SEA TURTLE NESTING SEASON "WASHED OUT"!

                                                                                                                                                                               This blogger will take a  vacation for the remainder of September.  However, as of today, the beaches in our area suffered severe wash-outs and wash-overs during the passing of the recent hurricane, Irene.  Although the storm stayed hundreds of miles out to sea, her parallel course along the Florida east coast created heavy winds and waves, effectively washing out (or drowning) most of the sea turtle nests remaining on our stretch of beach.  This writer will check the beaches again in October upon his return, but the prospects are dim - contrary to what the newspapers quoted several experts, including some from EAI, as saying about the damage further south along the county line.  I don't hold out much hope for the nests that we were tracking to actually hatch, but it will be interesting to see how many may have survived.  Good luck to us all!

The attached videos are of some of the last "hatchling stragglers" that this observer saw in August, just before the big "wash-out" discussed in the above paragraph.  Mother Nature destroyed many of the nests that were ready for hatching in August but, fortunately, approximately 16 nests hatched along our stretch of beach in the months prior to the damaging storm waves, so at least a small portion of the nests completed their cycle.

Thanks for reading this blog for the first 3/4 of the "season".  Best wishes to you all for a good September.  See you in October!

STORM DEVASTATES SEA TURTLE NESTS!

Hurricane Irene destroyed most of the remaining sea turtle nests on our stretch of beach yesterday, last night and this morning, as the storm has now moved even in latitude to the border between Florida and Georgia.  We really don't like to see sights like we found on the beach this morning, where sea turtle eggs are rolling around in the surf and laying where they had been deposited by the high waves and tides during the last 24 hours.  The devastation of nests appears to be so bad, that I'm concerned that there may be none left untouched by the waves and wind.  It's a very sad sight, since my calculations show that there were approximately 60 nests (7 marked by EAI and the other 50 + identified by me as "possible" nests).  We had already documented that 16 nests had hatched previous to the storm, but there doesn't seem much hope that  the remaining nests will have surived.  We have at least one more exceptionaly high tide this evening, so I'll try to get out again tomorrow morning to see what may be left!  This storm created real devastation in regard to the sea turtle nests along our coast!

GREAT CAMOUFLAGE FOR A SPRINT TO THE OCEAN!

What great camouflage this little guy/gal had one early morning this week.  In fact, it was too good, since we almost stepped on him/her before seeing some movement in the sand!  The hatchling seemed to be a lone straggler, and was covered in sand because the sand was very wet from a previous night's rain.  The sand apparently clung to him as he crawled out of the nest - more so than usual.  In any case, he did make it to the ocean with some time and extra effort.  It's especially dangerous for hatchlings to emerge from their nest during daylight hours, because they are then subject to being eaten by birds, raccoons and crabs on land and by fish once they reach the water.  Not good timing, but at least this one had a head start by at least reaching the water!  If you click on the photo in the blog, I believe that it will enlarge the photo for you to see how nicely camouflaged he is.

DELAYED REPORT ON TURTLE NESTING AND HATCHINGS

Lots has happened in the last few weeks during my absence from the area for a family reunion up north.  Many more nests appear to have been laid and several have hatched.  The video within this blog entry shows one guy/gal that got a slow start and was out in the sun early in the morning.  As you can see by the video, he made it safely to the ocean.  That's the type of ending that we like to see in our movies!

ONLY FIREWORKS POPPED ON THE BEACH THIS 4TH OF JULY

We had a few more "crawls" this past week, but no nests that hatched - at least as far as this observer could tell.  The attached "turtle nest map" of our section of the beach shows that, by my count, we have 3 hatched nests, 36 possible remaining nests (only "crawls" were noted, no stakes and surrounding ribbon was used by EAI to identify them as "official" nests), and 3 documented nests remaining, for a total of, possibly, 42 nests along our stretch of beach.  Since EAI only stakes out 1 out of every 24 nests along our section of beach, the numbers are just a "guesstimate" at this time in the season.

While the "News Tribune" recently quoted the EAI scientists as indicating that the "sea turtle nesting numbers" were "starting to heat up", our section of the beach is still encountering some problems because of the severe escarpments just south of the jetty and generally poor beach conditions south on the beach for a least 3/4 of a mile.  But, the beach is smoothing out along the southern portion of our section of beach, so we will look forward to seeing increasing numbers of nests being laid in the months to come.

The EAI records show that our extended area of beaches in the southern half of Hutchinson Island in St. Lucie and Martin counties (including Jupiter Island) now has 3,192 Loggerhead nests, compared to 5,616 in all of 2010; 185 Green Sea Turtles so far this year, compared to 840 all last year; and 478 Leatherbacks in comparison to a 2010 total of 414. Looks like we may very well surpass the totals for last year - at least in those areas, and maybe even in this stretch of beach.  Last year, as of October 1, 2010, this blogger's records show that we had a total of 40 nests that had been identified.  Of those, 16 hatched; 20 were destroyed by storms and waves, 3 remained as "possible nests" and one had not hatched as of that date.  Maybe we're on track for a relatively good year, but it is hard to tell when EAI doesn't mark each and every nest that is laid on our beaches.  Only the EAI scientists and assistants are allowed to dig into a suspected nest to determine if eggs were actually laid in those nests.  This blogger can only guess, based on the turtle tracks to and from the ocean, and the amount of sand that was disturbed where the suspected nest may be, as to whether there really are eggs in those "nests".  Oh well, that's half of the fun - to see which ones actually hatch and prove - or disprove - our suspicions!

PRESENTING: HATCHED TURTLE NEST TCC428 ON 6/26/11

The first sea turtle nest of the season on our stretch of beach hatched last night.  The video shows one "straggler" who was still in transit around 6:30 a.m. this morning.  It appeared as though at least 10 others had recently made the trip, as well, since there were about that many tracks coming from the nest and ending up down by the water's edge. Bon Voyage little guy/girl!  Hope to see you back on our beaches in about 20 years!

SUMMER BEGINS!

The first week of summer began with only a couple of possible new nests detected. The map now shows 32 nests - 26 as "possible nests", and 6 as "officially marked" nests. One of the marked nests (TCC428) was due to hatch this past week but, so far, no hatchlings have appeared. I'll need to go out tomorrow to double-check that nest. Another one (TDC502) is due to hatch this week, as well, so we may have some action in a few days. I hope that several of these "official marked nests" will hatch prior to any summer storms that may damage or destroy them, since they are all rather close to the high tide level.