The Old Osprey

The Osprey, sometimes called a sea hawk or fish eagle; nest at Seahorse Key every year. They mate for life which can be from seven to ten years and in some cases 20 to 25 years. And if their old nest still exists when it’s time to mate in the spring; they will touch it up with new limbs and other nesting material and use it again. If it has been destroyed by a storm they will build a new nest before mating.

An Osprey

This particular year Chuck watched an old Osprey whose old mate had died at sometime during the past year, and she was with her new mate; he was a young bird that didn’t know much about nest building. 

They are sexually mature for mating at three to four years old. But if there is not enough suitable nesting sites; mating can be postponed up to seven years.

He gathers the materials and she fits it together to her liking. She was very picky about everything that he brought to her. Her selection of a nest site was not the best selection either; she chose an old dead mangrove in the marsh near the channel leading in to the dock at Seahorse.

He would fly away and proudly bring back sticks for her, she would scream at him and fling it away with her beak. He eventually brought enough that she was satisfied with to get the base layer set up. This was repeated over and over again, until it was complete, and she refused to mate until the nest was built to her satisfaction.

Every day when Chuck came home, he would tell me about what transpired each day with the nest building of the picky old bird and her inexperienced young mate. After at least a week of this nest building, with all her screaming at him, and flinging away whatever he brought to her he had managed to finally get the job done.

They mated and afterwards she laid her eggs. They take turns setting on the eggs; one or the other is on the nest at all times with the eggs or hatchlings until they are old enough and have been trained well enough to leave the nest.

At some point after the nest was finished and the eggs had been laid, but not yet hatched; we had an afternoon squall that destroyed the nest completely. The old dead mangrove fell over in the strong winds and all was lost except the old bird and her young mate.

And the process began all over again to select another site and build a new nest. Her site selection was a better choice this time, a sturdy Oak tree near the edge of the beach. The new nest site was still close enough that Chuck could see the on goings of building process of the new one from time to time.

And eventually the nest was finished and they had mated again and she laid a second batch of eggs and she raised and trained three new ospreys this time. Many years they only have two offspring each year.

They like a flat surface such as a big open crotch of a tree, but they will build on most any flat surface. I have seen many nests built on the cross braces of power lines. They like to be near the water where there is a food source of fish close by.

Their primary diet is fish, but they will eat other things such as rodents, reptiles and whatever other smaller things they can catch if fish are not plentiful. They are found almost worldwide, in the 1950’s and 60’s their population had declined somewhat due to pesticides, but this has since changed.

An Osprey Nest on a Platform

Sometime after this nesting disaster it was decided to build man-made nesting platforms around the marsh areas of Seahorse for the Ospreys. This has been a very successful project. There is never an empty platform at Seahorse Key!

Changes

In times of inner turmoil which produces great changes in our lives, we often return to old familiar places. Such is the situation I’ve found myself in lately. This morning I found myself walking on the beach in the old neighborhood that I’ve walked on many times over a period of many years.

Seeking solace for my troubled soul and solitude that I might hear again that still small voice within my spirit giving clear direction for my footsteps.

As I walked and cried out to God ~ sweet memories drifted through my mind of many other times He had walked this beach with me. And the many changes in my life already because of our times together on this beach.

I was reminded that it was on this very beach, I learned that He is the God of my finances. He is my provider ~ the source and supply of all my needs!

We had not long been moved to Cedar Key. Chuck had been working on the “Dipper” for R.B. Davis. He had just recently rebuilt the diesel engine, and he now had her on the beach to scrape the barnacles off her bottom and paint her. When she was ready Chuck would use her for turtling for awhile, it was legal to harvest turtle then.

Chuck had been taught the art of turtling by one of the best, Genie Andrews.

His dream, all those years he spent in the US Navy serving his country; was to someday return to Cedar Key and spend his time on the water fishing and turtling.

We had been working for quite awhile scraping barnacles, which is back-breaking work. When we took our break I decided to go for a walk on the beach instead of sitting down to rest.

I had been praying about our finances, there was always more month left at the end of the money, you know where I’m coming from, and you borrow from Peter to pay Paul and vice-versa. Ever been there?

As I was walking along I was looking down, I almost stepped on a dollar bill. I walked a few more feet and picked up another one, a few more feet and picked up a ten spot, not far ahead another dollar. Altogether I found $13.00 on the beach.

The money had been there for quite some time; the beach grass was growing over it, but it was still visible. Others had walked on this part of the beach, I could see their footprints, but they had not found the money, I had and wondered why?

