Beaches and Sights of Venice

The south end of Venice Island, FL, is mostly city parks.

The first access to the beach is at Maxine Barritt Park.

Sharky's Restaurant is nestled between two parks and also has beach frontage and a long pier in front of the restaurant.

On the other side of Sharky's Pier 

is the Service Club Park

Where on the 3rd Saturday of every month, Florida Underwater Sports sponsors a weekend scuba dive.  Dunkin' Donuts supplies donuts and coffee for divers and the company logs divers in and pairs them up if they come alone to dive.

So, what they are diving for is mostly big shark teeth, such as this one.  This diver let us hold the big tooth and told us he dives every day for teeth and sells them to tourist shops in town.  

After thinking about it, we went back and asked him if the teeth he had were for sale, and how much.  To our dismay, this one was in the $1200 category.  Pretty and amazing, but definitely out of our price range.  I was tempted to rush back and get my snorkel and mask, but we were on a bike ride, so we continued on.

On our way up Venice Avenue, we came across this amazing Christmas decorative display.

The median had natural decorations - such as these Banyan trees,

and multiple colors of Hibiscus.

The shopping district of Venice has multiple dolphin 

statues, painted in colorful designs,

with turtles also taking their place on the avenue

making it an interesting place to walk.

Since we were in Venice, we stopped at Nokomis Groves,

and had a dish of chocolate/lime swirled ice cream.

Some Birds of SW Florida

I love bird watching - and the big water fowl are my favorites.  In the winter, many migratory birds join the year round residents of the southwest Florida coast.

The Snowy Egret is also called the "Golden Slipper Bird" because of its black legs and golden feet.  They were hunted nearly to extinction years ago when ladies loved their fluffy feathers for their fancy hats.

Double Crested Cormorants love channel markers for resting while watching for fish. They have webbed feet.

 A group of white ibis that roams our neighborhood.  You can spot the immature one by his spots.

 Sandhill cranes are common in the neighborhood.

 Cattle Egrets are common everywhere - especially in the cattle fields, where every cow has its own egret.

 Great white egret - there is a morph of a great blue heron in this area also that looks almost identical to the great white egret.  You can spot them by their yellow legs.

Little blue heron - white when immature but you can spot them by their greenish bill, legs, and feet.

Great blue heron - we see them all the way from Washington to Florida.

Osprey - starting a nest on a channel marker.

 Both black vultures and turkey vultures (with red heads) are common and often flock together.

 Brown pelicans are abundant along the shores.

 Sandhill cranes - usually seen in pairs.

 Seagulls normally seen in flocks.

 I spotted this vulture on the neighbor's roof.

Anhinga - often seen with spread wings as they have no oil glands so they need to dry out after they dive for dinner.

 Another Snowy Egret

 Tri-color heron - at Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge

Wood Stork - supposedly endangered, but we see them in the drainage ditches along the highways often.

To see a variety of birds in one place, Ding Darling refuge is the best place for bird watching.  They have several overlook platforms  throughout the refuge.

Casey Key South Jetty Park

The jetty forms one side of a channel from the Intercoastal Waterway to the Gulf of Mexico.  On another beautiful day in SW Florida in December, we met with our friends, 

 Patti and Fran, 

and Glenn and Deedee,

who we  just met from our home state of Washington.

We took the motorcycles 

to Casey Key for lunch and a walk on the beach.

Two young boys were fishing with their father along with many other fishermen on the pier.

On the jetty looking back toward Venice, we spotted this Snowy Egret

also fishing from the pier.

We were happy the little boy caught the first fish.

Most people seemed to be on the beach to catch some rays.

Another thoroughly wonderful day in the sun!

The Hermitage on Manasota Key

About once a month during "the season", the artists in residence at the Hermitage Artist Retreat on Manasota Key have a public event.  Last night, November 30, 2012, was one such event.

As the sun began to go down, the normal beach goers from Blind Pass Park, which is adjacent to the hermitage, began to head home,

and a crowd began to assemble on the beach in front of the hermitage.  Even with clouds, the air was warm and balmy - a perfect night to watch the sun go down while listening to poetry readings and songs.

We arrived a few minutes early, and watched a group of brown pelicans dive for fish while we waited for the program to begin.

We thoroughly enjoyed the readings by Tony Hoagland, Jeff Parker, and Rodrigo Garcia Lopes.  It was an interesting and fun way to spend an evening.  We are looking forward to the next beach reading on January 25, 2013.

Manasota Key on Dwellable