So where to start. Well, I arrived in Florida yesterday around 6pm, got my rental car and was at the hotel by 6:30. Sounds pretty straightforward, yeah? Well, although we touched down safely and my luggage made it through a plane change in Denver, while trying to find my hotel, I ended up traveling about 20 feet on the wrong side of the road because of an unexpected island that stood between me and the side of the road I needed to be on. Fortunately, nothing horrible happened except for I felt like a pretty big idiot. Tourists!! =P
So the really cool thing about today was that I went down to the Tampa Convention Center to register only to find out my registration session wasn’t until 1pm and it was 8:45am.Perferct ! Time for exploring. So since we’re on the bay, I started walking along the bay and found that the path just kept going. I come to find out that it is one of the longest contiguous sidewalks in the United States. Four miles each direction. It took me ~3.5 hours but that was mainly because I kept stopping every 15 feet or so to check out all the marine life in the bay or to talk with a friendly local. Read on for a list of everything I saw this morning. =)
Bat rays – hundreds, some with flat noses, others with rounded noses (the round nosed ones were pretty cute and tended to be smaller)
Crabs – originally saw crabs that were about 4 inches wide and then started seeing much bigger crabs further down the bay. One had lost a pincher and it looked like the second pincher grew even bigger as a result. The crabs where sandy in color with bright blue legs in back.
Silver fish – small fish no bigger than two inches in length were rolling their bodies so that in the light, you’d see these flickers of silver. These fish tended to stay in the muddier parts of water.
Oysters – The bay wall was covered in oyster shells. When the water receded, the oysters would expel water back into the bay. Further down the pier, work had been done to create oyster houses which help clean the bay and provide shelter for smaller fish and crabs.
Birds – there was a blue heron, a grey smaller heron, a heron that looked like a night heron but smaller and with a rusty crest and a bird with a long orange peak, pink feet and a black head. I also saw a green parrot bird that was squaking while it made a nest in a palm tree. Amazing!
Dolphins – believe it or not, there were several dolphins that came right up to the bay wall as they cornered schools of fish. Two dolphins swam right by me as I stood on the sidewalk amazed at what I was seeing. Apparently there was a baby dolphin which had been swimming only 30 feet in front of me but unless you’re right on top of where it’s swimming, you won’t be able to see much except its dorsal fin.
Jack crevalles – I saw a ton of these and from a distance, they might be mistaken for baby dolphins because they are big enough to create a wake and also corner schools of fish when hunting. These were pretty cool fish. I don’t know if I’d want to swim with them though. 😉 I actually saw a jack swimming with another fish’s (a large looking fish) tail hanging out of its mouth.
Snook – Another large fish that kind of resembles a barracuda. This fish was pointed out to me by a retired gentleman (Dan Fields) who rides, runs or walks the bay every day. That’s a another thing I noticed. There are a lot of people in really great shape in Tampa.
Horseshoe crab – After looking out into the bay for so long, my eyes started to focus on other things in the bay. I saw what looked like a rust colored horseshoe crab but wasn’t sure until I saw several others on my way back and knew that it was in fact what I thought it was.
Hawks – very large osprey like birds that circled the bay and then dove into the water to catch their dinner. I saw three hawks catch rather large fish and carry them off into the distance.
Mullets – long and narrow fish that looked to be over a foot long and would gain speed and then leap through the air in packs. Quite amazing to observe.
Pelicans – these pelicans looked a lot bigger than the pelicans in California. I actually got to see three of work for their breakfast. The would fly up a foot or so off the surface of the water and would then dive down with their beaks open. They would then slowly raise their head up pressing the pouch against their chest. After the water was drained they would raise their beaks and gulp down their catch. Several small seagulls thought they might get a free bite and so they hopped on the backs of the pelicans as they hunted.
Turtles – at first I couldn’t tell if they were snakes or what but then once one got closer, I could see that they were turtles. Relatively small in size, they seemd to be out of place since there wasn’t anywhere for them to rest. Perhaps when the tide goes out they have a ledge to stand on.
I also saw some really cool pen fish (I haven’t been able to find the real name) that were long and skinny, maybe 8 inches in length and had very long snouts. They were really cool to see as well.
So all in all, today was a success for me. After my walk, I checked-in at the conference and then headed back to the hotel to get some food and relax. I was going to head to St. Petersberg but I knew I was tired and didn’t want to push things to far. On Thursday I’ll be going to the Busch Gardens as part of the conference social events. I think that will be enough adventuring for me. =) It’s 4:04 here but I’m experiencing jet-lag and simple sleep deprivation so I think I will retire to take a short nap. I’ll write more later. Bye for now! =)
So after a whole season of rain and flowing creeks at the lab (but no salamanders), I finally found my salamander and I wasn’t even looking for it at the time. =)
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