Sunday, December 6, 2015

There were three separate ranger-led programs at Ft Pickens.  They were conveniently scheduled so we could attend each, one after another.  The first met at the Battery Worth picnic area.  This time of year there were very few people, so we had a pretty small group. Stuart and James were both volunteer rangers leading the program.

Only one other camper, John, joined our group as we hiked along the beach and learned a little about the history and ecology of the island. We watched an Osprey fly overhead and saw a pod of dolphins playing in the waters less than a hundred yards away.

A half hour later we met James again at the Fort Pickens garrison.  I have to believe the soldiers firing these guns were deaf at an early age.  Even the sound of a normal voice was loud as it echoed inside the gun rooms.  An efficient crew was able to load and fire a round every 12 minutes but they found they needed to slow down to one round every fifteen minutes and implement some extra steps to keep the barrel from overheating. 

Long before there was a Guantanamo Bay detention facility, there was Fort Pickens. Locals lobbied the army to detain Geronimo in the fort thinking it might provide a good tourist draw.

Cave-like formations must have started forming a hundred years ago to reach their present 2 to 3-inch length.

I never would have thought about building an inverted arch below ground level for each arch in the wall to help distribute the load. Apparently, it works very well on soft ground.  After all, it's not like they could dig down to bedrock on an island that was essentially a constantly shifting sandbar.

We met again at the Fort Pickens Museum for the ranger's "Creature Feature". We were early enough to explore most of the material on the history of the fort.  Early plan views and models made it clear just how much the island had moved around the fort since it was completed in 1834.

I was engrossed in listening to the various bird calls visitors can expect to hear on the island when our ranger, Stuart, announced we were ready to start the program. It was just as well, I could not discern the difference between one bird from another.

The subject of the creature feature was the sea turtle.  The island has several programs for monitoring all phases of the turtles' activities. From crawling out of the sea, to laying eggs, through the hatching and newborn race back to the safety of the sea.

The turtle operates for the most part on instinct.  It has extremely limited brain capacity - their brain fits in the thumb-sized hole centered just below the eye cavities.

The tear-shaped cavity in the center of the loggerhead sea turtle skull houses the tiny brain.

It was time to head back to the coach for Sam's afternoon walk and then an evening glass of wine. Why was learning never this much fun in school?