I guess we need a "Crime Watch" for the beach, as well, now that some ignorant individual, or group, has blatantly broken the law and destroyed an endangered sea turtle nest.
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
CRIME ON THE BEACH
I guess we need a "Crime Watch" for the beach, as well, now that some ignorant individual, or group, has blatantly broken the law and destroyed an endangered sea turtle nest.
Monday, July 26, 2010
A NON-NEST!
and tracks leading to the ocean ........
but only an empty nest was dug and left by the turtle without any eggs being laid. It maay have been a late start by the female sea turtle and/or she was disturbed by early morning light, dogs on the loose on the beach (against the law), other predators or even humans. Hopefully, she will come back to this area of the beach another day and lay her eggs.
Friday, July 23, 2010
LEATHERBACK HATCHLING
If you compare this hatchling to the Loggerhead hatchling on a previous blog post, you may be able to see the difference in size (the Leatherback hatchling is about twice the size of the Loggerhead hatchling).
With the northern fringes of Tropical Storm Bonnie hitting our beaches today, we will keep our fingers crossed that the wave action generated by the storm will not damage or destroy those nests located on our beaches.
Thursday, July 22, 2010
SLOW STARTER!
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
SCAMPER TO THE SEA
Monday, July 19, 2010
THREE MORE SAVED!
Saturday, July 17, 2010
Struggle To The Sea II
Each hatchling faces a major hurdle just getting from the nest to the ocean. During their travels for the next 30 years before returning to our beaches to lay their own nests, the female Loggerhead sea turtles face hungry birds, crabs, fish, sharks, and fishermen's nets and hooks. It's no wonder that some scientists estimate that only about one in 1000 survive to adulthood.
The hatchling in the attached video had a "handicapping condition". His/her bottom shell plate protruded more than normal shells, forcing its flippers too high off the sand to be effective in helping the hatchling make much progress on the sand. Some "assistance" was provided so that the hatchling could reach the water where, it was believed, the deeper bottom shell would not be a hindrance. Bon Voyage!
A HELPING HAND
Thursday, July 15, 2010
A Visual Record of the Nests
Saturday, July 10, 2010
IT'S A START!
However, as you can see, we have given it the old "retirees' try" and have "marked" each suspected/possible sea turtle nest, on our section of the beach, on the chart that you see in this blog. To make our record more complete in the future, we will have to work in reverse once we find nests that have hatched and "project backward" our best guesstimate of the date that each next was laid. We'll use last years' "average # of days incubation" (55 days - including both Leatherback and Loggerhead nests) as a way to project when the nests may have been laid. It's not as good a procedure as we used last year but, under the circumstances, it's probably the best we can do this year.
You may be able to increase the size of the chart, for easier reading, if you double-click on the chart.