MY ABSENCE

My apologies to those of you who had viewed this blog in past years.  I owe you and explanation as to why there were no entries for 2013.  The reason is that we moved from our condo on the island where we had lived for about 26 years, to an house inland.  We miss the wonderful views of the Atlantic Ocean and the Indian River, but are enjoying our new house with lots of room for a big dog and visiting family and friends.
As a result of the move, even though I promised myself that I would continue to visit the beaches and record the sea turtle nests that were laid there during the season, the time just got away from me.  Possibly, 2014 will provide more free time to travel back to the beaches for more walks on the beaches and searches for sea turtle nests.  In the interim, take care.
Gordon

LAST NEST STANDING

The last nest left standing after hurricane "Sandy" passed by us during the last 3 days was probably going to have to be declared and listed as "washed out", even though the stakes and some orange tape were left standing after the storm.  As you can see from the other photos included in this posting, there was virtually no protective beach left as of the end of October, since the wave action and winds from the storm have washed up to, and in some cases, breached the dune line.  I count the "dune line" as where the sea grasses have established themselves and provided some resistance to full wash-outs of the sand on that dune line.  It was sad to travel some distance north and some distance south to see and realize that any sea turtle nests that were still viable up to a few days ago, were no longer viable. The one pictured in this posting, my designation of "TC1819", was guesstimated to hatch on October 3 (45-60 days for a Loggerhead nest), so it probably did not even survive until then, let alone almost a month later and after a severe storm washed water over it for extended amounts of time.  As such, the title of this posting may be somewhat misleading in that, even though the physical stakes and ribbon were still in place, that nest and probably all of the nests on this coast, were now, effectively, gone. 

This is not the kind of ending to the sea turtle nesting and hatching that we would like to see, but Mother Nature does things in her own way.  Based on my calculations and charts, I suspect that there were only about 30 sea turtle nests that actually hatched on our section of beach this season.  Using my same data and charts, I'm making an "educated" guess that there may have been as many as another 30 nests that were either storm damaged, washed out, or otherwise didn't hatch.  You can see an example of that in a previous posting where our granddaughter is pictured with some unhatched and dead eggs that an employee from EAI had dug up once the nest was long overdue for hatching.

So.... it's a rather sad good-bye to the sea turtle nesting season of 2012, but with the knowledge and hope that this process will go on.  I'm looking forward to another season starting in the spring and hope that you will join me in this blog at that time.  Admitedly, this process will go on long after all of us are no longer "viable", I strongly suspect, but this brief encounter and experience with these wonderful beings from the sea is always rewarding in itself for showing me time and again how precious this life form, and any life form in this world, is.  It's always great satisfaction for me and, I hope for those of you who took an interest in this blog, to be able to "step back" and find a greater appreciation for life in general (and for ours specifically!) as we experience one of the many "wonders of the world".  Isn't it great to be alive and have such opportunities?  Enjoy your life, and all life, because there is a bigger connection there than we sometimes realize.

KIIRA FINDS ALREADY HATCHED SEA TURTLE NEST

In one of the photos above, Kiira is pointing to a sea turtle nest that hatched within the last week or so.  Kiira stayed with her grandparents over the Labor Day weekend and went on several "turtle nest walks" with her grandpa.  We did not see any hatchlings that were struggling to reach the sea in the morning after sunrise, but that was probably a good sign that most of them had already made it to the ocean during the night. We also found a few hatchling tracks that we followed for many yards that ran parallel to ocean shore.  Fortunately, all of those eventually ended going to the water's edge, so we guessed that they had made it safely into the ocean. Kiira also found some sea turtle egg shells that were brought up to the surface of the nest by the hatchlings that had already climbed out of the nest.  In another photo, she is holding a "dead" egg that was dug up by an EAI employee because most of the eggs in the nest had already died and the nest was not going to hatch any hatchlings.  Kiira now has several dried sea turtle egg shells to add to her collection.

GRANDDAUGHTER ON TURTLE NEST WALK TODAY

Our granddaughter, Kiira, was able to go with us on a turtle nest walk today and we were lucky to find an EAI employee who was digging up a nest that was long overdue for hatching.  She indicated that they didn't always know why the nest didn't hatch, but that sometimes the condition of the sand, or many other conditions, left the nest with most of the eggs unhatched, as was the one we saw this morning.  You can see the unhatched eggs on the sand below the EAI employee's head in one of the photos in this posting.  It was very disappointing to see this situation, especially since we were all anticipating seeing some hatchling tracks that led to the ocean when we started our beach adventure today. Unfortunately, it doesn't appear that any of the eggs hatched in this nest - at least from the remains that were dug up from the nest today.

