Happy Halloween

This man and his son were spooking the shorebirds yesterday at sunset.
I thought they looked like bats.

More Far Out

Shark Fishing

     I bumped into a young man on the bridge at Bowman's Beach who was casting a net to catch mullet for shark bait.  He has yet to learn respect for the shark.  He puts the whole mullet onto his hook and casts it far out into the water.

                     
Here are some photos from a book that I edited for a friend.  He had no respect for the shark as a young man. The name of the first photo is "Biting Back".  It shows my friend with a hammerhead shark. The second photo is of a bull shark that my friend and another young man caught. They would put mullet on a hook and then row the bait out into the surf past the second sandbar.  It seems that most shark fishing takes place at night.  I don't think shark sleep but are always awake and hunting.  These photos were taken in the early 1970s.  Back then sharks were caught, killed and their jaws taken for trophies. Nowadays guys who hunt for sharks release them.

These and a great many other photos of island life from forty years ago can be seen in the book I edited called ISLAND BOY, A LITTLE SANIBEL. The author is Johnny Rocco.  You can order a copy through the McIntosh Bookstore, Periwinkle Way, Sanibel, FL 33957.  My editor's notes are on the backcover.  It is an amusing read, not very long and again filled with great photographs from the not too distant past.

It takes skill to throw one of these casting nets and it makes for a nice sunset photo!

                     

BOO!

    Ghost Crab

Far Out

Spooky Mysterious Graves

    In the small cemetery near Algiers there are spooky mysterious graves. One is a child named Baby Wiles who died in  1967. Near the grave of Rebecca L. Turner who died in 1914 at the age of 32, is a headstone that has become so worn it is no longer legible.  Perhaps Turner Beach is named after Rebecca. There is the grave of an unknown male found near the lighthouse in 1961.  Was this a drowning accident and his body washed ashore? Next to him is Gloria Johnson whose grave bears only her name and is missing dates.  Perhaps she didn't want anyone to know her true age!

Former Islanders

     For years whenever I pedaled between Casa Ybel and Algiers, I wondered about the identities of the souls eternally at rest in the small island cemetery. I made a diagram and took notes on the twelve graves. Betty Anholt's book The Sanibel Story provided most of the information I needed.


            

     One marker resembles a tree trunk engraved with the words "Woodman of the World" and "At Rest".  At the base is a small relief of a beautiful calla lily in bloom. This is the grave of Newton Rutland, born in 1892 and died in 1915.  Newton was the son of Irene and Othman Rutland.  Othman was the island's first lighthouse keeper. 

     The saddest grave to me is Yvette "Cookie" Redinger.  Born in 1951, Cookie lived only ten short years.  She had a heart defect that she never outgrew.  Her mother's name is unknown but she was thought to be Cuban. Her father, Joseph, is buried next to her.  He was a mail carrier.  He drowned in 1964, just three years after Cookie passed away and was 43 years old.

     The grave of William H. Reed indicates that he lived to be 91.  Like so many early homesteaders on Sanibel, Reed discovered the island while serving in the military as a Captain during the Civil War.  He hailed from Maine.  The Reed family included William's wife Lucy, two sons and one daughter.  Shortly after settling on Sanibel, tragedy struck when a son, Eugene Grant Reed, age 21, became hopelessly tangled in fishing paraphernalia and drowned in Tarpon Bay.  The family returned to Portland, Maine where William found work as a shoe salesman but eventually they all came back to Sanibel.  William became known as "Commodore" and socialized with a "roisterous Englishman" named Sam Ellis.  Sam lived in a rough house made of palmetto and spent much of his time drifting about on Tarpon Bay with a jug. According to a story in the Ft. Myers PRESS dated April 21, 1921 "Captain Reed dropped anchor at last and was buried in Penosbscot Bay, Maine."  Was Captain Reed's body shipped north to Penobscot Bay? Many old timers doubted that he was moved and his grave appears to be here in this family plot. For years a beautiful pink hibiscus grew between the graves of Eugene and his mother Lucy. 

                                

                                                            

Saturday Around the Fishing Pier

 Picture Perfect

 Fisherwoman

 

One That Didn't Get Away

 Breezing Up

Bird Brains Seen at Casa Ybel

After a Shower

Unsusually warm fall weather produces afternoon showers and some amazing sunsets.  This was one.  Scroll down please to see a larger version of the image.  I have been making photographs since childhood.  For many years I displayed my work at outdoor art shows and became involved in the "circuit".  I was a member of N.A. I. A. (National Association of Independent Artists) and local art organizations in Maine (Saco Bay Artists).  I won prizes for my photography including first place prizes in Bar Harbor Art in the Park, Wrentham Massachusetts Art Fair, second place at Ft. Myers Artfest and many purchase prizes including the Rangeley Maine Sidewalk Art Show.  When I was a typesetter for the York County Coast Star the newspaper published dining guides and hired me for the photography.  As a result the paper won a national first place prize for "Best Advertising Idea" based on the strength of my photographs.  According to one review my photographs of restaurants were "like going into a candy store and trying to decide which one."  Enjoy!

After a Shower

East End

Sunday at the Pass

Gator Guesstimate Contest

This is the first contest sponsored by the Window Wench. Email your guesstimate and only one guesstimate per person. The prize for the closest guesstimate is a free lunch at an island restaurant because we all know that here on Sanibel there are a great many free lunches. I saw this alligator under the bridge crossing to Bowman's Beach the morning of October 15. Beachgoers were astonished.  The gator swam under the bridge, stopped briefly to float around and then continued along to settle in the mangroves. So how big is this critter?  Although there are no points of reference, look closely at my photos. Shadows might be helpful clues. Multiply the number of inches from snout to eyes by ten to arrive at the length in feet.  Although big breeding alligators have been removed from Sanibel I look for ones that got away or have grown. Have fun!

Birds of a Feather

    I was riding my bicycle to the beach yesterday when a flock of Ibis blocked the bike path, forcing me to dismount, step aside and wait for them to pass. The birds wandered slowly about, appearing aimless, but I think they were feeding. After they moved on, I was able to continue on my way.

    A few minutes later, at the beach, a huge flock of Royal Terns settled down near me along the edge of the water. They stood about chattering to each other. Rather than feeding, this flock seemed more interested in socializing near the small breakers, the gulf breeze ruffling the feathers on their heads.

     Like the birds, people from all over the globe also flock to the Island. They gather on the beaches, happily hunting for shells on the exposed sandbars and in the shallow tide pools. These groups of people, flitting about in groups and darting from one shell mound to another, are birds of a feather.

Sanibel is a sanctuary island, a refuge, a place where wildlife and people are able to gather for survival as well as for socialization. The Island is not simply a destination, a location, a place to flock. Sanibel is a way of life and a way of living.