North Miami Beach, Florida (2)

Another afternoon walk in North Miami. Across from my aunt's house there are a number of huge buildings being constructed by Donald Trump, or at least he has smacked his name all over them. The billboards on the scaffolding show a picture of Trump and three other men and reads "The Visionaries." These huge buildings are polluting the coastline and are basically giving rich people ownership over the sea view by standing tall and blocking out any sight of the beach. In other words, the public beach, or any clear sight of it, is for the rich and is for sale by private companies. But I ask, what is so visionary about putting up huge buildings anyway? Such buildings have lined Miami Beach for decades. I would agree that the Fontainebleau hotel showed genuine "vision," but this is the 21st century. Well, maybe there will be a zoo inside or something.

In any case, there were hundreds of turkey vultures swarming above the Trump buildings. Maybe they are protesting that they are built too high!



I spoke too soon yesterday, today there were many Portuguese man o' war all over the shore of all sizes. Here is one.



The only really exciting thing I saw today was my first royal tern. I know, this bird is quite common, but I am still inexperienced and therefore was very excited. This bird is quite big. In fact, it was nearly as large as the laughing gulls. Since I rarely notice gulls anymore, I almost missed the tern who seemed to have joined the pack. He was quite nice looking and preening himself constantly. Royal terns have large orange bills and usually have a white forehead as does the individual here. The crown is usually black and forms a crest. The taxonomy of this group seems to be changing, as is seemingly the case with most everything. Damn DNA! It seems that the royal tern used to be Sterna maxima, but now appears to be called Thalasseus maximus. The T. m. maximus subspecies breeds on the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of the southern USA and Mexico into the Carribean. The slightly smaller T. m. albididorsalis breeds in coastal west Africa.

Royal Tern (Thalasseus maximus)
Family: Sternidae



Royal tern next to a juvenile laughing gull


Avian Yoga


So I was passing over what looked like the Sargassum that I have been seeing for the last few days. But when I looked closer there were no leaf-like projections, but rather only small cauliflower-like protrusions. Perhaps this is a young Sargassum or a different species altogether.

[Addition 01 Jan 08: I just read that there are about 27 species of hydroids (order Hydroida; class Hydrozoa) which live on sargassum algae. These bumps may possibly be caused by this.]

Strange Sargassum


Things took a weird tern at the end of my walk (did you catch the pun?). I saw a round black object that looks like it came from a coconut tree. Attached to the object was a small colorful shell that appeared to have a crab inside. Perhaps it attached itself on the shore, or maybe this object actually originates from the ocean. In any case, I really need to get my hands on the field guide to southeastern US shores.

Total Weirdness


Something Emerges


[Addition 01 Jan 08: I came across a solution to this mystery in my Florida Beaches guide. The black thing must be some kind of fruit or seed and the animal attached to it looks like a goose barnacle, particularly Lepas anserifera. The guide even shows what it calls the feathery legs or cirri coming out of the shell. Goose barnacles belong to a group called the Stalked barnacles which is the family Lepadidae. And goose barnacles themselves make up the suborder Lepadomorpha. L. anserifera is a pelagic species that often attaches to floating logs. The guide says that loggerhead turtles eat goose barnacles and also that the barnacles often attach to the carapace. The guide says that barnacles on some loggerheads are heavier than the turtle itself. Goose barnacles feed on plankton and other floating microscopic food. This species is made up of two parts: a capitulum which bears the feeding tentacles and the body of the barnacle, and a peduncle which is a flexible stalk that attaches the barnacle to floating objects. The capitulum is made up of 5 calcareous plates. The genus Lepas and this particular species were name by Linnaeus himself, and seems like there is a funny history behind the name; however, I could only find an excerpt of the tale from Encyclopedia Britannica, and you have to pay for it.]

Goodnight.

-Scott