SUCCESS FOR ANOTHER 60+ HATCHLINGS!

So.... here was a nest that neither EAI nor this blogger had marked or recorded previous to it hatching on 8/1/2012!  Fortunately, some tell-tale tracks alerted this writer to the existence of a nest that had hatched in the night.  When the tracks were followed back up toward the dune line, a few heads were just barely visible above the sand - getting sunburned because the ones on top of the "masses" in the channel coming up to the surface had stopped, realizing it was bright daylight, while the ones underneath were still pushing the top ones up and out.  It wouldn't be long before those exiting in the bright and hot sunlight would either die from being captured by birds, crabs, or other animals, or would die from heat exhaustion and drying out before they could reach the water.  Also, fortunately, the 25 - 30 hatchlings that had remained in the nest after daybreak found their way up and out of the nest and to the ocean, making a total of perhaps 60 or more from that nest that had successfully made it to the ocean during the night and then immediately after sunrise. Possibly, the large being that provide a long shadow over them, along with some "protection",  had assisted in their travel to the ocean!

TURTLE DAD AND TURTLE GRANDKID

Recently, my granddaughter, Kiira, joined me on a "turtle walk" early one morning while she was staying with us.  You can see by the photo included in this post that while we didn't see any "hatchlings" left over from the previous night's hatchings, we did find plenty of evidence that at least 59 hatchlings crawled from their nest to the ocean from one nest, and another 32 tracks near the water line indicated that most of another nest that hatched overnight also made it to the ocean.  We'll have to get out again next week to see if we can see any "stray" hatchlings as they make their way to the ocean.

So, what's with the photo orientation?  We'll have to ask the website developers why they don't have a convenient way to manipulate the photo clockwise and counterclockwise on the site - especially when the photo was correctly oriented when it was uploaded.  In any case, you get the idea.  See the hatchlings' tracks that Kiira is pointing out to the camera?  She spotted those tracks before I did.  Sharp eyes - and sharp granddaughter!

I THINK HE/SHE MADE IT!

 I think that he/she made it!  Yes, it's quite amazing, but this is not the first time that this blogger has followed some misguided hatchling tracks for great distances along the beach. From time to time, because of lights that distract the hatchlings, or just general disorientation once the hatchlings push their way out of the nest, a few hatchlings seem to go amazing distances - when you consider how small and slow they are, parallel to the shore line.  This morning, I found another such track and I followed it for a very long distance, relatively speaking.  Most of his/her nest-mates had headed for the ocean once they got out of the nest (see photo with very light tracks on the wet beach leading to the ocean), but this misguided one went a total of 485 yards, by my calculations.  I'm not sure of the accuracy of that statistic, but I used my hand-held GPS and found that he had traveled a total of 10.4 "seconds".  As you know, when using latitude and longitude, a common way to list the location of an object on the earth's surface is in "degrees", "minutes" and "seconds" of latitude and longitude. The "minutes" and "seconds" don't really have anything to do with time in this instance, but they are, along with "degrees", a measure of distance between two points on the map.  A few days earlier, I had paced out one "second" of latitude on the beach.  My estimate was that one "second of latitude" equaled 140 feet, so that's how I arrived at the figure of 485 yards.  That was calculated as follows:

Hatchling Tracks to the Ocean

N 27 28 03.8 minus N 27 27 53.4 = 10.4 seconds, so 10.4 seconds of latitude X 140 feet per "second" of latitude = 1456 feet.  1456 feet divided by 3 = 485 yards

I'd be happy to have anyone do their own calculations and correct any major errors that I may have made in my calculations, but until I receive that response, I'll stick to my answer and remain in awe of the little tike that traveled that far.  By the way, I followed the tracks until he made a turn for the ocean and I lost his tracks in the wet sand.  That leads me to believe that he/she actually made it to the water and will start a long 20 year journey around the Atlantic Ocean basin and, perhaps one day, return to our area to lay eggs in another nest on our beach!

By the way, speaking of sea turtle journeys, has anyone else seen the DVD movie of such a journey?  I believe that the movie is called "Turtles: The Amazing Journey", and it truly is an amazing journey.  If you haven't seen it yet, treat yourself to one of nature's most interesting animal journeys. I'm sure that you'll enjoy it.  It's done in a very "tasteful" way, so that it's appropriate for children, as well.