A Surplus of Seaweed

We've been having some very blustery East to Northeast winds lately, bringing massive quantities of sea grass, seaweed, and with it, plastic trash, up to the beach.  The beach in front of our condo is wedged between two sea walls, so the seaweed collects and can't escape.  Other owners here have told us that the weather conditions in January support this build-up more than in other months.  In the very shallow waters along the coastline, the organic material then starts decomposing and smelling mighty rank -- or, as Paisley thinks, mighty sweet. There's the occasional dead fish or discarded fish head mixed into the muck, adding to the fragrance that makes it irresistible to a dog.  She is drawn to it like a magnet, much to our displeasure.

The maintenance guys here have done their best in raking up what they can get to, and we have picked up several garbage bags of plastic trash ourselves, but it's hard to make a dent in such a large load; and more floats in every day.  Finally, the Grand Caribe staff brought out the heavy artillery to assist in the never-ending clean-up -- the front-end loader.  

A lot of the sea weed is floating in the shallow water rather than washed up on the beach, so when the tractor ventured in to try to retrieve more of the flotsam, a slight problem occurred.

Stuck in the muck!

Now it was time to bring out the backhoe to pull the tractor out!

Success!

After the rescue, the front-end loader took off, so there is still quite a bit of sea grass and seaweed down at the end of the beach he didn't get to clean up.  We will have to keep Paisley away from that.

On a different subject, here's a photo of a Lineated Woodpecker Barry snapped this morning.  Such a beautiful bird!