July - What to Expect in Nature (07.01.09)

by Cleo Robertson

July is hot. July can be rainy. July can be anything actually. People often ask me if I leave in July and August because of the heat. No, I don’t. I swim in the water, garden, swim in the water, walk, swim in the water…well, you get the picture. Stay out of the heat or get in the water, is my advice.

Sunsets in the summer are unbelievable…go to the beach a half hour before and relax your mind, body and spirit as you watch “the great artist in the sky” paint another masterpiece! To see a slideshow of sunsets by local photographers—they are all from St. Pete Beach--click on Local People and then Sunsets and start the slideshow. If you have a sunset you want to add, click on Contact Us and send it in! We will be happy to add it to our collection.

Turtles are here: Yes those big, wonderful Loggerhead turtles of the deep that come back to their birthing ground to give birth as adults, are coming in to our local beaches. Some years there are as many as 25 nests in all, so we are contributing to these animals thriving. Some tips. Do not tinker with the nests—turtles hatch by moon and other rhythms and no one should do anything to interrupt their cycle.

Bruno Falkenstein Turtle Update: He reported 118 nests by July 2 of this year; 4 on Shell Island and 16 on St. Pete Beach, 30 on Fort Desoto and 68 at the Clearwater Science Center. We’ll keep you posted as the summer progresses.

Sea turtles are air-breathing reptiles with lungs similar to ours, which allow them to breathe air like us. They are cold-blooded and they get their warmth from the sun and the water around them. There are five kinds of sea turtles found in the coastal waters of the United States: Loggerhead (which lay their eggs on our coast line), Green, Leatherback (biggest of the sea turtles), and Kemp’s Ridley (the smallest and rarest).

Turtles have good sight underwater, but above water they are nearsighted. They have good hearing even though they don’t have external ears. Their sense of smell is very good. Adult male and female sea turtles are about the same size, except males have longer, thicker tails and longer claws. The top shell is called the carapace. The scutes, or plates on their back (carapace) form a design that helps identify each kind of turtle.

Sea turtles have shells that are flatter than land turtles, with no space for them to use for hiding. This allows them to swim swiftly in the water (particularly when escaping hungry sharks). Some sea turtles may even swim as fast as 22 miles (nearly 35 kilometers) per hour! During the day, they spend their time swimming underwater and foraging for food. They swim to the surface about every five minutes to take a deep breath of air.

Sometime between the age of 25 and 50 (sea turtles can live to 80), the females come on land to lay their nests on the beaches of Florida from May to October. They return to the same nesting ground every few years (although some females may nest many times in a season, laying hundreds and hundreds of eggs). After crawling ashore, she uses her rear flippers to dig a hole into which she lays approximately 100 leathery ping-pong ball-sized eggs. After covering the nest with sand, she enters the ocean, never to return to her young. Now that is what I call tough love. It takes about two months for the eggs to incubate and hatch. After leaving its nest on the beach, a loggerhead hatchling reaches shelter in the drifting Sargasso seaweed if it can get through the dangers of bright lights leading them in the wrong direction or birds and other predators eating them before they reach the water.

Occasionally, sharks or killer whales attack adult sea turtles but humans are by far their worst enemy. Humans want the turtles eggs, meat and shell. Many drown in fishing nets. Some get sick from ocean pollution, and others die after swallowing trash that they have mistaken for food. A floating plastic bag looks a lot like a jellyfish to a foraging sea turtle!

Fossils of the earliest sea turtles date back to 150 million years ago. They have even outlived the dinosaurs. All over the world, scientists, governments, corporations, and volunteers are working hard to protect these ancient reptiles and to help them survive for centuries to come. [For more information on turtles, see Our Wild World Series—Sea Turtles, by Lorraine A. Jay.]

Now that you have a little background on these wonderful creatures, some evening take a long walk on the beach late at night. You might see a female loggerhead dragging herself along to create her nest. All she and I ask is that you not interfere or touch her in any way. She’s on a mission so that one day my grandchildren and yours can see these remarkable animals continue their evolution.

Shells you might see: Cockleshells and Lettered olives are coming in a lot during this month. Cockles are a form of clam and are large shells the size of one’s hand with ridges all along the outside; they are great to use for holding paperclips, rubber bands, etc. Lettered olives look like bullets and dark ones have lettering that looks like someone used a pen and wrote all around it. Both these shells are local and come out from the bays where they birth, mate and grow up. If you fill a clear glass bottle with Lettered Olives it’s a great gift. You’ll find them most often within 10’ of the shoreline.

Trees in bloom: As you walk around any neighborhood or area, keep your nose alert. There are many trees that bloom all summer and they let off a lovely scent. The Frangipani flowers (Plumera) come in many colors—white with a yellow center, deep pink, and light pink. These are easy to grow trees. They have thick, sausage-like twigs and branches, which jut out in various directions, carrying large clusters of flowers on the end of the largest branches, usually near the top. Each color has a different fragrance, so just go around and check any out you see. If you find one you really like, ask the owner if you can break off a small twig. Put it in the ground and keep it watered and in a very short time a fine tree will emerge and give you your own fragrant garden.

Birds of the air: Sometime when you’re on the beach, lie down and look up, way up. Usually during the summer you’ll see a very dark bird soaring around looking for food (yes, even from way up on high). This bird is the Magnificent Frigate, which spends much of its time in the air. Its huge wingspan makes it hard for these birds to land on water or beach so usually their flight begins and ends from a large tree or pole. If you see one with an all-white head and chest, those are the young birds of the season. The female has a black head and white breast, while the male is mostly black except for a red pouch that he puffs up the size of a balloon during mating season to attract his lady. They steal fish from other birds often, but I have actually seen one dive on a choppy day and catch his own fish and what a sight it was. Their wingspan can reach 6 feet.

A Wondrous adventure: Back in the 1940’s and 1950’s when I was growing up, July was the time to look for fruit. From black mission figs to mangos, papayas to seagrapes, we always had an abundance of food. One year my mother took my sister and me to St. Petersburg to visit some friends of hers. Nancy and I went into the orchard and picked the first mangos we had ever seen on a tree. Oh, what a treat. Juices running down our arms, face smeared with the orange flesh, we were in heaven. I don’t remember how many we ate, but it was a good amount.

There was, however, a small fact we did not know. Mangos are related to the poison ivy family and have the same kind of oil on their skin as that pesky weed does. It turned out that Nancy was allergic and I was not and we found this out because in the morning we could not see Nancy’s face—everything was hidden behind the most swollen skin I have ever seen. Ice packs and time cured her face but let all be forewarned—if you don’t know if you are allergic or not, have someone else skin it and just enjoy the inside (there is no oil on the meat).

That’s July—full of life, weather changing every few minutes, storms around with rain (we hope) and lots to see and do. Check out Things to Do for those times when you need to get out of the heat, rain or to entertain family and/or guests. Enjoy!

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