I had been praying ~ trusting God to help us solve our money problems. But like many of us at times when we pray, wondering does He really hear our prayers, and does He really answer? Yes He does, answer to both questions.

I believe He chose this way to answer my prayers and to show me that He is my source. I know $13.00 doesn't sound like much very money today, but it wasn't the amount that was important anyway! This was in 1969 and it was a lot, Chuck’s Navy retirement as a twenty year Chief was $231.00 a month and his paycheck was $70.00 a week.

That $13.00 stretched a great distance, and spoke volumes to my spirit that the Lord is my source. Yes, He expects us to work, by the sweat of our brow we earn our livelihood, and yes He blesses our health to work.

But sometimes we get so full of ourselves we forget to look up and thank Him for being our source and the supply for all of our needs.

It was from this same beach that I was baptized in water into His death burial and resurrection ~ after I was born-again of the Spirit of God, another major change in my life.

This beach is such a special place ~ it was here I walked the first time when Chuck brought me to the Island when I was twenty years old and we were beginning our lives together.

It is no wonder I found myself walking on such familiar ground. As I looked around me I could see that even this old beach has had, and is going through some major changes and in time I wonder if in the future we’ll even be able to still walk here and commune with God. Or will it become a private beach as so many others already have in Florida?

We live in a constantly changing world and we mortals are in a constant state of change on a daily basis. Some for the better and some for the worse, amidst all these thoughts of changes I was reminded by my Father, the Lord never changes. He is the same yesterday, today and forever!

Big Sharks

A Greek Sponge Schooner at Cedar Key

There have been numerous stories told of big sharks seen in the Gulf waters in and around Cedar Key by so many people.

My father-in-law, Henry Burroughs Haven (Papa) worked on one of the Greek sponge boats when he was a young man before his time in service during WWI and his days of working on the railroad.

One of the stories he told was, one of the divers dressed in a diving suit and helmet was attacked by a huge shark. The shark bit his helmet, and shook him, but passed on. The diver recovered from the impact enough to hide himself among the rocks.

The shark continued circling for another attack, but the diver stayed hidden as much as possible for quite sometime before the shark finally swam away. Papa said, "We could see what was happening, but there was no way for us to help the diver." There were teeth marks in the helmet from the shark attack.

A Greek Sponge Diver

Fortunately for the diver the shark’s attack missed his air supply hose, had that not happened, the diver would surely have drowned and been shark bait anyway. At one time the Greeks had quite a large fleet of sponge boats that regularly worked off Cedar Key.

Sponge Dock at Cedar Key

Another story Papa told was about a big shark story near Seahorse Key, the boat on which this man was aboard was anchored out from one of the old docks that used to be there. He dove overboard and all anyone ever saw was the big dorsal fin of a shark and a lot of blood in the water.

One more story that I remember that he told was about another diver in a diving suit with a helmet. He said, “The water he was diving in was shallow enough, and clear enough, we could see the entire thing as it was happening, from the boat. The big Hammerhead shark came in for an attack and fortunately the diver was close to a rock pile.

A Big Hammerhead Shark

The diver backed up to the rocks and used his sponge hook as a weapon of defense, each time the shark came at him he would ram the hook into its mouth and it couldn't close its mouth completely because of the hook when it bit down; it would shake it out and come at him again.  The shark kept him penned there for a little over an hour before it gave up and swam away.”

A Greek Sponge Diver with Hook

The diver was unharmed, but quite shaken and totally exhausted, and kept saying over and over "Shark, shark, shark;" when they were at last able to bring him up from the bottom. As far as anyone knew this diver never dove again. Most everyone else who has ever worked on the water can tell many more stories about those big ones.

In the late eighties there were several shark fishermen around the Island who fished for sharks because there was a really good market for the meat. One morning as I was on my morning walk around the “Big Dock” one of them had come in to the dock at the Marina, and he was cutting the jawbone out of a fourteen foot Tiger shark that he had caught earlier in the morning.

Tiger Shark

Naturally a small crowd had gathered around to watch him at his work because they were curious. I was no different, sharks fascinate people, especially the big ones. When he finished extracting the jaw bone he held it up so everyone could get a good look at the size of it.

The people made various comments about it, and I asked him if I could try it on for size. At that time I was not quite as large as I am now, I was at least forty pounds lighter nevertheless, I was still a big woman. I held the jaws in the open position up over the top of my head and lowered it all the way to my feet and stepped out of it, and did not touch my body with the teeth.

