Indian Beach and Bird Key Park Observation

So this wednesday at 4:00 pm, I saw some changes to both beaches compared to last wednesday around the same time. With both beaches the water was far out and low tide. Along with the tide being the same at both beaches, both had some litter bugs, not that bad of a litter bug problem, but still noticeable.

At Indian Beach

 This was sitting on the wooden railing, it looks like some dry coral.

 Showing how the tide was today at 4:00 pm. Low and calm waves, but just like I mentioned in my last journal, there is a strong smell in certain areas of this beach. It was like a combination of the smell of the ocean mixed with runoff and other things. 

 Another view of how the tide looked and what was all over the sand. Lots and lots of seaweed and wood.

 In what looked like a big puddle has some plant life growing in it. But what caught my eye right away, was the top of a plastic soda lid.  

 This is a larger view of this water section. I don't want to say that it is a puddle, but it was separate from ocean and it has it own plants growing in it. 

 More of Indian Beach. Farther this way of the beach are some old house that are not being used and some that are being remolded. It is on this side of the beach that I found that anchor cover. 

 More Litter bugs tossing their waste on the beach. Pretty soon, a bird will eat this, and it won't end well.

 More plastic on the beach. Notice that it has no lid on it, either that is somewhere scattered on the beach or it has been eaten by some animal. 

 If you can see it, the anchor cover is still on this beach, only it has lost it's brown coloring for good. And instead of removing it from the beach, it is covered almost completely. Around this area it was just a huge pile of broken shells, seaweed and other stuff, it just looked like a big mess. 

 Of course this caught my eye because it was the only thing on the beach that was shinning. At first I could not figure out what it is. My first guess was a broken toothbrush. But then when I bent down, and it looked like what fishermen use to attach the hooks. I did not see any hook, so that is a good thing that nothing sharp was still attached. 

At Bird Key Park

What was different about this park, compared to Indian Beach this week is that this park had more plant life growing. I am glad to say that I saw no plastic bags with dog droppings, or sandals floating in water. 

 I don't think I saw this much grass growing from the cement blocks from my last visit. But I like the look of life growing on the beach.

 Just like Indian Beach, I saw some garbage, but very little amounts at this park. This bag was high above the water, but if a gust of wind picks up. It will end up in the water. 

 Some more plants growing on the shallow part of the water. So it is growing close enough to the land and still getting enough water as it needs. Not sure though what kind of plants these are, or if someone just placed sticked in the ground. 

This made me happy to see, more plants growing on the park. My guess is that in time these will grow into more trees. I think this should continue with other parks and beaches. I would like to see Indian Beach do something like this, that and make it more cleaners. 

Indian Beach and Bird Key Park/beach observation

Today the weather was nice and the sun was out, so I decided to go and do my observations early than wait till saturday. That and I keep seeing on the news that the weekend might be rain (I hope not), so I did not want to take the chance of being rained on during my observation and taking photos (camera is not water proof).  

When I went to Indian Beach at 3:40 pm I noticed that as I was walking towards the beach, as I was crossing the street, I smelled something strong coming from the water. It was just the smell of the ocean as usual but for some reason today it seem to be a stronger smell.  The tide was high but not as rough waves as last time. But it gave me little room to walk far. I notice that today there were more people at this beach than when I come on the weekends. There were a few Ringling students sketching each other, and a man that seemed to be trying to help clean up the beach. It's nice to see someone going out of there way to try and help. What I think would be an improvement to this beach (and any beach) is to add more recycling bins like the ones we have at school. Maybe if those labeled bins were seen more around Florida (and other states) then maybe more people will take part in recycling and show kids how to recycle the right way. The reason I bring this topic up is because I wish more people took part in recycling, I know back in Ridgefield, CT at my schools the teachers would only talk to us about it. But we never did anything more with it in our schools. 

Also that today walking on the beach I saw more broken glass that was either scattered in the sand or in the dark seaweed, along with some empty soda cans. I am glad that it was a nice day today and the sun was out, it helped me to see how dirty the water still looks. I still can't believe that this side of the water is so filthy looks and when I go just over the bridge to Bird Key Park, I can see the water clearly and the rocks and shells. Somewhere between those distances something is making the half where Indian Beach is more filthy. Maybe it is from run off from boats or something else. 

 

 Some green life growing from the rocks.

