Moving forward

Tropical Storm Lee had me pretty bummed out when I saw how our remaining sea turtle nests were being battered by high surf and buried deeper with sand.  I didn't know how many would be left.

Yesterday was the first day we resumed patrols at Ft. Pickens after the road reopened and I was anxious to see how it looked. 

I was sad to see the nest I discovered on July 17th was marked 'LOST'.  

I even (accidentally) sacrificed my beloved Droid for this nest in the torrential downpour that morning when the pocket where I had it stashed filled with water.  Come to think of it, I think our bio-tech, Toby Stapleton fried his phone the same way that morning in another area.

This in situ nest (natural/not relocated) was a reasonable way from the water when it was laid, but is quite close now. 

Luckily, the mama loggerhead had climbed a fairly steep berm to nest, so this site escaped the worst of the waves.  Unfortunately, you can see that it ended up with about two feet of extra sand on top of it and these little fellows will need some help digging out.

Six unhatched sea turtle nests  remained at Ft. Pickens when Tropical Storm Lee shut us down.  Of those, two were lost.  We are hopeful the other four will hatch with little or no ill effects. 

This nest with the extreme sand accretion, FP 7281, was discovered by Volunteer Connie Mickle and appears to be the last next one for this season at Ft. Pickens.

FP 7251, a relocated nest, holds 84 loggerhead eggs, and escaped no worse for wear.  The number of eggs is slightly lower than usual.  Many of our nests contain 100 or more eggs.  

A photo of Ft. Pickens Road on the way out of the park.  Sand was piled over head-high on each side of the road.   Not surprising since it was reported that sand was 2 ft. to 4 ft. deep over certain areas of the road.

I feel more upbeat after a couple of days patrol.  Tomorrow morning I'll be patroling at Santa Rosa and I'm anxious to see it for myself as well.  I was very grateful to hear from our Bio-Tech Toby Stapleton that my Green nest made it through!  Expect photos tomorrow!!!

Why do fish jump?

It was a gorgeous day at Ft. Pickens -- except for about half an hour when the skies grew dark as a rain cloud passed over and drenched me!  That's partially why the video is jerking around - I'm beginning to feel the first drops and scanning the sky around me, but I wanted to capture the moment.

As you can see in the video clip, fish were jumping all over in the surf, either having a great time or trying to escape larger fish feeding on them.  It was driving the Laughing Gulls crazy.

There was a lot bird activity to enjoy throughout the patrol: sea gulls, Great Blue Herons, Snowy Plovers, Least Terns, Black Terns (who appear to still be migrating), and Willet.   Coupled with the fact I found a Loggerhead nest and a false crawl, I'd say life is good!

Common Loon

It was almost two months into the 2011 sea turtle season (which started the first of May) before I saw Common Loons resting on the beach again. Prior to that it was 2009 when I observed them or heard them calling before dawn as I readied my vehicle for patrol.

I'm not sure why they weren't around last year. The easy answer is that they were affected by the oil spill in some way, possibly just by the number of people on the beach helping with the clean up.  Whatever the case, it is great to see and hear them again.

Loons are excellent swimmers and divers, but their legs are located farther back on their bodies than most birds and it makes them very awkward on land. If you see one struggling on shore or trying to get back in the water, don't assume they are injured, just quietly leave the area. Remember, when I get these pictures or video on patrol, I am quite a distance away and it is our purpose to complete our patrols with as little impact on wildlife as possible.

FP 6191

A Fathers Day gift for all you sea turtle lovers out there!  I found this nest at Ft. Pickens shortly before 6 a.m. this morning near Marker E...hence it is tagged as FP 6191 (Ft. Pickens - June 19 - 1st nest discovered on this day in this area)   My measurements showed it was a good sized Loggerhead with a 38" crawl.  Unfortunately, the nest was too near the water and had to be relocated, during which time we discovered there were 129 eggs! 

My thanks to Bio-techs Toby Singleton and Lauren Quinn for coming out to relocate the nest.

This is the 3th nest I've found this year; the 9th for Ft. Pickens; and the 29th for the entire area from Santa Rosa to Perdido Key!  What an amazing year!

The Great Blue Heron and the ray

Sometimes when I get busy, I forget about photos or video I've taken during patrol and wanted to share with you. This short video clip shows the Great Blue Heron I posted about on Sunday, walking around with just a bit too much breakfast to handle.

The biting flies have been out recently.  That generally happens when the wind blows out of the north, so when you see the picture jerk up and down and make a weird noise, it's because the flies were biting my ankles as I crawled nearer to the heron on my elbows and knees. I was trying to scrape/shrug them off of me!

The way I see it, even the Garden of Eden had a snake, so pests are to be expected in our little paradise, too.

