Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Half Moon Cay Bahamas Stop

Tonight I am posting vacation pictures. Just getting back from a 5 day cruise to the Bahamas and Grand Turk. I have some habitat pictures of some palms growing at Half Moon Cay, Bahamas. Half Moon Cay is a 2800 acre island in the Bahamas. It is a private island owned by the cruise line. When we originally booked the cruise I thought that this was going to be a boring stop with the day devoted to the beach. But when we pulled up on the tender boats I knew what my day was going to be like. They have left the island almost untouched. They have only developed 50 acres or so for some pavilions and a few little store fronts. They had nature trails all over. So here are the pics from my ventures across the island.
Carnival Destiny
The marina the tenders pulled into. I first spotted the Pseudophoenix sargentii or Cherry palm growing on the rock ledges. These pics shows how harsh of a habitat the grow in.
The landscaping was done were nice with use of Cherry Palms every where.
Then I spotted 2 different Coccothrinax sp. 1 had a very fat trunk the biggest Cocco trunk I have seen, and the other pictured below was a typical thin trunk. I am not sure what either are.
These are a few Bismarkia nobilis seeds I collected in Nassau and planted in the area pictured above and below. So I planted 5 seeds. Maybe years down the road I will have another stop there and hopefully see that at least 1 of them make it.Baby Psuedophoenix sargentiiOn the right side there was a Blue Curly Tail Lizard. My camera did not catch it that good though.
Off in the brush I saw this monster growing. I had to make it back there for some pics.
On my way back I almost tripped over this orchid in spike.
Here was a bath up to some old ruins. There was another monster on the path.
This 1 had a big hole in it. I found out that this was somebodies lunch a long time ago. The heart of the palm is eaten by natives. They say it does not kill the palm. Here is the proof, but it sure makes the palm look ugly. This was the only 1 with a hole out of the 100's we saw.
View from the top of the trail looking out over the islandA few more Cherry Palms. Still none in seed. Heading back to the main area.
Some pics of the fat trunk Palm. If anyone knows fill me in. I found a couple seeds on these.

And right before we left there it was in all of its glory. The only 1 I saw in seed the whole day.
Those are my Half Moon Cay Bahamas Pictures, Thanks for Lookin'

4 comments:

  1. I have been to this pit stop several times. I have shots on my blog. The Orchid is a great find!

    What other Islands did you visit?

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  2. Interesting posting. Thanks for the info. Keep up the good work.


    Bathmate

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