Caspersen Beach

Tuesday December 25, 2012
Site 6 Oscar Scherer State Park
Osprey, Florida
Hi 76, Low 55

 

Carrie wings away today.

 

Her flight back to Baltimore is this afternoon.  As has become our routine, I pick her up when she comes and David takes her back when she leaves.  They need to start up for Tampa at 2pm.  

But that gives us the morning and she wants to see “the shark teeth beach”.   So we have a quick breakfast and head out to Caspersen Beach in Venice.

 

 

Caspersen is another different beach with a different coast and sand.  This beach has a  beautiful rock lined coast.  We are all pretty amazed at the variety of water front, development, shells and sand on the various Sarasota County beaches.

 

 

 

 

 

 

When we arrive, there are few people.  We aren’t quite sure where these shark’s teeth are so we make ourselves comfortable and  watch the pelicans and friends while we wait for more people to arrive and begin their hunt.

 

 

 

 

 

 

There are a lot of birds in the water fishing today.  They are floating and dipping.   They are circling and dive bombing the water.  It is fabulous entertainment.    I forget all about sharks teeth

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After an hour or so more people begin to come and they bring all kinds of equipment.  Hand scoop sifters.  Sifters with long handles.  Shovels.  Sieve boxes.   We have no equipment.  Oh well.   These are professional shark teeth hunters.  We are clearly amateurs.

 

 

 

I walk a ways down the beach watching the various methods of looking.  I stop and talk to this family who is using a shovel and this sieve.   They have had good luck with it.  Such good luck that when I exclaim amazement they pick one out and give it to me.    COOL!

 

 

There are 4 shark’s teeth in this picture.  Click to enlarge and see if you can find them.  Hint:  Far heel of his hand is one.

 

I  see some folks just digging in the sand and stop to talk to them about the non-equipment approach.  They say they’ve found some teeth.  Only a few,  but it works for them.  I have been imagining that it is very difficult to find even one shark’s tooth but clearly folks with equipment are finding many per scoop in some cases.   These folks say they’ve found 4 or 5 with the dig and examine method.

 

David’s not interested but Carrie and I take on the challenge.  He volunteers to be expedition photographer.

 

You dig as deep as you can in the sand and shells.  Bring your handful up to the shore.

 

And examine it for teeth.

 

In 8 or 10 tries Carrie finds two teeth.  I find none.   Time is growing late and we need to get back and make some lunch before they leave for the airport.  So this is our take for the day.  Carrie finds two and one donation for me.  Way to go Carrie!  Hers are also bigger than mine.  Wonder how Homeland Security will feel about them on the plane.

 

We take our final long arm 3-some shot.

 

Back at Winnona we put together a BIG lunch of the Yuletide leftovers which should get her through the 90 minutes before the flight, the 2 hour flight and the drive home.

 

They leave for the airport and I begin the clean up and put away.  3 people in Winnona makes for some tight quarters.   I do dishes, vacuum, take the herbs outside for a good watering.

 

 

David gets back about 5 and we head over to Nokomis Beach to catch the sunset.  

From now on we’ll say “get your terns in a row”.

We’re sure going to miss Carrie.  She brightens up every day.  We’ve been quite lucky that she has been able to fly down to be with us for both Thanksgiving and Christmas in such a short period of time.

 

We don’t see the sunset only a sliver of color.
I wonder if David is looking for shark’s teeth in the shells. 

 

Walking away we come across this shell sculpture.
People do very interesting things here at Nokomis Beach.
Last time we were here we saw ‘Nokomis Christmas’ written in huge letters and this time……..is it a butterfly?  an angel??
The red is seed pods, the rest shells.