tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-198070102009-05-07T16:04:08.090-05:00Travel author and Florida native David McRee shares his knowledge and photos of Florida's islands and beaches.David McRee, --BeachHunterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03681596846680917557noreply@blogger.comBlogger89125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19807010.post-3950192986596098142009-02-15T10:55:00.000-05:002009-02-15T10:56:29.821-05:00

Volunteer Seabird Rescue Effort in Florida from David McRee on Vimeo.

David McRee, --BeachHunterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03681596846680917557noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19807010.post-91981104511789109752008-08-25T11:31:00.002-05:002008-08-25T12:34:36.236-05:00

This is just a happy reminder to everyone who has subscribed to this blog, that this blog is being retired. My new blog is located at BlogTheBeach.com . Why have I done this?This is a Google Blogger blog. This Google Blog platform is unreliable, unpredictable, inflexible, unsupported by Google, and is driving me crazy.I've moved to a Wordpress solution and it is working out quite well! It will be

David McRee, --BeachHunterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03681596846680917557noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19807010.post-1853660111206942422008-06-10T08:04:00.002-05:002008-06-10T08:13:54.683-05:00

Last month I made a trip over to Cocoa Beach. I hadn't been in a long, long time. I spent several days and visited most of the main beach accesses. Cocoa beach is an important beach because it is one of the closest beaches to the Orlando theme parks.I made some interesting discoveries while I was there and re-familiarized myself with an old friend. My buddy Alex and I used to drive over to Cocoa

David McRee, --BeachHunterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03681596846680917557noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19807010.post-55362133000339655452008-05-10T15:54:00.002-05:002008-05-10T16:10:54.363-05:00

Caladesi Island State Park has one of the best beaches in the state. The Island has no roads, no cars, no buildings other than a few service buildings for the park rangers, and no one lives on the island. There is no bridge to Caladesi, so the only way to get to it is by boat. This keeps the crowds down to a minimum.Fortunately for those of us without boats, a ferry to Caladesi leaves regularly

David McRee, --BeachHunterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03681596846680917557noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19807010.post-54599250972588927642008-05-10T15:44:00.002-05:002008-05-10T15:49:01.655-05:00

I was really sad last summer when a lightning strike killed and injured several people on Clearwater Beach. People just don't understand that you just can't hang out on the beach when there is lightning in the area. To illustrate what must be the ultimate foolhardiness, I ask you to watch the following very short video clip of several people weathering a thunderstorm on Caladesi Island under

David McRee, --BeachHunterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03681596846680917557noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19807010.post-85665461084437913972008-05-06T18:41:00.003-05:002008-05-06T19:03:08.592-05:00

Early last year I attended the 21st Annual Sandsculpting Championship Festival in Fort Myers Beach. I met the video crew from VISITFLORIDA there and we made this little video clip of the event. Check out our interviews with the master sculptors and you'll pick up some tips on building a better sandcastle. Actually the sculptures go WAY beyond sandcastles. You have to see it to believe it.Here is

David McRee, --BeachHunterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03681596846680917557noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19807010.post-4158766440227154382008-05-03T15:59:00.002-05:002008-05-03T16:14:30.766-05:00

Greetings beach lovers! BeachHunter is launching a new blog called Blog The Beach. New Blog about Florida BeachesWhy a new blog, you ask? Well, I've been having technical problems with Blogger, which is the platform I use for this blog. Sometimes I am unable to post for several weeks at a time. I hope that this will eventually be resolved, but I'm not confident it will be soon.I have some major

David McRee, --BeachHunterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03681596846680917557noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19807010.post-20169252988400998632008-05-03T15:49:00.000-05:002008-05-03T15:51:24.478-05:00

Terns on the beach at Port Canaveral's Jetty Park.

