For those of you who are new to my blog, we begin our beach patrol before sunrise scouting for tracks like those above which I photographed last year. If we are lucky, we find a nest.
Can you imagine the energy expended by a 250 lb. sea turtle, suddenly weighed down by gravity as she comes ashore, pulling her body forward inches at a time by her flippers, digging a nest, disguising it by throwing sand over it with her flippers...then crawling back to the sea!
Sometimes it turns out to be a false crawl, sometimes we do find a nest, and sometimes the poor mama turtles pulls herself halfway across the island before finding the perfect spot to lay her eggs.
My patrols are a magical experience indeed and I can't wait to share them with all my blog followers again this year!
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2 comments:
Love your post almost as much as I love Akumal!
Looking forward to the Watch. it's always exciting watching a nest hatch. We appreciate you sharing your experiences. thank you.
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