Pensacola Beach Blogger

Usually when a purple flag is flying over Pensacola Beach, it means one thing: the Jellyfish have arrived! We get a number of species out here, some dangerous, some not, but this one I found very interesting. This is a Blue Button. This isn’t actually a jellyfish, but a Chondrophore that we found and put in a pot from the kitchen just long enough to take pictures of. What you’re looking at isn’t a single animal, rather a colony of small polyps, each performing a different role in the colony.

Although these are quite harmless, they may cause slight skin irritation if touched. Here’s what the top looks like:

There are several large swans that hang around in the ponds over on the east side of Pensacola Beach. Most of the time, they can be found right out my back door! Judging by the orange and black bill, and white plumage I would guess that these are Mute Swans. They had babies this spring (the babies are called cygnets), but I haven’t seen them in months. I’m thinking they either left the island or were removed from it.

Feeding these swans is risky business. Right up until they were eating, they were hissing and grunting at us:

In this picture, you can clearly see the projection above the bill, characteristic of Mute Swans:

Now they are just getting greedy:

The Pensacola Beach Gulf Pier at Casino Beach is always fun to walk on, but have you been under it lately? Check out the hammock these guys set up under it. What a great idea!

There are plenty of shells under the pier:

He’s going to find the good ones:

I certainly don’t like the projected forecast for Hurricane Ike. Ike is now a borderline category 2 or 3 hurricane headed to the Keys of Florida, along with Haiti and Cuba. Computer models are now showing that Ike will most likely end up in the Gulf of Mexico, which is bad news for Pensacola and the rest of the Gulf Coast. Later next week, we may be closing up hurricane shutters once again.

Many of my neighbors have kept their windows borded up and the hurricane shutters closed since taking action for Hurricane Gustav. Let’s hope we can open up our windows again soon!

The very popular Dome of a Home is a Pensacola Beach landmark, and only a few blocks away from me. This place claims to be resistant to hurricanes, floods, tornadoes, and even earthquakes, according to their website.

It looks pretty indestructible to me. Here is the sign out front:

Looks like fun, but according to their website, they are no longer doing vacation rentals. Too bad!

Hurricane Gustav is gone, but he took something with him! My beach! This walkway usually ramps down into the sand. Today there’s a 2 foot drop-off:

You can see some damage to the sand fences (or whatever those are called):

But the good news is that the sun is shining, at least for now. There are still a few storms rolling through though. I snapped this picture around noon today:

We just braved the tropical storm conditions here on the beach to get some shots of the storm surge.

Check it out! No beach here, only huge waves:

If you do venture out, be careful! I just heard the following go out over the Pensacola Beach Lifeguard’s radios:

“All lifeguards, keep in mind you are NOT to go in after swimmers! Stay out of the water”

If you want to set up your police scanner to monitor beach happenings, see my list of Pensacola Beach Scanner Frequencies.

Gustav is upon us. Throughout the night we have endured probably a dozen tornado warnings, thunderstorms, torrential downpours, and some impressive wind, but as you can see, it is finally morning:

Check out how high the tide is! The waves are probably 12 feet tall.

You can see that it is really chewing up the dunes. If it starts to flow over, we are leaving the island.

I just feel fortunate to still have power and internet. We might take a drive to see if there is any major damage on the island. Check back later today for an update!

While waiting to lose power out here on Pensacola Beach, we decided to make light of the evening and have a hurricane party, including our very own Hurricane Gustav Cake 2008!

Yum Yum! Hurricake!

As we approach high-tide on Pensacola Beach tonight (12:21AM), the sea continues to rise. In fact, tonight it is higher than I’ve ever seen since moving down here. The waves are approaching the foot of the dunes, nearly breaking through to the houses behind. Take a look:

We’ll keep you updated so long as we have power. If the surge gets any higher we might leave the island though.