We loved Brohard Beach & Paw Park the designated doggy beach in Venice, Florida but there's a lot more to love in this town. I mentioned the fishing pier at Venice Beach in our previous blog post. You can see the pier from the doggy beach. Venice Beach is an awesome spot to visit for the day but your four legged furry friends will have to stay home. No dogs allowed. Free Fishing Pier at Venice Beach! The Venice Municipal Fishing Pier is a 700 foot pier that offers "Free Fishing" to all Florida residents & guests. No fishing licenses are required to fish from this pier but Florida Fish & Game Laws do still apply. Anyone can walk out onto the pier. It's free & the view is amazing! Want to fish but lack equipment? No problem. There are poles available to rent & bait for sale on the pier. There's even a t-shirt shack! The Venice Municipal Fishing Pier is located on Venice Beach in front of Sharky's on the Pier. Sharky's offers food, drinks & a view of the beach from a tiki lounge setting. There's a second restaurant for fine dining on property named Fins & a really nice gift shop too. You can find a lot of interesting information on the Venice Municipal Fishing Pier on Sharky's website including rules & regulations for fishing. The doggy beach is just down the road from Sharky's & the Venice Fishing Pier and just beyond that is Casperson Beach. We really like Casperson Beach too. It's rocky but so beautiful. Helpful Hint - Be sure to poke around in the sand between the rocks. It's a great place to find trapped shark's teeth, corals & shells! Downtown Venice The Venice area has a long history. It was originally home to Indigenous People that inhabited this area 12,000 years ago! The Spanish occupied Florida beginning in the 1500's. However, the southwestern coast of Florida largely remained uninhabited wilderness. Then came American settlers in the late 1800's. They named the area "Horse and Chase" because the tree formations marking their fishing area resembled carriages. It was renamed Venice in 1888 by a settler named Frank Higel. He named the town after Venice, Italy because it reminded him of the canals there. There are many examples of Italian-style architecture here today. I have never been to Italy so I have no frame of reference. Maybe that's why Venice reminds me of Charlevoix, Michigan. The drawbridges, shopping the downtown area, observing the action from a sidewalk cafe, it all felt like a beautiful summer day in Charlevoix to me. Even the street art is familiar. Venice just swaps out polar bears for mermaids. Can't say I blame them there! LOL I found my doppelgänger in Venice, Florida! LOL Here's a fun fact about Venice. From 1960 to 1992, Venice was the winter home for the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus. (That explains the drawbridge to Venice named Circus Bridge.) The circus left town when the railway went out but you can still find a few remnants here & there. One being Tito Gaona's Flying Trapeze Academy, where you can learn to "float through the air with the greatest of ease."
Earth Treasures Earth Treasures is our favorite shop to visit in Venice & it's perfectly named. Inside you'll find all sorts of treasures from the earth. Ancient fossils, crystals & mineral specimens, jewelry, nature art, shark teeth of all types & sizes, preserved 'gators & cane toads too! Most items are for sale but they do have fascinating display pieces as well. We highly recommend visiting if you're in the area. You can also visit Earth Treasure's Facebook Page online! Ancient Hippopotamus Teeth (Fossilized) Megalodon Tooth Compared to Great White Shark Jaw Mammoth Tooth - Molar
Australian Cane Toad Leather Need a few extra teeth to round out your collection? Earth Treasures has them at a great price. We picked up one of each for the kids on our list. Then grabbed one more set for the biggest kid of all - Jason! Sea Pleasures & Treasures of Venice Another shop we can't pass up is Sea Pleasures & Treasures of Venice. This shop has all of your vacation needs covered. T-shirts, hats, flip-flops, beach towels, postcards, beach toys & every type of souvenir imaginable. Sea Pleasures & Treasures is a great source for seashells, corals & shark's teeth too. But, what makes this shop one of our favorites is the incredible wall of fossils on display. We were amazed at the age & beauty of Sea Pleasures & Treasures' extensive fossil collection. Not everything behind glass is for sale but they do offer a wide selection of fossils in a variety of price ranges. Of course, we would love to own the fossils with the heftiest price tags but we were happy with our purchases. And so were the kids on on our Christmas list! We're home now & it's a balmy 6 degrees Fahrenheit on Valentine's Day.
I'll be spending my day snuggling on the couch with a box of chocolates. Watching Live Cam Video Feeds of our favorite beaches on Manasota Key. I hope your day is just as sweet. HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!
