North Miami Beach, Florida (1)

Today I walked the beach in North Miami, Florida. I have been coming here for many years. The ocean here is beautiful and the water has a nice blue-green tint. But this area is under heavy development and I was really sad to see that the sun on the beach is almost completely blocked by towering buildings that line the coast. And new buildings are popping up each year that I visit this area.

Life on the beach is not very diverse, at least not at this time of year. Sargassum (also known as Gulf weed) is the dominant algae. It is usually golden, but can also be dark red or brown (perhaps after it dries).

Sargassum #1

Sargassum #2

[Addition 01 Jan 08: I read a little more about sargassum. The species in this picture are clearly pelagic, but there are also attached species with leaves that are broad, smooth, brown, leathery, and have backs spots. Only the longer ones have air bladders. Sargassum can be a raft for many organisms in the ocean and it is found in abundance in the Sargasso sea in the middle of the north Atlantic, hence the name]

The other conspicuous inhabitant of the beach - albeit a dead one - is the moon jellyfish (Aurelia aurita). It is quite clear in color and has four horseshoe shaped gonads that are clearly visible. They were pink in the individuals that I saw. By the time they wash up on the shore they are usually dead and are missing their tentacles.

Moon Jelly

I saw a few different kinds of sponges that may in fact be the same type. But the one on the right looks like a tube sponge (Callyspongia campana) and the other two look a lot like Haliclona oculata (Dead-man's fingers). Sponges feed by pumping water through their bodies and filtering out food particles. They have no true tissues (muscle, organs, nerves) and so are thought to be very close to single celled organisms and may have diverged at the dawn of multicellularity.

Sponges (Phylum Porifera)


I also saw a branch-like object that is very firm. The only close match in my nature guide was twig weed algae, but this doesn't really fit. I found what looks like a little piece of coral at the end of one of these branches.

Branch-like specimen


Although sea gulls are ubiquitous on the eastern US coastline, I don't remember much about their identification. The adult ring-billed gull is fairly obvious because of the black ring encircling the bill. Although it seems that immature herring gulls also have a similar ring. They can have some spotting on their otherwise white head. Their primaries are predominately black on top (with some white) and the back and secondaries are gray on top. Legs are pale yellow or greenish. Ring-billed gulls are everywhere, even in strip-mall parking lots and they certainly pervade the Miami shoreline.

Ring-billed Gull (Larus delawarensis)
Family: Laridae (Gulls)


I feel quite stupid because there is another widespread gull that I am seeing, but I don't know what it is, even after looking at the guide. It must be a common species such as the laughing gull or Bonaparte's gull, but I just can't match it.

I consulted various websites and it seems that these are laughing gulls The first photo seems to be a juvenile laughing gull and the second picture is probably of a group of winter colored adults.

Juvenile Laughing Gull (Larius atricilla)
Family: Laridae


Adult Winter-form Laughing Gulls


I found several cool gull ID and information pages (including this one), but strangely there was no trace of information for laughing gulls. Perhaps it is not exotic enough or has a different name. I also so no information for Bonaparte's gull. I'll have to look more into this.

What kind of coral is this?


I remember from my childhood that man o' war were to be feared like the plague. I know nothing about these things, and today I have seen very few. And the few I have seen are very small. From reading, it seems that man o' war are actually in the order Siphonophora (class Hydrozoa; phylum: Cnidaria). Apparently, this is a colonial species and each man o' war is a colony. It is made up of individual zooids, many of which are specialized and could not survive on their own. These zooids can be medusoid or polypoid. In the class Hydrozoa, medusae are the sexual individuals of many species, alternating in the life cycle with asexual polyps.

I took a picture of a tiny Portugese Man o' War, but I have no idea if this is an entire colony or just a broken off piece. Ah, there is just too much to learn.

Portugese Man o' War (Physalia physalis)
Family: Physaliidae


Well, as I am finishing this, I am already late for my next afternoon walk on the beach. I guess I won't be able to keep this up.

-Scott