Keep 'em coming!

I did a happy dance this morning when I discovered my second sea turtle nest of the week. This loggerhead was all business! She came straight up on the beach, nested, and headed straight back into the Gulf.

The body pit, which is very evident in this photo, was 6' 7" across.

To give you some sense of scale, the width of her track was 37" wide.

I immediately called the bio-techs to alert them I'd found another nest. I wasn't sure if it would need to be relocated. Then I posted a sign and then headed off to complete the rest of my patrol just in case there were other nests or false crawls.

By the time I returned to work on the nest (measurements, staking, reporting), bio-techs Rebecca Carruth and Toby Singleton arrived to assess the situation, along with volunteer Emily Kennedy. Rebecca was a welcome sight on Sunday when my Ft. Pickens nest had to be relocated.

Even though the decision was made to leave the nest "in situ" - it's original location - Rebecca digs down to locate the egg chamber itself so that it can be GPS'd. She then replaces the sand and leaves a light hand print for reference when they return with the GPS equipment.

The whole team of Bio-techs and volunteers are thrilled with the number of nests we've had so far this year - and we haven't even gotten into the peak of our season! But we realize there will be a lot of sleepless night in a couple of months when all these nests start hatching!

Measurements taken, nest roped off, reporting completed on SR 6081. Time to head home.

Life is good!

The Turnstone and the Crab

A Ruddy Turnstone and a ghost crab face off over a fish.

Black Skimmers

A tiny Black Skimmer chick ventures to the top of the nest to look around at the rest of the colony which is full of nesting mamas right now.

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!!!

Quit hangin' 'round with me

The terns have had just about enough of this crab near their nest!

Black Skimmer with chicks

This photo was taken on June 1 within the Santa Rosa area of Gulf Islands National Seashore.  If you click to enlarge the photo, you may be able to see the tiny beak and eyes peering out from under mama Skimmer's wing (to your right).

Just three days later I captured photos of the same nest with the chicks venturing out.  The daddy Skimmer guards his family and warns other birds to stay clear.

Black Skimmer chicks almost look cartoonish when they start toddling around.  Their body looks a little out of proportion to their head.

But they are such beautiful, graceful birds as adults, especially when you observe them feeding along the water's edge.

Paddleboarding

Paddleboarding is becoming very popular in our area and even if you aren't a participant, it is very enjoyable just to observe.

Those Tootling Terns

Needless to say, I love watching the tiny Least Tern chicks run around the beach and this is the music I hear in my head as they go tootling along.

Baby, baby!!!

I barely had time to get my camera out and capture a few frames of video before this little Least Tern chick outran me. Isn't it adorable?

This is a wondrous time of the year within Gulf Islands National Seashore with all the nests, chicks and fledglings.  And I'll be sharing as much as possible of the special discoveries on my patrol with my blog followers!

Memorial Day at Barrancas National Cemetery

Memorial Day at Barrancas National Cemetery. Originally established as a U.S. Navy cemetery in 1838, but in 1868 Barrancas was officially proclaimed a National Cemetery.

"...No impious footstep here shall tread
The herbage of your grave;
Nor shall your glory be forgot
While Fame her record keeps,
For honor points the hallowed spot
Where valor proudly sleeps..."

Theodore O'Hara
Bivouac of the Dead , 1847

On May 5, 1868, John A. Logan, Commander in Chief, Grand Army of the Republic, issued General Orders No. 11 - The Memorial Day Order:

"If other eyes grow dull and other hinds slack, and other hearts cold in the solemn trust, ours shall keep it well as long as the light and warmth of life remain in us....

.

"It is the purpose of the Commander‑in‑Chief to inaugurate this observ­ance with the hope that it will be kept up from year to year, while a survivor of the war remains to honor the memory of his departed comrades."

You may click HERE to read the Order in its entirety.

To those who have served our country and to those who have fallen, we extend our gratitude and respect.