Along with finding some trash on the beach this week, I found some clothes at Indian Beach and Bird Key Park. I don't know if this jacket was here long, or if it belongs to the man cleaning up the beach. But  there are seats up on the side walk above the beach, that this jacket could be placed and not on the plants.

 This might be the work of the man cleaning up the beach. I don't think that any one of the Ringling students would bring a large coffee mug and a half eaten treat. And judging by the fact that there was no ants or any other bugs coming to get this sugar treat, I would say that the man was eating if just a few moments ago and did not want to finish the rest. Also if this does belong to him, I do like the heart shape made up of shells. Even though Valentines day was yesterday, it's still cute. 

Then at Bird Key Park, the water was the same as Indian Beach, high tide, but very calm water. It was pretty look out at the water from this side because from this part of the water to Lido Beach, you can see the water clearly and it looks beautiful and makes you want to jump in for a swim. Where as Indian Beach makes me turn away, and make sure not to get wet by what ever is in that water. 

 The water reaching over the rocks and stopping at the brick wall.

 I was hoping to find some fishes swimming around the shallow part of the beach, near these rocks. But no luck. But I can defiantly imagine them swimming around this close to show, with the water being calm and less people in the water.

 I was shock to find this while walking around this park. Ever since I have been coming to this beach/park it seemed so clean. No human garbage on the ground or plastic bags hanging from the bushes or floating in the water. But some people just don't clean up after their dogs. At this park, dogs are welcomed, I even see a dog fountain for them. And I just assumed that seeing how more people in Florida is into keeping their beaches clean, that they would clean up after their dogs. And NOT just leave the bag (with their you know what) on the ground. Also from where the bag was placed, the garbage can was not that far away, the person could have picked up the bag and dropped it in the garbage bin. Hopefully someone comes and does that, other wise it will not only smell in that area, but it will ruin the grass and there is the fear of some animal coming and eating the plastic bag.

 It is nice to see places around Florida be into recycling, but to me, this does seem enough. It does not stand out, it just looks like another garbage bin. The sign on it is only on one side, on the back there is nothing. So anyone could just throw away their garbage in the wrong bin. Make the Recycling bins stand out more and grab peoples attention.

Remember how at Indian Beach there was someone's jacket on the bushes. Well I found a pair of woman's sandals in the water. Strange, first the jacket, now shoes, whats next a hat, a shirt or pants.

Indian Beach and bird peek beach observation

Today at 4:30 pm, the wind was becoming stronger, clouds turning gray and black and the air going cold. I did not want to miss the chance to see something on the beach on a day like this. I find it that on days when a rain storm might be coming and the wind picks up, that is when the high tide current will bring something onto land. But because of the weather conditions, it made my visit short. Just as my other visit to Indian beach a few weeks ago (I think it was two weeks ago from today), that the tide was so strong and high that I had little walking room without getting wet. The high tide held me back from venturing off farther on Indian beach. I was hoping to go far enough to see if that anchor cover was still there and if it's color has gotten any whiter or if it has taken on seaweed as it's new fabric material. But if I bet, that it will still be there and nobody will have moved it. Because if it has been at this beach for this long (about 3 or 4 weeks since I found it washed up) then it will still remain there.

The wind today was so strong that I felt my body being pushed by the wind's force. And the wind kept blowing the sand into my eyes, which made taking pictures a bit of a challenged, when every five seconds I would be rubbing my eyes trying to get the sand out. I was only at Indian Beach for about 10 minutes, maybe 15 and for the most part everything looked like it has been. lots of seaweed on the sand, the water to dark and unclear for me to see any fish. and birds waiting to get their fish for dinner. But for the little amount of time that I was there, I did find this odd thing that I can't make out what it is. I thought it was a rock, but it was light enough for the tide to move it. When I looked closer at it, it did not seem to be sea sponge (or any that I have seen). It's strange, it looked like a rock but yet I get the feeling that it might have a soft texture to it. probably smooth and wet from the waves. The picture below is what I am describing, maybe in time I will find out more about this thing. Besides that, I only found one piece of human waste on the sand, it was a kids drink, it did not have a name on it, but I recognized the shape of it drink. It was those Capri-Sun drinks. And a few broken glass or sea glass, or both. And no dead animals again this week, another good thing for this beach. Especially if they are trying to make this beach look nicer for the public with new plants and places the white shells on the beach.

