My wife would kill for that piece of driftwood, but it was way too heavy to lift. We saw it again on another visit, but it had been picked up by the tide and moved a few hundred yards up the beach where it was redeposited. This is in Canaveral Seashore, and it cost 20 dollars a car per visit, but we purchased the locals pass for 40, well worth it, since we have been 8 times since. Normally I like surf fishing here, but haven’t done it much in the last 20 years so I need to gear up, meanwhile I enjoy helping Lily look for Sea Glass. She’s a tinker, very crafty, so she turns it into jewelry when we get home.
Canaveral, Apollo Beach, is also a protected area where Gopher Tortoises and other wildlife thrives. That said, some people still drive in too much of a hurry here, so it’s tough for the little guys to get out of the way. They aren’t known for their speed, and you can see my daughter finger in the below pic for size reference.
I also made a rooky mistake and got too close to a sea turtle that was coming up to deposit her eggs. It’s better to observe from a distance, and let them pass because it is a struggle for them to get up onto the beach. The nests are marked off by stakes in the park, and there are a lot of them, but racoons and other creatures like to raid them. Make sure kids don’t build sandcastles close to these stakes; you wouldn’t want to expose the eggs. You can’t tell in this picture, but this sea turtle’s head is as big as mine, a massive animal. You also want to take care in the water because Tiger and Bull sharks tend to follow the turtles.
As far as herping goes, the turtles and some black racers have been it lately. There are really large Eastern Diamond Backs, but I haven’t seen any in a while, nor the beautiful corns and yellow rats I find here sometimes. There are also land crabs in here that we always grew up calling ghost crabs. Lily found one away from his hole so he tried to camouflage himself as best he could, standing next to a shell. They are really fast and good at going sideways, but when they put their claws up in a defensive posture and try backing away, they fall over on their butts.
Lots of beautiful things to see here, and it’s nice living close again, my heart is still broken over the state of the Lagoons though and would like to see the effects of adding an inlet south of here, like maybe Eddy’s Creek. As of June, the sand fleas are back in better numbers in the surf, and hopefully the Whiting and Pompano follow.
