Holmes Beach will get some canals and channels deepened in the next round of budgeted dredging projects.
The Holmes Beach City Commissioners approved funding $270,000 in their last meeting for about a dozen locations to be dredged, under a multi-year State permit.
The project is set to begin at the end of the month. the contractor is Milmac Corp of Coral Springs, Fla.
The summer heat has begun and with it comes the occasional afternoon thunderstorm.
A grateful rain shower is dear and sometimes a downdraft of cooling air.
Whatever the day brings, the evening sunset is ever new with colors of a magnificent hue.
The alley ways reveal a wonderful reprise no matter what the forecast decrees.
The official start to the Atlantic Hurricane Season is June 1st. Now is a good time to make preparations for an emergency evacuation and formulate your disaster plan.
The Colorado State University Tropical Meteorology Project has published its forecast for the Atlantic basin hurricane activity, based on 58 years of past data and predictive statistical analysis. Early season forecasts are for the following:
| Atlantic Hurricane Season | April 2008 forecast | 1950 – 2007 average |
| Named storms (>35mph) | 15 | 9.6 |
| Hurricanes (>72mph) | 8 | 5.9 |
| Major hurricanes (>111mph) | 4 | 2.3 |
| US landfall likelihood | 69% | 52% |
| Gulf Coast landfall | 44% | 30% |
The 3 Great Blue Heron chicks that we referred to in the story Great Blue Heron Rookery have now fledged and left the nest.
In the past week, first one, then two, and finally the third have taken short departures from the top of the Australian Pine that has been their home for the last 2 months.
A parent is still feeding them as they continue to beg, but they spend less time in the nest, which is now falling apart and being raided by another nesting pair.
The heron chicks appear to be healthy and active, but the chance of survival is still a challenge: 70% die after reaching flight stage.
Anna Maria Island Turtle Watch holds its 2008 nesting season training for volunteers on April 15th.
Anyone who would like to walk the beach and report turtle tracks and nest activity are invited to volunteer and go through the training session, which will be held at the Holmes Beach City Hall.
Beach walkers will learn how to recognize and report turtle tracks of nesting females on an assigned section of the beach. The nests are recorded and staked off by the AMITW permit holders and observed during the incubation period until hatchling tracks are found.