Sanibel Journal

After hearing dozens of citizens complaining loudly about the air pollution and noise emitted by gas-powered leaf blowers, the Sanibel City Council reacted by merely reducing the hours that these devices can be used by commercial landscapers and city employees.  Because a few landscapers do not want their workers to wait until 9AM to start working, they have replaced the gas-powered blowers with more environmentally friendly electric ones. That ordinance was passed by the Council in December, but even as the Council members passed it, they acknowledged that they need to do more to reduce or eliminate the use of these pollution spewing machines. No gas-powered leaf blowers are used here. In January, they shocked the citizens by doing as little as possible: they passed a resolution to "encourage individuals and businesses to voluntarily use environmentally friendly alternatives to gas-powered landscape equipment, including electric and battery equipment, in addition to manua...

Florida lagoons, ponds, and lakes should be surrounded by native vegetation. June 16, 2016 -- I used to write newspaper articles about alligators on Sanibel Island.  More specifically, I wrote about incidents involving alligators, as recorded in police reports.  My goal was to explain that complaining to the police about an alligator's presence was a death sentence to the alligator, especially if it is over 6 feet long.  Those reported alligators are killed; the smaller ones are relocated.  I stopped writing those articles when I began to suspect that they were reminding some people that they could get rid of any alligator by simply calling the police. Alligator eating a bowfin fish behind our former home. Indeed, alligators who show no fear of humans are dangerous.  But most alligators are not dangerous to humans, because they fear and avoid them.  What makes alligators lose that fear?  People who feed alligators, that's what.  Almost a...

May 25, 2015 -- Sanibel Island is loaded with visitors on this Memorial Day weekend.  Bailey's grocery was busy on Sunday after church.  Many customers spoke Spanish.  A dozen or so sported tattoos all over their arms and even some necks. A double rainbow over Sanibel in June 2013. The bicycles on the shared use paths are ridden by people of all shapes, sizes, colors, and ages.  On the average, visitors on Memorial Day weekend are younger than wintertime snowbirds and visitors. At this time of year, the assortment of people on Sanibel looks a little more like the rest of the state. After all, this is the time of year when Floridians visit Sanibel.  Times are better; gas prices are lower. Unemployment in Florida is dipping below 5 percent.  Working people are opting to take a mini-vacation to Sanibel Island, a dream spot for Floridians. They come to bicycle, to fish, to enjoy the beach.  The weather is not too hot for them; they're used to it....

May 11, 2015 -- We call it a “white bird event.”  It happens occasionally, when the tides are just right, and when the freshwater levels are low.  Because the rainy season has not quite started, this often occurs in May or June.  A “white bird event” is when we are awakened by dozens, sometimes a hundred or more, white birds who are noisily squawking and feeding in the pond in our back yard. Not all of the birds are white.  We see the occasional blue heron and immature ibis participating in these feasts.  Once, we even saw an alligator swim right through the middle of the gathering, not even pausing for a bite.   Last night, after sunset, we heard a little alligator out there in the pond snapping away at fish.  When the water levels are low, the pond is teaming with fish.  The water is so thick with fish that we decided to name it Chowder Pond.  Chowder Pond is long and narrow, so it looks like a creek or bayou that goes somewhe...

April 21, 2015 -- For the first time in ten years, I missed an Island Jazz performance.  On Sunday afternoon, I opted instead to attend the Fort Myers Mastersingers performance on Sanibel, at the Community Church. The music was thrilling and beautiful.  It was performed by the full Mastersingers chorus, including its chamber chorus and the regular chorus.  A chamber orchestra from the Naples Philharmonic accompanied them; this group consisted of two flutes, two violins, a viola, a cello and a bass.  The program included Shubert’s Mass in G, Lewandowski’s Hallelujah (Psalm 150), the Hallelujah chorus from Handel’s Messiah, the Kyrie from Verdi’s Requiem, Bach’s Gloria in Excelsis, a spiritual called Ride On, King Jesus, and a modern piece called Gloria that was written by a chorus member, Jason Bahr. Jason wasn’t present because he was in New York City, where another one of his works was being performed.  He is a professor of music at Florida Gulf Coast ...

October 10, 2014 -- I am honored when I see snakes like this in our back yard.  This is a southern black racer, and its favorite food is rodent, although it also will eat frogs, toads, lizards, birds, and fellow snakes.  Because I dislike palm rats, I have come to love snakes that prey upon them. This racer was catching the last few rays of sunlight in our back yard yesterday evening.  Its scientific name is coluber constrictor priapus , but it does not constrict its prey; it swallows the prey alive. This past April, in my butterfly garden I saw a racer like this in the act of swallowing a black-throated green warbler alive.  I'd prefer this snake would keep to a steady diet of rodents instead of having the variety of the occasional precious songbird.  But I don't mess with nature; I did not attempt to save the bird. My copy of Florida's Fabulous Reptiles and Amphibians  says, "This slender, graceful, and fast-moving snake is often found near human ...

My friend John Cassani has an editorial/commentary in today's local newspaper, the News-Press .  John is a friend whom I've known for years, but rarely see face-to-face, because we live 50 miles apart.   The first time we met was at a South Florida Water Management District meeting about nine or 10 years ago, I think, when our estuary was being slammed with discharges of polluted water from Lake Okeechobee; harmful algae blooms abounded as a result.  Since then, we both have been and still are part of a group that receive regular emails on the subject of those awful discharges. Our back yard in 2013:  Chowder Pond The subject of John's commentary today is the importance of wetlands in south Florida.  As he explains, "Wetlands are the natural kidneys that filter pollutants from surface runoff. They attenuate flooding and recharge drinking water aquifers, key functions that help protect Florida in more ways than they are generally given credit for. For some,...

Looking east The weather radar map looked clear first thing this morning, so I donned walking attire and headed for the beach, on foot, before dawn.  The beach was practically devoid of human beings, although I could see a few in the distance.   Sea squirts , on the other hand, were littering the beach all along the mean high tide line.  Recent weather and tidal conditions had washed them ashore. Shore birds were busily cleaning them up.  But until the birds finish their work, the beach smells a little funky. My usual walk takes me through Gulf Shores and out to the beach, then eastward on the beach to a point just beyond my friend Judy B.'s house (with the thatched roof).  Then I turn around and head back home via the Gulf Pines beach path.  The big loop takes about an hour to complete, at  moderately brisk pace, with a couple pauses for photographing. Looking west All of Sanibel's beaches are beautiful; but my favorites have always been t...

I started my Paris Journal 15 summers ago, before the word "blog" had been invented.  From time to time, my readers have asked, "Why don't you write a Sanibel blog?" Today is the day.  Barbara Joy Cooley's Sanibel Journal has begun. My husband (Tom Cooley) and I live in Sanibel.  It is our only home.  But we do go to Paris every summer for three months.  We don't have a home of our own in Paris; we simply rent an apartment from friends. The Paris Journal is not a travel journal; we live in Paris in the summer, but we are not tourists.  My husband and I are writers.  We work at our computers until about 3 or 4PM every day when we're in Paris. Likewise, the Sanibel Journal is not going to be a travel journal.  It is not meant for tourists, but tourists might enjoy it, especially if they're interested in the perspective of the locals. I'm a community activist by nature, and a science writer by education and work experience.  I firs...