Snowy Plover chicks

Gulf Islands National Seashore is full of these adorable Snowy Plover chicks.  Right out of their nests, they could probably outrun the average person!

Turtle Alert!!!

What a fantastic morning! I discovered a sea turtle crawl at Ft. Pickens and the mama turtle appeared to have nested.  We know that it was  a female coming ashore to nest because males never return to land after they have hatched and entered the water.

Unfortunately the nest was laid not far from the water and had to be relocated.  At the time I discovered it, the nest was 20' from the water line, right in the middle of the wrack line.   By the time the nest was excavated, it was 7' from the water line!  Timing is very important when it comes to moving a nest, especially one this low.

The crawl pattern was a bit difficult to dicipher, but I'm leaning toward a loggerhead even though the tracks looked pretty symmetrical.  A loggerhead has an alternating track.  A Green sea turtle has a symmetrical track, but displays a tail drag (unlike what is pictured here).

Another clue is that a loggerhead came ashore to nest on on May 19th, two and a half weeks ago.  Sea turtles skip years to nest, but in the year they are active they will come ashore every couple of weeks to lay a new nest. Consequently this could possibly be the same turtle that nested on May 19th!

Since sea turtles are a threatened or endangered species, volunteers may now only assist to a certain degree when it comes to an excavation and relocation. Bio-tech Rebecca Carruth came straight from her own patrol at Santa Rosa to help me and began to assess the situation.

We carefully dug down through the sand until we reached the eggs (Rebecca was right on the money when guessing where the eggs were deposited!). Sand from the nest was added to the bottom of our container and the eggs were gently lifted from the nest with as little movement as possible, taking care to avoid any rotation of the egg itself.

A close up of sea turtle eggs. They look exactly like ping-pong balls, don't they? And they appeared to be about the same size.

Rebecca lays the eggs in rows of 10, careful to keep them in order. The eggs will be placed in their new nest, created by Rebecca, about 150 feet north of the current location. They will also be placed in the nest in the exact same order they were removed from the original nest so that the bottom eggs will still be on the bottom and the top eggs will remain on top.

Approximately 60 days from now we should have ninety-nine tiny hatchlings emerge from this nest. We will be there to help them into the Gulf of Mexico and try to increase their rate of survival in the meantime by carefully monitoring the nest each day for any signs of predation, such as ghost crabs or other island critters such as raccoons, fox, opposum, and coyotes.

Life is good!!!

Ghost crabs

As a sea turtler patroler, click HERE to read why I'm not fond of ghost crabs, even though they may be cute as they skitter across the sand and are an important part of a beach ecosystem. 

The only part of my patrols I dislike is when I discover a ghost crab has burrowed into a nest and we must carefully dig down, remove them, and fill in their tunnel.  Otherwise these predators will eat the sea turtle eggs or hatchlings, if they have emerged and are working their way up toward the surface.

The Egret

Egrets are very shy and it is difficult to get photos of them, much less a video clip. I saw this fellow looking for breakfast at Ft. Pickens this weekend.

Fins!

I captured a short video clip of this fella feeding on bait fish while patrolling at Ft. Pickens this morning. Perhaps someone can identify the type of shark by the dorsal fin and give us a length estimate.



Can't you feel 'em circlin' honey?
Can't you feel 'em swimmin' around?
You got fins to the left, fins to the right,
and you're the only bait in town.

~~ Jimmy Buffet, "Fins"

False Crawl at Ft. Pickens

I just received word that we had a false crawl at Ft. Pickens this morning.


These photos were taken by Randy Larcom who was on patrol at Ft. Pickens this morning and graciously gave me permission to share them with my blog followers.


As you can see in this photo, the tracks were already being washed away by the incoming tide.

For those new to my blog, a false crawl is when a female sea turtle comes ashore but returns to the water without nesting. Sometimes there may be something about the area which doesn't satisfy her; at other times she may be frightened away by lights or motion, but the only sea turtles which come ashore are females ready to nest.

When we see a false crawl like this, patrolers are even more vigilant the next day because they know the sea turtle will come be coming ashore again soon to nest.

Other good news is that there was two nests were discovered this morning: one was found in the Santa Rosa Area - Gulf Islands National Seashore and another on Perdido Key!

Shorebirds

Next to finding a sea turtle nest or even a false crawl - neither of which I've found this year - the biggest enjoyment I get during my Ft. Pickens turtle patrols is watching shore and sea birds.


These lovely Ruddy Turnstone wait for a wave to bring some tasty crustaceans or molluscs their way.


A willet at the shoreline; bits of June grass are still washing ashore in the waves.


Sanderlings and plovers are especially fun to spy this time of year because you may spot their tiny chicks foraging with them.

A Least Tern colony at Ft. Pickens.