A beautiful morning out on the Gulf! Read all the way to the bottom for an exciting first for me!
First to answer last weeks' question (posed to myself) "Why are you doing Turtle Patrol, Becky?" Last summer, our first one in Sarasota, we almost went to observe a Turtle Walk with the Longboat Key Turtle Watch group. We ended up not going because of lightning. But later in the summer we were able to attend an evening nest excavation, I got to see a hatchling (who was later released to the Gulf) and I was hooked! So earlier this spring I joined the Longboat Key Turtle Watch and attended a training to be a non-permitted volunteer. So the turtles got me out there, but meeting new people and being out on the beach at sunrise are more benefits!
So back to today...The water was very calm and the moon was setting as we arrived at 6:30am - air temp was 70 degrees.
There was a school of fish hanging out right by the shore. We were hoping some dolphins would show up for breakfast but no such luck
Sandhill Crane at water's edge
Shell beach art - driftwood from last week is gone and the shell patterns have changed
Early on in our patrol, Mike, our permitted volunteer got a call from the folks patrolling the next zone that they had found a crawl and what looked like a nest! So after finishing our patrol we made our way to the scene about a mile north
We have a crawl! The tracks are wider than the false crawl we had last week
Kind of looks like a snow angel but the marks were made by a Loggerhead turtle
Mike says "it's a nest!" and gets ready to verify. As the permitted volunteer he's allowed to verify that there are indeed turtle eggs down there. I'm still learning when nests get verified and monitored - I'll share more when I learn that
We document a bunch of data about the nest - location on the beach, distance from the water, distance to the grasses and more
The tracks from the water - she went up on the right, turned left a bit, laid the nest up high then on her way back to the Gulf she crossed her tracks creating a "ribbon" pattern. Below - Turtle Treads!
Mike lays out an area where he guesses the eggs are so he can start digging. He's been doing this for 9 seasons - can't wait to keep learning from him!
Mike does his thing and locates the top of the nest - he does this to verify that is indeed a nest and to record how deep the nest was buried. We have eggs!!
Stakes are marked so we can monitor the nest during the season. Remember - only permitted volunteers are allowed to do this type of digging. It is illegal for others to tamper with a nest!
Final step - the nest is covered back up and stakes are put up with tape between them
That's it for this week! While this nest wasn't in our zone, it sure was exciting to see my first nest/egg and start to learn the process of documenting the nest. I'm hoping some Mama turtle out in the Gulf will make her way to our zone next Friday night so I can find my first nest on my birthday!!
By the numbers so far - beaches patrolled by Longboat Key Turtle Watch and/or Mote Marine volunteers:
For our team:
Nests: 0
Hatched: 0
Overall:
Nests: 7
Hatched: 0
