Jellyfish

CANNONBALL JELLYFISH

Rebecca

&

Mariah

This jellyfish was found washed up on shore.

The pictures show their oral arms covered with mucus for trapping small prey.

The top side is shaped like a cannonball and it feels smooth.

We find them on the beach most every day but they are harmless.

Fishing Fun!

Today we boarded Alabama Girl to go on a 4 hour fishing trip.

The bait we used was fiddler crabs.  They can survive about 3 weeks in a cool place.

This video shows the fiddler crabs before they were eaten by our fish.  

OUR CATCH!!!

                                 

Janelle and Dad caught these Sheephead. 

 They are difficult to catch because their mouths have a bone at the top. 

 Sheephead have 3 rows of teeth for crushing barnacles.  

A lot got away:(

OUR YUMMY FISH!!!

Coquina or Butterfly shells!

These are Coquina clams!

Last weekend we went shelling on Pensacola Beach in Florida.  

We found an abundance of Coquina clams.

We brought them home to boil in order for them to open. (This is only half or them.)

After boiling!  If you look carefully you can see little animals inside the shells.  They are edible - some people make a chowder out of them!

This shell is opened and appears like a butterfly!  The shells range in colors like oranges and browns to purples and blues!



Watch this amazing video of live Coquina digging in the sand!
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfIF3crUG7Q

The Wharf

This afternoon our family went to The Wharf.  www.AlWharf.com

The Wharf is a shopping center with with many restaurants and entertainment like a Ferris Wheel.
We enjoyed kid`s night at Baumhower`s.  http://www.baumhowers.com/orange-beach.php
There was an "under cover clown" who did amazing balloon hats,balloon dog,horse,dolphin,and even a turtle bracelet! Here's a fun video of all of us girls playing with the balloons at the restaurant.

The Wharf is right on the Intracoastal Waterway which is a barge, shipping and boating channel along the Gulf Coast and Florida. Here's a link that tells you more about it. Intracoastal Waterway

Snakes!

 Brave Mariah is holding a king snake!  This is the king of snakes.  He will eat all other types of snakes even poisonous ones!  Some people in Alabama buy king snakes as pets and keep them in their yards.  The king snake protects their yard from rodents and other dangerous snakes.



 The video below shows Janelle and Anna with their snakes

 Janelle held the male red rat snake or corn snake pictured above.

Anna held this female red rat snake.  

On Saturday our family drove out to the end of Fort Morgan Road which is a peninsula.  From there we rode this ferry to Dauphin Island.

The Marissa Mae Nicole is one of the two ferries that connect Fort Morgan to Dauphin Island. It can hold 149 people as well as many cars.  We enjoyed the 35 minute ride across Mobile Bay.

http://www.mobilebayferry.com/pdf/ferry-brochure.pd
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Fire Ants!!

This is Mariah`s foot! Ouch! She was bit by a fire ant! The ants live in holes around the driveway because they like the water running off of it. There holes can be two feet tall and 20 feet deep and there  tunnels can spread out 8 feet in each direction. AMAZING creatures but ask Mariah how bad they hurt!

Armadillo

This is a nine-banded armadillo! Anna and I went rollerblading and we heard a rustling in the brush.  When we stopped to look we saw this armadillo.  It didn't seem to notice us at first because they have bad eyesight but when I clicked my camera it ran back into the brush.

For more fascinating information about armadillos I found this website: http://armadillo-online.org/facts.html




 

This morning when we were out on the beach I took this photo.  16 workers were walking up and down the beach picking up oil "tar balls" with their nets.  They had been working since 6:30 this morning and had collected 2 pounds of oil today.  Here is a link to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill that happened almost 3 years ago.  BP has some good videos on their site as well.

http://www.bp.com/sectiongenericarticle800.do?categoryId=9036575&contentId=7067541

Reading outside in the front of our Alabama beach house!  Notice it is on stilts for hurricanes!  Hurricane Isaac hit Louisiana about 4 months ago.  Its path was 400 miles wide.  There was some wind damage here but the sand dunes held back the waters so there was no flooding in our area.

Look who we met on the Gulf State Park's Pier!  alapark.com/GulfState/Gulf%20State%20Park%20Pier/

PELICANS!  The one on the left is a mature pelican and the right one is young.  You can tell by their coloring.  They sit on the pier waiting for an opportunity to steal fish from the fishermen or beg for scraps as the fishermen clean their fish.