and see several large schools of fish and more of these teeny tiny sharks.  The minnows are still around and now I am noticing very small crabs.  They are not much bigger than the teeny tiny sharks.

I see more big fish.  Michael told me this was a catfish.

I'm having so much fun looking at all the fish, that I loose track of time.  I feel like I am starting to burn.   Usually it is cloudy and I don't worry much about getting burnt.  Today there are not as many clouds and it is pretty sunny at times.  I check my watch and have been on my walk for well over an hour now.  I start to head back.

On my return trip back up the beach, I run into the blue herons again.  As i get near them I can see that RN is chasing Legs around the beach.  I found this quite comical.  Then I wondered if maybe it was mating season.  Although I don't know how they mate it just remined me as he was definitely chasing her and she wanted no parts of him.  

This scene made me wonder if they weren't married!

As I continue on there seem to be a lot of seagulls on the beach today.  They crack me up the way they all stand in the same direction.

This bird's beak caught my eye.

As I near the end of my walk, I see Stretch again.  I just love these birds.  They are so amazing to watch!

I am now getting close to the pier and just about finished with my walk, I see that the bride and groom are still there.  At this point in time, they are now IN the Gulf.  Hope she doesn't plan on passing her dress down to her daughter!

Somehow, I get the feeling that this "in the water with my wedding dress on" picture session wasn't going so well.  They looked more lovey dovey at the beginning of my walk.  

So today was another fun walk with so much to see!  I just loved it!