 

Then After that visit I went to Bird Key Beach. With the high tide I wanted to see how the rocks wall was keeping the water from reaching the parking lot. The rock wall was doing what it was meant to do. True that this weather was not a serious storm to be concerned about, but knowing that this is why we have all these rocks together, I wanted to see it for myself. There were some parts on this beach that there was less amount of rocks to spot the waves, so the water just went over them. But there is still the cement wall catching seaweed and other things caught in the waves. So I guess having all these rocks and cement walls is good to prevent water reaching higher to the road and causing a flood. I saw on some seaweeds, that some foam was on it. I guess it is from the waves somehow. That was just something that caught the corner of my eye and made me take a closer look. The visit to this beach was also short because of the weather conditions. Usually when I come to this beach I find groups of people fishing, walking their dogs, and wind sailing. Today it looked like I was the only one, until I spotted one wind sailer. I guess when get windy weather like today it makes a great day for sailing, maybe not on a boat with the choppy/ rough waves. The guy that was wind sailing was getting great speed today, if only I had video recorded it, to show how this guy was flying on the waves with this strong wind.

 

Indian Beach observation

Sunday February 5, 2012 at 1:15 pm, I went to only Indian Beach. Today I was short for time, because my friend Jenny Cherry (who has been so kind enough to give me rides to these places) had to go somewhere at 2:30 so I decided to only go to Indian Beach, because lately I have been finding more things there than Lido Beach at Saint Armand's Circle.

The tide today was calmer but still high, so I ended up climbing on rocks to get around (again, I was not dress to get wet, and judging by the look of the water, I don't want to get whatever is in this dirty water on me. Especially after hearing Venice beach being closed because of recent bacteria found in the water). My walks on Venice beach goes as far as I can go, I usually stop where this very new and fancy house is and at that point I have no more beach to walk on. From the steps on Indian beach to that point there are some things that did caught my eye. The water is still that dirty brown looking color with seaweed that looks just as filthy. I found washing up on the shore what looked like a ball of seaweed scattered all over the beach. No dead animals to report, which is a good sign.

What I did find is a few pieces of glass, I know that some people have found sea glass and I am always looking for some to have. I found a green glass and white glass thinking that these are the sea glass people are collecting. But the texture didn't feel like sea glass. I do have (back home) some sea glass and if I can remember the texture of it correctly, it has smooth but kinda found texture. Like you can slightly feel the sand particles in the sea glass, and some sea glass are not so clear like regular glass. So from these little fragments of glass I found, it tells me that peoples garbage is still making its way into the water and can cause harm to the animals.

Speaking of animals I notice something that I haven't seen since spring 2011. In Sarasota at this park with sail boats are docked (I forgot the name but it is close by to downtown and near the kissing sailor statue), and in some trees that had no green leaves on it, I found tons of small green parrots. Today while walking on the beach I saw a tree and hear noises coming from it. I think the birds were crows and they were all sitting in tree near the water. I watched them and saw that when they leave, it would look like a storm of birds flying everywhere and then they would return to the same tree. They probably were waiting for me to get out of their way so they can get their dinner in the water, or find a crab on the beach.

Walking farther on the beach I was able to go back to the same spot where I found that anchor cover. I would have thought that either 1. someone came to take it away and maybe recycle it, or 2. that the high and choppy tide from last week moved it to another location. it did not move from where I last saw it, but it seemed to me that it's coloring on the fabric has faded. It looks very white with some added green from the sea weed.

I think I have mentioned this in my previous (or other journals) but I notice something different about this area. For the most part, this area has some ruin down houses, some abandoned or some house that are being re-build. As I was making my way to the end of the beach I notice this very nice, and very fancy looking house (obviously money is not an issue for these folks, but why have a nice house like that in an area that has a history in crime and other bad things that I won't go into). I was not going to go on their property, but when looking on their side of the beach I notice some things that made the other half of Indian beach different. It was the shells on the ground. Not only where they not the fake white looks shells I keep finding everywhere I go, but some shells were big and had color and did shine. The past 5 weeks I have been coming to this beach all over the shore I have been stepping on those white fake shells that kinds annoys me. We live in Florida, what is the purpose of the fake shells, why can't we see more of the natural shells that wash up. This may not be a big deal but looking back at this persons side of the beach and the other side, that is what came to my mind.

So good news on finding no human waste like plastic bottles and other garbage. But I wish someone can tell me why this beach looks so dirty when it is not to far from Lido where I can see the bottom and some fish swimming by my feet.