Barbuda is known for its spectacular pink sand beaches. Those beaches are just wonderful to see and experience. But have you ever wondered how the pink sand was formed? Take a read of this article 20040506_Pink Sand_updated 20130601a which was written in 2004. Today, these beaches are in danger of being lost. I will explain in detail in future posts.
Ferns are plants which typically thrive in moist or wet conditions. Barbuda is anything but moist or wet, right? So it would be unusual to find ferns here. Wrong! Barbuda is not as dry as most people think. Rainfall average over the past decade has been about 45 inches.
The other factor is that it is the moist or wet habitat that ferns require and such places can be found in Barbuda. Caves, sinkholes, ponds and wells provide such habitats. Thus the overall climate of Barbuda may be classified as hot and dry but there are places which provide the micro-climate which can sustain the growth of ferns.
Pictured here is one species. There are others which can be found growing in walls, roof gutters and fresh water pools.
To older Barbudan fishermen, January is a month that is not very friendly to people who work on the sea. It is windy and the seas can transform from calm flatness to viscious ‘white cap’ waves in an instant. The water is also cold and the ‘ground swells’ (storm waves) stir up the water reducing visibility to zero. These conditions are driven by winter storms originating in the north Atlantic. The waves generated there eventually reach our shores.
Inspite of the challenges created by these conditions, it is believed that this period marks a time when the sea ‘cleans itself’. The bottom is churned up, debris is washed up onto the shorelines and dead algae is washed off the reefs. There is some truth to this. The churning do release stored nutrients and productivity does go up as evidenced by the prolific growth of some algae, for example the ‘seamoss’ for which Barbuda used to be famous.
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