It was an unusual thing for me to do; it gave me an eerie feeling, and if I had not been convinced before, I certainly was now, and I knew that I never wanted to swim with the sharks at any time or any place, and most especially the big guys!

I have seen a lot of big ones myself, but always from the dock or a boat!

Once when we were scalloping at East Bank we watched a confrontation between two big ones, but they were out in the deeper water just off the edge of the bank, and where we were walking the bank which was completely out of the water. They are powerful creatures.

Many times when we have been clamming for the large Quahog, wild clams at the clam banks on the western shore, we have seen a lot of huge dorsal fins sticking up above the water as they glided by in the deeper water of the channel

Quahog Clam

We always waited to get overboard till the tide had dropped enough you could easily see a big one if they were on the bank with you. Most of the time we wore socks and stomped for the clams, you knew you had found one as soon as your heel or toe stepped on it, it was hard and firm in the soft bottom. Sometimes you’d find two or three very close together.

Our stomping made noise and vibrations that sharks are drawn to. We were very fortunate that we never had a close encounter with a big one, but we had numerous encounters with the smaller ones. They would brush up against our legs, and we would move a little higher up on the bank.

The big ones seen have been all kinds of sharks, Hammerheads, Tigers, Bull sharks, etc.  Chuck and Chester caught a Great White in a turtle net up on the western shore on the last turtling trip made before turtling was outlawed.

A lot of people have told us they don’t come up into the Gulf waters, but this one did and it was huge, it was a little over half the length of the twenty thrree foot bird-dog boat they were in, Chuck figured it was somewhere around twelve or thirteen ft. long, and it had a massive head.

It is a little hard to mistake a Great White with its distinct markings, and especially for someone who had worked on the water most of their lives and had seen as many different kinds of sharks as Chuck and Chester had.

Many times big dorsal fins have been seen from the “Big Dock”,  my friend Janie lived on 1st Street, one day she went out back to get more supplies for building crab traps, and she watched as a big dorsal was following some teens towing another teen behind the boat on a big tube.

She yelled and screamed, but they didn't see or hear her, she could only pray they made it in safely and the one riding the tube didn't fall off. Thank God they did, she got in her car and drove down to the Park, found them before they took off again and told them what she had seen, their tube riding ended for the day.

The name of the sports teams at Cedar Key High School is Cedar Key Sharks, and they are appropriately named after the “Big Sharks” that swim in the Gulf waters off Cedar Key!

Ghost Stories of Cedar Key

Both Cedar Key and the surrounding areas are rich in history as well as numerous stories of ghost tales and haints, many folks were steeped in superstition.

A long time ago two talented ladies teamed up and wrote a short booklet about some of them titled "Cedar Key Legends," I don't know whether or not the booklet is still available to purchase, it is great little read if you can. 

I have asked several people, and they don't know either. You might be able to get a copy through a library or get a copy at Amazon.com.

Photo courtesy of
Carmen Day Williams 

The two ladies were Sally Tileston who was quite a talented artist, she owned and operated a local art gallery. I worked in her gallery for awhile and got to know her quite well. Sally along with Bessie Gibbs, was one of the founders of the annual Cedar Key Art Festival.

Her friend was Dorthea Comfort, and Ms. Dottie was also an artist.They had heard the stories over the years and decided to record as many of these ghost tales as possible before they were all forgotten; because most were handed down by word of mouth.

One of the stories they wrote about was also painted in watercolor by Ms. Dottie.

She titled it “The Wailing Widow”. There used to be and still might be a house in Cedar Key that had a widow’s walk that was built on top of the house, for the purpose of the lady of the house to walk around and watch for her husband’s boat coming in from the Gulf.

It was said that the widow walked around the walkway on stormy nights and wailed, mourning the loss of her husband who had been lost at sea during a storm. Many still believed this house was haunted and that her ghost still walks around the rail and wails on stormy nights..

Another ghost story is the one about the headless horseman that rides the beach at Seahorse Key on moonlight nights. 

Lafitte's Landing

The tale was told that one of the pirates (Jean Lafitte) left a treasure buried on the Island and he left a man with a horse for him to ride the beach and guard the treasure till he returned.

Someone came to steal the treasure and killed the man by decapitating him with a sword.

Several of the older fishermen would not go on Seahorse Key any night, moonlight or not, and they swore they had seen this headless horseman on moonlight nights still riding the beach.

