Sea turtle nest

I don't think I shared photos of the sea turtle nest I discovered on the 1st of August after it had been properly GPS'd, staked and flagged. You can see what a lovely location it is in at Ft. Pickens near the old observation tower.


If you look closely or enlarge the photo you can see the way we identify nests.

The first three numbers are the date - it was found on 8/01

Next is a number which shows if this was the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc., nest found that day. For example, if I had found more than one nest on August 1, the first would have been numbered 8011, a second nest would be numbered 8012, and a third nest would be 8013.

Last are the initials of the person who discovered the nest. Since this is a nest I discovered, you can see my first and last initials: DZ.

The park will add one more piece of identification (to their records and when they refer to it for nestsitting or relocation purposes) and that is a designator for the section of the island where the nest was found: FP - Fort Pickens; PB - Pensacola Beach; and SR - for Santa Rosa, which is the section of Gulf Islands National Seashore between Pensacola Beach and Navarre Beach.

Hopefully we will see many more sea turtle nests next summer and you may spot one during a walk. If so, you will know just a little more about the date the nest was laid, approximately when it will hatch (55-60 days, generally speaking), and maybe even discover it was one I found!