The Tern and the Crab

A stand-off occurs when a crab ventures too close to a tern's nest, causing  the bird to try several diversionary tactics.

"Get away, I say! Get away from my nest!"

Sunrise

A beautiful sunrise this morning over Bob Sikes bridge.

Come On and take a Free Ride!

"Come on and sit here by my side!  Come on and take a FREE RIDE!"

Yep, everyone on the beach can take a free ride starting Friday morning (tomorrow) when the Beach trolleys begin running from 11:00 a.m. 'til 11:00 p.m., seven days a week. 

Not only that, but at 11:00 a.m., May 27, the new trolley-tracker system will go online, allowing you to call in -- or text -- an automated system, enter the trolley stop number you plan to use, and find out the trolley's current location and approximate arrival time at your stop. 

To learn more, check out Trolley Times, a special edition Island Times, which gives you all the stop numbers and corresponding locations.  Then, tomorrow (after 11:00 a.m.) , you may call 850-602-9384 or text 41411 to "SRIA (and add your stop number)" to find out when the trolley will be stopping at your location!

Come on and take FREE RIDE!!!

Cruising past Ft. Pickens

I was very appreciative to have an opportunity to go on the Military Fishing Expedition last week. As we passed Ft. Pickens, rounded the island, and headed through Pensacola Pass into the Gulf of Mexico, I took some video of the old fort.  I'm especially fond of Ft. Pickens since it is the primary area I volunteer for sea turtle patrol.

Park Rangers give guided tours of the fort at 2 p.m. each day in the summer and they will tell you Santa Rosa Island is gradually shifting west. When you watch the video above, notice how far it is from the sea wall to the fort.

Now, click HERE to take a look at a drawing of Ft. Pickens done around 1861 and submitted to Harper's Weekly by a Mrs. Gilman, wife of Lieutenant Gilman, second in command at Ft. Pickens at that time.  It shows rough waters swirling around the fort itself - quite a difference from what we have today.

It is my belief that the seawall which now surrounds the fort was not built until sometime after the 'killer hurricane" of 1906.  On September 26/27, 1906, a hurricane hit the Pensacola area and reportedly resulted in a 10' storm surge which washed over the Ft. Pickens area and up to a 14' storm surge across the bay at Ft. McRae.   The storm resulted in much damage to both Ft. Pickens and Ft. McRae, as well as the navy yards.

Sea Turtle Patrol

Almost at the western tip of Santa Rosa Island - the Ft. Pickens area of Gulf Islands National Seashore - I stopped to take a short video.  You can see across Pensacola Pass to the Naval Air Station, Pensacola Lighthouse, Big Lagoon, and Perdido Key.

[Note to blog readers:  At certain times of the day, server traffic can get heavy and the HD videos I plug into my blog may experience some hesitation.]

Crabby

If you ever wondered why they call some people crabby, just look at this downturned mouth and harsh stare.

Black Skimmer mama

A very short clip of the mama Skimmer sitting on the same egg I showed you yesterday. 

Although these birds may have an almost cartoonish look to them on land, they are exquisitely graceful as they fly parallel to shore, skimming the water with their lower mandible to scoop up tiny fish, crustaceans and insects.

Guess the egg!

Well it looks a bit like a Dalmation, or a Rorschach test...or a funny face with a tongue sticking out at us (can you see it?)

Actually this is the egg of a Black Skimmer and tomorrow I'll share a video of the mama skimmer with you.

Morning patrol at Santa Rosa

My sea turtle patrol at Santa Rosa started off in foggy conditions, but by 7:00 - 8:00 am. it was clearing and turning out to be a beautiful day. There was still a bit of haze in the air when I took this little clip.

The water was beautiful, but high surf which has been frequent since the first of May has washed ashore a lot of seaweed, which you'll see.

How to peel a crawfish

My neighbor, Wes, demonstrates how to peel crawfish, with a little response from me.