David McRee, --BeachHunterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03681596846680917557noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19807010.post-42781768661076960612008-04-20T08:02:00.007-05:002008-04-20T12:03:04.665-05:00

After using my $1,000 Nikon Coolpix 5000 for 5 years to take all the Florida beach photos for BeachHunter.net, I decided to "upgrade" to a $300 Canon Powershot S5 IS camera.It is amazing how many improvements have been made in the last 5 years and how far the prices have dropped. Now I'm shooting at 8 megapixels instead of 5, and I have a 12X zoom instead of 4X (BIG DIFFERENCE, as you will see).I

David McRee, --BeachHunterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03681596846680917557noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19807010.post-68417158100659371992008-04-18T23:27:00.010-05:002008-04-20T07:26:48.041-05:00

What do the above 2 animals have in common? Bird and reptile. It's all in the name--and the head. The bird is a Loggerhead shrike, infamous for impaling its prey (mostly insects)on the thorns of trees, which practice has earned it the nickname "butcher-bird." Nice.The reptile is a Loggerhead turtle.So what, exactly, is a "loggerhead" and why do these two unrelated creatures bear the name? To find

David McRee, --BeachHunterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03681596846680917557noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19807010.post-55930439182820542182008-04-15T13:09:00.003-05:002008-04-15T13:38:48.637-05:00

Keeping up-to-the-minute on surf conditions is getting easier every day. If you are interested in surf conditions, tides, surfing news and forecasts in the Daytona Beach area, a new website, DBSurf.org is up and running to provide you with the latest info. The geographical area covered by DBSurf includes Flagler, Ormond Beach, Daytona Beach, Daytona Beach Shores, Wilbur-By-The-Sea, and Ponce

David McRee, --BeachHunterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03681596846680917557noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19807010.post-75214157461843905662008-03-31T12:56:00.004-05:002008-03-31T13:02:20.416-05:00

Thanks to the generosity of one of BeachHunter.net's visitors, I now have some great video of a Portuguese Man-of-War jellyfish floating in the water and washing up on the beach at Bathtub Reef Park in Stuart, Florida. BeachHunter.net is building quite a nice collection of Florida jellyfish stories and photos. Jellyfish come in all shapes and sizes. Some sting and some don't. So if you're curious

David McRee, --BeachHunterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03681596846680917557noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19807010.post-25786356972522053042008-03-21T09:03:00.005-05:002008-03-21T09:46:43.453-05:00

Here is an incredibly sad story from the Florida Keys about a woman who was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. According to the article in the Naples News, a woman was pleasure-boating with her family in the Keys, cruising along in their small boat, when a 75 pound spotted eagle ray jumped out of the water and collided with her. Depending on which news account you read, the boat was

David McRee, --BeachHunterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03681596846680917557noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19807010.post-5336564884341784312008-03-13T09:38:00.003-05:002008-03-13T09:47:39.899-05:00

Last August I made a very memorable trip to the Florida Panhandle beaches (Northwest Florida, as the State tourism promotion people refer to it). I've been remiss in putting up my photos and writing about several of the places I enjoyed. I've finally published some photos of Grayton Beach State Park, which is near the town of Seaside.It was an EXTREMELY hot and humid day when I was there (over

David McRee, --BeachHunterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03681596846680917557noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19807010.post-6390941052137824682008-03-06T14:22:00.004-05:002008-03-06T15:11:19.864-05:00

Lately (last few years) it seems like a lot of "record" sized hammerhead sharks have been killed by shark fishermen in search of a trophy sized shark. This time it was off Singer Island in Palm Beach County on the Atlantic coast. A 1,000 pound, 13 foot long hammerhead was caught. According to the news article, the fisherman said he didn't mean to kill the shark, it just died during the

David McRee, --BeachHunterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03681596846680917557noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19807010.post-12761858201127733662008-03-01T19:15:00.004-05:002008-03-01T19:44:35.600-05:00

Sweetwater Kayaks is a full-service kayak shop in St. Petersburg, Florida. The first Saturday of most months they bring a bunch of kayaks to the beach on the St. Petersburg side of the Gandy Bridge causeway for people to try out. I've been meaning to check them out for at least a year. I'm getting more serious about buying a kayak now, and the weather was absolutely perfect for kayaking today--

David McRee, --BeachHunterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03681596846680917557noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19807010.post-13349123237494856202008-02-24T10:53:00.003-05:002008-02-24T11:16:56.864-05:00

