Nature You'll See in December

By: Cleo Robertson

Welcome to December, the month of much joy, fun and entertainment in our area. There are tree trimming parties at churches and museums, luminaries placed around various areas, not-to-be-missed boat parades, and church services of all kinds. Check the stpetebeachtoday.com Calendar on the Home Page for the schedule and try to attend as many as you can—you will be surprised by how much “in the spirit” you can feel without snow!

For the most part, we usually get some really fine weather during December (I have been in short sleeves on Christmas Day and I have been in an overcoat). On days when the weather is less than fine, go to the museums…from the Gulf Beaches Historical Museum on 10th Avenue in Pass-a-Grille to the Salvador Dali in St. Petersburg. The Morean Arts Center, Fine Arts Museum and Museum of History and Science are also great places on a cold or windy day. And if nothing else appeals to you, take a walk on the beach.

A Wondrous adventure: Here is a true story from when I was growing up in Pass-a-Grille in the ‘40’s. It was Christmas time in about 1946 and my brother announced that he (17 years old), my sister Nancy (10) and I (8) were going to motor over in a small rowboat to Pine Key (Tierra Verde now) to cut us a Christmas tree. I was so excited because I loved to go out on the water with my brother and we would be able to pick out the biggest tree we could find. We landed in a cove on a small body of water somewhere inside the island and immediately we took off, Tommy with hatchet slung over his shoulder. (Photo thanks to bigpinekeyblog.com)

We soon found our tree. It was at least 10’ high and would have to be cut to fit in our house but we all loved it (this was a Florida pine tree which was a Christmas tree to us). Tommy soon had it down and the three of us started dragging it towards where we thought our boat was. We dragged and we dragged and finally Tommy announced that we were just going in a circle. Now cottonmouth rattlers, diamondback rattlers and many other kinds of snakes loved Pine Key, so while we’re trying to drag this tree and find our boat, Nancy and I are wide-eyed watching out for these critters.

Finally, we come out on a small body of water and lo and behold, there’s our boat, clear across on the other side! Tommy told us to sit with the tree while he went across the water to get our boat. NO WAY, Jose, we both said. We were not going to be left alone, so with our heart in our mouth, Nancy and I carefully shuffled and waded across the 100’ bog right behind Tommy, bare feet squishing in the deep mud and stingrays shooting away from every direction. By the time we got to the other side, a squall had started to stir and we quickly went over, got the tree, and headed out to the Bay and home. As we came out of the protected cove, the storm hit us straight in the face, hard.

Tommy tucked Nancy and me under the front transom and tried hard to see his way as he motored toward home. Within minutes, a Coast Guard cutter pulled up along side of us and took Nancy and me onto their boat as they cruised along with Tommy until he was safely docked. One of the fishermen had seen Tommy and us go over and called the Coast Guard when we didn’t return in a reasonable time. The tree was awesome that year, the best I ever remember, because we had such an adventure getting it. I’m so lucky I grew up here.

Another Special Christmas Story--A Loggerhead Turtle Gets Saved from Sure Death
One day a friend of mine named Jan came by with another woman friend to use the pedal kayaks I keep at my dock. They went all around the bay having a good time seeing all the birds, dolphins and other wildlife that surrounds us here.
Towards the end of their ride as they were returning home, Jan noticed a white buoy in the water. These buoys are tied to stone crab traps, large wooden boxes that are very heavy so they will stay at the bottom of the bay and crabs can get in them, but not out. What interested Jan was that the buoy was bobbing, moving around without any action from the water. She kayaked closer and looked down into the water.

What she saw shocked her. There entwined in the rope and lines to the trap was a very large Loggerhead Turtle about four feet deep below! A Loggerhead can weigh up in the hundreds of pounds. This one looked fairly large to Jan but to her horror, she saw it was entangled in the ropes and had trapped itself. It kept struggling to the surface to try to breathe, a hard struggle, then it would manage a short breath before being dragged down again.

Jan looked around the bay and saw another boat coming their way with three mullet fishermen in it. She waved them over and when they saw the turtle, one man didn’t hesitate to start pulling the turtle up towards their boat. The poor thing was exhausted from pulling the buoy, which the men recognized as one from the Gulf of Mexico on the other side of the island of Pass-a-Grille. The turtle had pulled, they estimated, up to eighty pounds of crab trap all the way around the Point of Pass-a-Grille into the Bay.

When the men got the turtle to the top, it was so exhausted it did not struggle as they cut the ropes with their knives and soon the turtle was free again. Everyone cheered as it swam slowly away, going for its’ first meal in who knows how long.
As Jan and her friend turned to come back to the dock, they both felt so good that they had saved a Loggerhead Turtle from death. Shows what sharp eyes and good thinking can do. And thanks to Jan for using her sharp photographer’s eye to see what needed to be seen that day.

Fish, birds and other animals: I saw a couple of pileated woodpeckers; one pecking at a tree that already had a bunch of holes in it. These woodpeckers are remarkable for their ability to cut out quite good-sized holes in trees, yet amazingly, they are headache-proof. Their bills do not connect directly to their skulls. There is a shock-absorbing tissue in between that allows them to pound for hours every day without taking any aspirin. Woodpeckers can strike hard wood at the rate of more than ten times per second. The ability of this tissue to spring back to shape and cushion again between each strike compares favorably with the best manmade shock-absorbing materials (from Florida’s Fabulous Birds).(Photo thanks to http://www.college.emory.edu/culpeper/GOUZOULES/site/birds/pilwp.html)

Also, during December you’ll want to keep your eyes out for the Osprey that are soaring up and down the Bays and the Gulf or the Kingfisher couples who keep chirping their unique song as they dart about from tree to pier to piling.

Shells you might see: Unless a storm comes in during the winter months, shells are few and far between. Sand covers up large deposits of them as they are rolling into our shore and the storms bring them up and shove them in for eager hands to snatch. You can always watch for a perfect Lettered Olive or a Venus Ray Clam and sometimes you find a real jewel at a time of the year when they are seldom around. In November I round a lovely ¼ inch red horse conch. These babies will grow up to one foot in length. The 15” Horse Conch to the right I found within 20’ of the shore, buried except for a small part of the back. When I dug it up, I felt I had God’s creation right in my hands. So here are some tips for walking the beach: it’s okay to walk, it’s okay to talk, but my eyes never leave the shoreline and finding a good shell can interrupt a good story any time. If you walk in the water, shuffling, right along the shore and look up onto the beach and are very very patient, when the waves break there will be a moment when you can see the shells clearly. Grab quickly, or you may not see that one again!

Plants to watch for: If you check your yard and find any Brazilian pepper trees, cut them down, chop off the seeds, pull them out…the birds love the seeds and distribute them and this tree’s roots are ruthless. I have found that once they are 3’ high you have to dig them out (they grow 10’ per year), and if they start growing in with another tree, the Pepper will overgrow, out spread and eventually ruin a perfectly good planting. So watch for them and get rid of them. If you doubt me, call the Pinellas County Extension Service for more information (727-582-2100).

My 9-year old dog, Rhino, says Merry Christmas too. You’ll see us walking around Pass-a-Grille so say hello. I got Rhino from a clerk at the Walgreens in Gulfport. An older woman had walked into the store and said to my friend, the clerk, “Here, it’s either you or the garbage can…I can’t watch my son use him as a tennis ball anymore.” So she took Rhino home, I met him a week later and about two minutes after that, we were in love. Best present I ever got!!

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