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We have a ton of fun in Florida but one activity tops our list by far. Almost to the point of obsession. Early morning, afternoons, even a few nights! We could be found scouring the beaches of Manasota Key hunting for fossilized shark's teeth. We never left the house without a sandwich baggie to hold our treasures. It was our favorite Florida fashion accessory. It's surprisingly easy to find shark's teeth once you get "the eye" for it. They wash up on every beach along Manasota Key. From Englewood to Venice, we found a handful of teeth at every beach we visited. I even found one on the doggy beach! Here's one I found just laying on the beach. You can see it's a different color. Teeth feel different too. They're very smooth. But you can't just go by color alone. There are little black stones & tons of black specks on the beach too. The black specks are tiny fragments of teeth that are so worn from the sea they resemble sunflower seeds. I look for the bottom of the tooth, where it fits into the gum. That's what would catch my eye. That little crook in the tooth was a dead giveaway. We picked up a few shell scoops at the local beach shop to help us catch the teeth rolling around in the surf. They work well, if you want to carry them. I prefer to walk the beach with only a baggie in hand. I do wade a little, up to my knees, but that's about as far as I will go. (A little gal like me can be mistaken for bait in those waters!) I'm fine with being a chicken. I have the best luck just strolling the beach anyway. Jason is a different story. We caught the shark's tooth bug last year & Jason has been dreaming about finding a Megalodon tooth ever since. It's possible. They find several in the area. So for his birthday last year, in anticipation of our Florida trip, I bought him a bathyscope to aid in his search. As you can see, it really helps in viewing the seabed. It can be a bugger to hold down in the waves though. So, what did we find?Back at the rental we would empty our baggies into a colander to rinse them. Then the fun began! Sorting through our treasures to see what goodies we had found. Between the two of us, we had several varieties of shark teeth, several pieces of fossilized bone, pretty shells, beach glass & hag stones. We had several really exciting finds but they're all pretty amazing when you think about it. All of the shark's teeth & bone fragments are fossilized. They range in age from 10,000 years old to 75 million years old! Manasota Key is a barrier island that separates the Gulf of Mexico from the brackish waters of Lemon Bay. This area was once a shallow sea that served as breeding grounds for ancient sharks including the giant Megalodon. We were told there is a shelf about 2 miles out in the Gulf of Mexico where divers find a lot of Megalodon teeth. Others hunt the rivers & creek beds that feed Lemon Bay. We also met a fossil hunter who claims his best finds are inland on construction sites. He had several large Meg teeth and a prehistoric bear claw to prove it. Jason thought he had found another Megalodon tooth but after further inspection we decided it was fossilized bone. The bone fragments are most likely from marine mammals but it is possible some fragments may be human. Sea levels have changed over the millennia & now cover lands once occupied by Native peoples. The photo on the right shows what just might be our best finds of the year. Any guess as to what they are? You may be surprised. I know I sure was. Those friends, are prehistoric equine teeth that have been fossilized. What?! Yes indeed. Prehistoric horses once roamed North America. I know, I know. I thought horses came over with the Spanish Conquistadors in the late 1400's to early 1500's too. The Spaniards re-introduced horses to the Americas long after prehistoric horses went extinct. Working our way toward a mouthful of horse teeth!
Do we wish we were back in Florida hunting shark's teeth? You bet! But as we watch the snow fall in Northern Michigan, we have our collection of treasures to play with & wonderful memories of our fun at the beach to "tide" us over until next year.
This year, we were fortunate enough to spot several gopher land tortoise. Our first was along the roadside on Manasota Key. We were headed to Stump Pass Beach our favorite spot on the key. Unfortunately, we couldn't stop to take a photo. The road is narrow with a 25 mph speed limit & we had a string of vehicles behind us. It's a one mile walk from the entrance of Stump Pass to the southern most point of Manasota Key. We walked the beach looking for shark's teeth & other sea treasures. The wind was at our backs so we didn't realize how breezy it was until we turned to head back. Whoa! We decided to take the nature trail back which follows along the bayside of the key to shelter us from the wind. It was on our walk back that we hit the jackpot. A gopher land tortoise next to its den. Gopher land tortoises are native to the southeastern region of the United States. Only 5 tortoise species are native to the U.S. and gopher land tortoises are the only tortoise found east of the Mississippi River. They are protected in Florida & listed as "Vulnerable" on the Endangered Species List. In Florida, all gopher tortoises must be safely relocated before any land disturbance is allowed to take place. Land owners are required by law to obtain a permit before doing so. There are many protected animals & native plants in Florida. The state does a great job alerting the public to their presence. We found signage posted at every park & pubic nature space we visited. Florida also includes educational information on their signage. We love that! Gopher land tortoise are considered a "Keystone Species." A keystone species is any organism that helps to define an ecosystem. Gopher land tortoise play a crucial role within their ecosystem. It's mainly due to their dens. Many species rely on gopher land tortoise dens for their own survival. Gopher tortoise burrow as far as 50' into the ground and their dens may be up to 10' deep! These burrows protect the tortoise from heat, sunstroke & bush fires. It's quite common for gopher tortoise to share their dens with snakes. In fact, over 350 different species of animals are known to share gopher land tortoise dens. During bush fire events, these burrows are essential for the survival of the ecosystem. Gopher land tortoise tend to feed within 160' of their burrow. They forage on low growing plants such as broadleaf & wire grasses, gopher apples and legumes. Gopher tortoise average 9-11" in length but can grow up to 15" long. Their average lifespan is 40-60 years in the wild. Gopher land tortoise can live 90+ years in captivity. Breeding season runs March to October. Male gopher land tortoise sexually mature within 9-12 years of age while females require 10-21 years to reach sexual maturity. Females lay their clutch of eggs between the months of May & July. Their eggs are about the size of pingpong balls. Baby tortoise emerge in August through November after 80 to 100 days of incubation. Adult gopher land tortoise provide NO maternal care to their young. Several days later we were lucky enough to spot another gopher land tortoise while walking to Manasota Beach. He was very close to the footpath but hard to spot in the dune grass. I might have walked right past him had Jason not pointed him out. The tortoise was busy digging in the sand & paid no attention to us. We were able to get several great shots. From a safe distance, of course! I wondered if the tortoise was working on a new burrow or just digging the beach like me? We'll have to check this spot for a tortoise den next year. We shot a few seconds of video showing the tortoise in action before we continued on to the beach. Check out the clips below. Later that night I used our photos & video clips of the gopher land tortoise to create my very first TikTok video. We're up to 692 views so far with 7 likes. Well on our way to TikTok fame... at a tortoise pace, of course! Stay tuned. We have more nature & wildlife posts coming soon.
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