GRAND TOTAL

This week's totals for sea turtle nests on our section of beach totals 38 hatched, 10 wave/storm destroyed, and 3 still unhatched nests. Two of those unhatched nests are due to hatch next week, while the last one should hatch in early October - based on our average of 55 days of incubation that was determined with last year's 83 nests.

Today, I found one nest (TCC729) that had several hatchling trails that were visible in the morning when I walked the beach. I made a special attempt to track the trails of those hatchlings who went in directions away from the ocean during their night travels. Several had traveled many yards parallel to the ocean shore, eventually either ending up in the sea oats and grasses on the dune line, or eventually finding their way back to the ocean. One trail of special interest had traveled 280 yards parallel to the ocean before ending up in the ocean! My guesstimate of yards was based on my beach stride on the beach which I calculate to be about 1 yard per stride. Unfortunately, I was unable to locate some of the hatchlings whose tracks ended up in the dune grasses. One track even followed one of the pedestrian trails leading from the road to the beach - another 100 yards, or so, journey. Hopefully, someone found him/her early in the morning and assisted him/her in returning to the ocean. And so it goes as we come to the end of this sea turtle nesting season!

ANOTHER INTERESTING WEBSITE

I came across a website that had some interesting photos and videos of a Loggerhead nest hatching at night. The site is at www.fla-keys.com/turtlecam . It's better footage than my cell phone video of the Leatherback nest hatching with the 64 hatchlings, but they are equally interesting. Several nests hatched along our stretch of beach in the past couple of weeks, but several were also destroyed by wave action and high tides. Our tally to date is 35 hatched, 8 wave/storm destroyed, and 8 remaining. The most recent nest hatched yesterday (9/4/09) and had been projected to hatch on 9/11/09, using last year's average of 55 days for all 83 nests (Loggerhead and Leatherback) documented last year. All remaining nests are identified as Loggerhead nests.