Above is a great video with some awesome tips by family travel expert Jennifer Michaels. Jennifer has lots of incredible tips and advice on how to take some of the stress out of traveling with kids and family. In addition to having her own website with great tips on family travel, she is the Family Travel Expert for VISITFLORIDA.com and writes a weekly blog about here experiences traveling around

David McRee, --BeachHunterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03681596846680917557noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19807010.post-10731069203700080302008-02-24T10:31:00.003-05:002008-02-24T10:49:46.081-05:00

On many Florida beaches there are signs posted warning swimmers and waders to "do the stingray shuffle," to scare away any stingrays that might be in your path. But stingrays are not the only rays that you'll see in the shallow waters around Florida's beaches.A visitor to beachhunter.net has just sent me a great photo of a cownose ray that his wife took on St. Augustine beach. That's the photo

David McRee, --BeachHunterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03681596846680917557noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19807010.post-61110880544743448742008-01-01T11:57:00.001-05:002008-01-01T11:57:26.888-05:00

Not long ago I helped create this beach safety video for VISITFLORIDA. It turned out to be a nice video. For the really nitty-gritty of beach safety you'll want to download my free ebook on beach safety at my Florida Beaches website www.BeachHunter.net

David McRee, --BeachHunterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03681596846680917557noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19807010.post-8401537965240208622007-12-30T15:48:00.000-05:002007-12-30T16:12:59.525-05:00

Saturday, December 29th was such a beautiful day that we decided to drive down to Fort Myers Beach and then go on to Naples. I hadn't photographed those piers in a while so it seemed like a great opportunity to do so before the winter sets in.We decided to take the scenic route through Fort Myers and drove the length of McGregor Blvd, hereafter to be known by me as "Race Track Road." Wow, those

David McRee, --BeachHunterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03681596846680917557noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19807010.post-17638493583476512932007-12-18T22:59:00.000-05:002007-12-18T23:02:19.665-05:00

Here's a a short video I made down in Venice, FL during a recent cold front swell. Nice little waves (and a few big ones) and lots of longboarders enjoying them. Enjoy.

David McRee, --BeachHunterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03681596846680917557noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19807010.post-78732091339076209852007-12-17T21:51:00.001-05:002007-12-17T22:06:39.121-05:00

Wow! We just had a major cold front come through, bringing with it a tornado and a pretty nice swell in the Gulf. I took a drive down to Venice today and scored some decent video of some nice surfing. The longboarders were out in force and were really the only ones catching any waves.I did get a chance to check out stand-up paddle surfing. It's pretty cool. How is it different from regular

David McRee, --BeachHunterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03681596846680917557noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19807010.post-64347619465891221582007-12-16T13:21:00.000-05:002007-12-16T13:40:04.586-05:00

Charities just should not have to pay penalties to the IRS, unless they really do something wrong. Sorry for the off-topic post, but one of the things you'll find about the people who live on the coast is that they tend to be involved in charitable organizations that support the wildlife and coastal environment. The Surfrider Foundation is a good example, or the Suncoast Seabird Sanctuary;

David McRee, --BeachHunterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03681596846680917557noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19807010.post-64908146134788117172007-12-13T08:46:00.000-05:002007-12-13T09:08:31.273-05:00

A few weeks ago I was down on Fort Myers Beach, toward the south end, and found tens of thousands of beautiful white clam shells washed up on the beach. Most of them still had both halves connected. I wondered why so many dead clams in one spot? Could they have died from red tide offshore and then washed up with the currents? Perhaps it was a purely natural life-cycle event and no evil organism

David McRee, --BeachHunterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03681596846680917557noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19807010.post-28782663650646606112007-12-07T21:39:00.001-05:002007-12-07T22:06:08.575-05:00

Well, Thursday night I discovered that two rehabilitated sea turtles were going to be released back into the wild by Mote Marine Laboratory. The release points were on Longboat Key. So Friday morning I took a drive down toward Longboat Key. The first release was to take place on Lido Beach at 10am. I knew I wouldn't make that one, so I decided on driving to northern Longboat Key for the 11am

David McRee, --BeachHunterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03681596846680917557noreply@blogger.com0