Headless Horseman

One of the most famous tales is the lady at Shell Mound; I have heard that her name was Annie Simpson, many have also sworn to have seen her more than once. She too was connected somehow to a buried treasure.

Whether or not there is buried treasure on any of these Islands I don't know, and I am not sure that anyone else knows this for certain. I do know many have searched for it, and many tales have been told about their searches!

I used to ride with my friend Janie Robinson, at night, out to Shell Mound to pick up her husband Curley, when he came in late from crabbing. Janie claimed to have seen this lady many times, and if memory serves; the lady carries a lantern in one hand, and she has a dog with her, and sometimes a monkey, but I have never seen her.

Shell Mound view from the sky
 by
Diana Beckham Topping
Down Home Adventure trips and tours

Janie said, “The first time I ever saw her Curley and I were going out fishing one night, and we ran aground on one of the little sandbars in the channel, I looked back to see how far we were from the beach.

Shell Mound Low Tide

Curley was overboard trying to push us off, I saw her walking down the hill when I looked back, and it scared me so bad I jumped overboard and helped Curley push us off so we could get the hell outa there!”

Many other locals claim to have seen this lady; some who claim that they had never even heard the story about this ghost before seeing her.

There are numerous other ghost stories connected to Cedar Key and other islands. There are three or four connected to the Island Hotel, which was built in 1859-60, has the Neptune Bar, Dining Room, and Rooms, they tell you in their advertisement about the Ghost Stories. 

Island Hotel Cedar Key, Florida

There was one ghost story about McClamery that my husband and the two Andrews brothers (Joe and Kenny) laid to rest one night when they were young guys fishing together at night. You will read this story "Wonder of Nature" in another place among my rambling memories.

What I have written here is only a small portion of all of the stories and tales told about ghosts and haints that surround and still haunt these Gulf Coast Islands.

The ‘50’ Hurricane

This is how this hurricane has always been referred to in Cedar Key, and still is even though it was named ‘Easy’. There are quite a few folks still living that survived this horrific storm, and they remember it well.

Rose Campbell, daughter-in-law, Ilene Campbell, Wesley Campbell her son
 and Sarah Campbell granddaughter

My sister-in-law, Ilene Campbell lived here at this time. She and her family were one of the families that lost everything. My father-in-law, H. B. Haven heard on the news that Cedar Key was getting a direct hit from the storm.

He packed as many tools, and supplies as he thought he might need and filled jugs with water and packed up food that didn't have to be cooked. He loaded as much as he could possibly get into the car and a small trailer headed out, it was quite a long trip in those days.

He was a welcome sight when he arrived at their place; they had already begun to salvage whatever they could, which was not much. He unloaded the food and water, and while everyone was eating; plans were made as to how the re-building would proceed.

Left to right
tennant, Faye and Papa Haven

It was decided that Mr. Haven would take Ilene and the children back to his home in Lake Wales for awhile, whatever the length of time this was I do not remember. Varnell, Ilene’s husband was a boat builder and a very good carpenter as well as being a local fisherman.

They began to re-build I also do not remember how long it took before they had the home rebuilt enough that the family could move back in and start over, but eventually this was accomplished.

In 1950 I was eleven years old and I lived in Holmes County, in the Florida Panhandle, but I do remember this storm, and even though we didn't get anywhere near the full brunt of it; we were effected by high winds of the outer bands.

At what point and where the hurricane was located at the time I don't know, we had very little communication from the outside world. We'd had electric lines strung through our part of the country in 1948 and we had electric lights, but had no electrical appliances.

Our only way of receiving communication was from a battery powered radio that sometimes picked up and sometimes it didn’t.

I do know that by water it is 90 miles from Cedar Key to the Saint Marks light, and from there to where I lived it is approximately 100 miles depending on the route you take by highway, however as the crow flies I have no idea, but it would likely be somewhat less.

Map of Florida

My daddy was a logger and a farmer, and he was in the woods working when the storm clouds began to appear. My mother was a very strong woman in many ways, but she was terrified of lightning and storms.

Kerosene Lamp

We hurried to bring in firewood and several buckets of water, shut the chickens in the hen house, and the animals in the barn. Make sure the lamps were filled with kerosene and the globes were clean. Mother still cooked on an old wood stove, and it is difficult to cook a meal with wet wood.

The sky began to turn a weird tin foil color with a faint yellowish tinge; Mother’s fear began to rise because she knew it was going to be a bad one. Her greatest fear was the possibility of a tornado, but she didn't tell us kids this, at least at that time.

