St. Joe Peninsula State Park, Gulf County, Florida
The Daily Bucket is a regular feature of the Backyard Science group, a place where everyone is welcome to note the observations you have made of the natural world around you. Insects, weather, fish, critters, birds and plants: all are worthy additions to the bucket. Ask questions if you have them and someone here may well have an answer.
Yesterday I took a much needed day off and my wife and I drove down to St. Joseph Peninsula State Park on the coast of the Florida Panhandle. I spent an hour or so snorkeling in the sea grass beds of the bay. I diaried my previous visit here.
This was in part a test of the continued usefulness of my underwater camera. I won't give you the full details but since April many of the controls don't function in the phot-taking mode. They do in the preview mode but when taking pictures pretty much all I can do is push the shutter button.
The snorkeling wasn't that great. The water was slightly murky there seemed to be fewer invertebrates than the year before. Here is what I saw.
The bottom was covered with dense beds of sea grass interspersed with patches of open sand.
Last year these sea urchins were the most abundant animals in the sea grass. They were still around although they seemed less common.
This was the largest animal I saw, a mullet about two feet long. You can see the murkiness of the water in this shot.
A lot of the action was taking place underground. Running my fingers through the sand brought up this cockle.
What do you think these shapes in the sand are?
Sand Dollars were present in large numbers in the sand.
This sea star was crawling openly across the sand. I've seen this species washed up on the beach fairly often but this was my first time seeing one underwater. It is the largest one I've seen.
Sea Pens also seemed less common. Here is one sticking out of the sand with its shells slightly open.
This is a super cropped picture of some tiny fish fry I stumbled across. Like the salt marsh and mangroves, sea grass beds can serve as a nursery for young fish.
The most obvious animals in the beds were grunts. Below is a close up of one individual followed by how I usually saw them, as small schools as the edge of the grass.
That's what I did yesterday. It was hot and today I am staying inside. Please let us know what is up where you are.
Note: I suspect the fact that I saw less may be partly explained by three factors - higher tide (so I was farther from the bottom), murkier water, and poor eyesight. I may need to get a prescription mask!
"Green Diary Rescue" is Back!
After a hiatus of over 1 1/2 years, Meteor Blades has revived his excellent series. As MB explained, this weekly diary is a "round-up with excerpts and links... of the hard work so many Kossacks put into bringing matters of environmental concern to the community... I'll be starting out with some commentary of my own on an issue related to the environment, a word I take in its broadest meaning."
"Green Diary Rescue" will be posted every Saturday at 1:00 pm Pacific Time on the Daily Kos front page. Be sure to recommend and comment in the diary.