COMPRESSED VIDEO OF LOGGERHEAD HATCHLINGS

This isn't the caliber of video that I had wanted to provide on this blog, but it will have to do. My video cam takes HD video, but the blog site can't handle more than a couple MB in uploads, so.... you are seeing a very "compressed" version instead - just like my cell phone video a few entries ago. Sorry about that, but it's still interesting to see the Loggerhead hatchlings scurry to the ocean. By the way, did I mention that all three of the "tardy" hatchlings made it to the ocean that morning? Yes, they were successful in the first leg of their journey!

PHOTOS INSTEAD OF VIDEO

You just missed the opportunity to view a video of three Loggerhead hatchlings that were tardy in leaving the nest one morning last week. No, it wasn't your fault. I had even remembered to bring my video cam that day and the video was really quite good, if I do say so myself! Unfortunately, the blog service apparently wasn't able to handle that large a video "file", so I had to resort to several photos that I took that same morning. I'll continue working on getting the video on line for you on this blog, but it may take a few more days - if at all. In the mean time, I hope that you enjoy the photos of two of the three little guys who made it safely to the ocean.

First, my apologies for only having my cell phone camera with me for the video attachment that you see in this blog. Naturally, I left my video cam home and only had the phone camera available for use. The quality of the video leaves much to be desired, but you will get the "picture". The explanation for what you will see in the video was discussed in detail in the previous blog entry, so I will only add to that explanation by indicating that I did see one more "track" from the nest today (7/21/09) - one day after the mass exodus from the nest yesterday when 64 hatchlings were "assisted" in reaching the ocean. The one track today disappeared at water's edge, so it appears that a total of 65 Leatherback hatchlings have safely reached the ocean from that one nest in the past two days. That's more hatchlings than we normally see in a whole year of tracking the sea turtle nests. Hope that you enjoy the photos and video as much as I enjoyed watching the process live!

Bingo! It was a banner day for Leatherback hatchlings yesterday! As I was walking by the last of three Leatherback nests on our stretch of beach, I noticed about 10 hatchling noses sticking up just above the surface of the sand in the nest. I was concerned that these hatchlings were going to try to head for the ocean during the heat of the day (the sun was already up and it was getting hot!). Many times, if that happens, lots of the hatchlings get disoriented by the sun and may travel parallel to the water for many hundreds of yards, get turned over, or just plain tire out and die on the sand. As I was pondering what to do (it's illegal for anyone other than designated environmental scientists to touch or impede the progress of the hatchlings), I saw an EAI scientist on her 4-wheel beach cycle checking out nests to the south of my location. As she came nearer, I flagged her down and explained what I had seen in that particular nest. The EAI employee's name is Carrie and she agreed that these hatchlings weren't going to wait for nightfall before they treked to the water. She called her supervisor (I think that it may have been Nickie, who I introduced in a previous blog entry) to discuss the situation. They decided that it would be best for Carrie to dig up the hatchlings near the top of the nest and place them on the beach near the water so that they could crawl the last 10-20 yards to the water. By the time Carrie collected all of the hatchlings that she could find near the surface, she ended up with 64 Leatherback hatchlings in her bucket! She then released them one at a time on the beach and we watched them all successfully crawl to the ocean and disappear. Since the ocean was relatively calm, we were able to see many small heads popping up, from time to time, on the water's surface. It was probably one of the best "hatchling events" that I have experienced since we started tracking sea turtle nests on our stretch of beach!

It appears that three more sea turtle nests have hatched on our section of beach. One photo shows the hatchlings' tracks as they orient themselves after coming out of the nest and attempt to find the ocean. If they are distracted by lights on the beach from homes or the street, they can be disoriented and end up heading toward those lights, rather than toward the ocean. There were also several "dry runs" observed during the last few days where it appears the female sea turtles came up on the beach, but returned to the ocean without laying a nest. Sometimes that is because people or lights on the beach disturb them during the night and they return to the water without laying a nest.
In the photo of the nest, it appears that one of the EA employees had carefully "fingered" around the nest opening to be sure that all hatchlings near the surface were out and headed toward the ocean. Other hatchlings in that nest will wait until the next night's darkness to pop out of the nest and begin their journey to the sea.

Forty (40) sea turtle nests to date and still coming! You can double-click on the map photo to enlarge it and get a closer view.

In comparison to last year's list of turtle nests on our section of beach, the 39 sea turtle nests recorded to date are about 10 less than we had recorded as of July 10 last year. At the end of last year's tally in November, we had recorded about 83 nests, but about 23 of those had been destroyed by storms and beach erosion. If our guesstimate of 55 days for the average Loggerhead nest to hatch is on target again this year, we should have several Loggerhead nests ready to hatch next week. Check out the list to find those that are due to hatch in mid-July. You can enlarge the list by double clicking on it, I believe. Get ready for some photos!

Three hatched. Thirty-Five remaining. A couple of new nests since the last entry. No photos of hatchlings this year, but we hope to remedy that during this month. My Turtle Dad walking buddy is on vacation up north this month, so I will try to keep the list and blog up to date with some photos as the opportunities become available.