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!!!

High Surf on Pensacola Beach

Taken from my friend's condo on the 19th floor of Tower One at Portofino, you can see how the Gulf of Mexico is churning. You can imagine how large the waves appear at ground level.

Tropical Storm Lee - Monday morning

Things only got worse overnight on the island with multiple watches, warnings, and advisories: Tornado, High Surf, High Wind, Coastal Flood, Rip Currents ... and that's just in our area.

Obviously I won't be going over to the beach, so I took this video on our upper deck.

Sea turtle nest PB-7121

It's difficult to stay out on the beach for very long, not just because of rain, but gusty wind and blowing sand. This is what remains of our nest enclosure at PB 7121, west of Portofino.

Tropical Storm Lee - Highway 399

I was heading out to check on some of our Santa Rosa sea turtle nests this morning, but had to turn around just before the Welcome to Pensacola Beach sign. If you look closely you can see two frontloaders in the distance working to clear sand from the road.

I've been told that Ft. Pickens Road within Gulf Islands National Seashore has been closed and may stay so for a few days. Some areas of the road are covered by water and other by approximately 4 feet of sand.

TS Lee'ward

I think we can appropriately say this lady is looking Lee'ward, even if she is on the windward side!

Tropical Storm Lee at Pensacola Beach - Saturday morning

Although the surf was up just a little more this morning from yesterday afternoon, the wind definitely seemed higher.  I will try to get the battery replaced in my small, hand-held wind speed gauge this afternoon so I can use it next time I go out.

PB 7121, which is a loggerhead nest, took on quite a bit of water during the night. If you compare the video from yesterday afternoon to this morning's you can see that it has resulted in the accumulation of several additional inches of sand top of the nest. The whole area is also littered with jellyfish.

Tropical Storm Lee

Tropical Storm Lee is already taking its toll on our sea turtle nests.  I was checking one of the Pensacola Beach nests this afternoon when the waves starting washing across it.  It will almost surely be washed out tonight since we still have several hours until high tide (3 a.m., I believe).

We've all been so happy at the boom of sea turtle nests we've had this year, but we hate to lose even one.