She continued to hurry us along to get everything done that we possibly could in preparation. By the time we got it done to her satisfaction the winds were howling and the bolts of lightning were fierce and sizzling with great peals of rumbling thunder following. 

LIGHTNING

She gathered us four children into the center of the house which was just inside the door of the front bedroom.

She sat us down in a small huddle and piled mattresses on top of us. The mattresses were not heavy, she had made them with cotton from our fields, but it was dark and it got pretty hot under there, but she would not let us come out.

She walked the floor and cried out to God for our safety. I had heard my mother pray many times, but never like this! She would cry out, oh God, spare my children’s lives, if you have to take a life take mine, but please Lord, spare my children. It was a frantic and desperate prayer!

My brother Neal, four years younger than me and I have laughed and talked about this many times since, and have often wondered what in the world we would have done if we had lost our mother during that fierce storm.

Thankfully we all survived, and our home survived for many years afterwards. I think we lost some tin off the roof and we had some leaks till daddy got it repaired. I learned many years later how difficult it was for the other folks in Florida and especially Cedar Key; because later in life I lived here for thirty five years.

1950 Hurricane Easy

Yes that really was its name; however there was nothing easy about it!

Track of Hurricane Easy
by Wikipedia

Hurricane Easy formed in the Caribbean on September 01, 1950. It was the fifth storm of the season. The 1950, 51 and 52 hurricane names were chosen from the Joint Army/Navy Phonetic Alphabet. Next they were named female names, but now they have begun using male names for some, just to be ‘politically correct’.

Hurricane Easy entered the Gulf of Mexico on September 02, and then turned north, northwest. When it was west of Tampa, Florida, because of a ridge of a high pressure system to the north it caused the hurricane to do a counter-clockwise loop and it then strengthened to 125 mph. The entire west coast of Florida experienced hurricane force winds.

Wikipedia says, when it made landfall at or near Cedar Key on September 05, it had sustained winds of 125 mph a different report says 130 mph. But all of the older folks who lived there and survived it say it was a much stronger hurricane, they say it was a Cat 4. Considering all the damage that was done I have a tendency to believe the people who lived through it.

There is also another account of Easy that it says 1951, surely there were not two hurricanes named Easy two years in a row. They say on this site that the unofficial estimate was 160 to 200 mph. This account is more in agreement with what the people of Cedar Key experienced.

Wikipedia also says that it was the worst storm to hit Cedar Key in 70 years, and this I can agree with after all of the stories I’ve heard. I did not live here then, but some of the family did. I lived in the Florida Panhandle, and we had some pretty severe weather from the outer bands.

The eye of Easy was 18 to 25 miles in diameter and the eye hovered over this island fishing community for two and a half hours, and once again because of the ridge of high pressure to the north, she did a second loop, this time to the southeast making final landfall at Homosassa Springs, south of Cedar Key, but north of Tampa.

After it made landfall this time it turned to northward and slowly began to weaken in strength, it crossed the Georgia line on September 07 then headed northwest and dissipated over Arkansas on September 09.

Wikipedia says, that it was a well tracked storm from formation to dissipation by radar at the University of Florida, and Reconnaissance Aircraft. Easy left behind tremendous crop damage in the entire Tampa Bay area, and it destroyed the entire small fishing fleet of Cedar Key which consisted of about 100 boats and was the livelihood of this small island fishing village.

It also destroyed the roofs of 150 homes and buildings in Cedar Key alone, and 90 % of all the homes were damaged. Half of those homes were unfit for human habitation for quite some time. Many lost all of their furniture; and everything else because of water damage from heavy rains after the roofs were blown away.

During a 3 day period Cedar Key had 38.70 inches of rain, Yankeetown had as much in a 24 hour period and had a cumulative rainfall of 45.20. Easy still holds the record of being the wettest hurricane. There were two deaths indirectly related to this hurricane in Florida, these people were electrocuted. There were 27 people injured which was directly related to the storm.

Donax Brooms and Brushes

The Donax Broom and Brush; locals always called it the Fiber Factory was closed for two years after the hurricane before opening again because of damage to the building. The employees were out of work during this long period of time.

My husband’s grandfather, Nard Collins was a foreman at the Fiber Factory, and he was one of the employees that were out of work for two years.

Fiber Factory
Grandpa Collins Black Suit and Hat

My husband’s sister Ilene Campbell and her family were one of the families that lost everything. But in time they re-built and started over again. This is what most folks who live in coastal areas do, it is just a way of life when one chooses to live and work on the water.