Lisa's Farewell (at least until Labor Day)

Mornings have been pleasant and exciting as it usually is this time of the year, with sea turtle nest laying and hatching going on at the same time.  Nests are hatching all over our park, as with the whole island, while we just had our 29th official nest laid inside the Park (31 actual). 

We still need rain but the temperatures, although hot, are nothing like what others in central US, Atlanta and even in Northeast Tennessee at my mom's house are having.  Although this photo tells me that my lens needs cleaning it is still a nice feeling, morning image.

The Kreger's, my southern neighbors in turtle patrol, have found a nest just outside the park.  I sneak on down to see what they are up to as I finish the South end of my ride.  They are digging into the nest to "verify" that the eggs are there.  Although some of the onlookers actually watched her lay they were having trouble finding the nest chamber.  In South Carolina they still probe the sand to locate the chamber, a much quicker way but takes a high level of skill.  We don't do either just use an educated guess as to the existence and location of the eggs.

Mother Nature left a pretty colored composition for my pleasure.  Loved the lavenders in the Sand Dollar.

The painting has progressed with adding detail and building up colors in the body and flippers, as well as the foreground critters.

More color to the Carapace (the shell) and in the head.  With watercolor building up layers of color until you get the desired depth you want is a traditional technique.

One morning's treat is a deer who stops briefly to size me up while I try to get a shot before he disappears. Not much time to get that image when dealing these fellows.

The Carapace, after I readjusted some of its shapes, begins to get the addition of the rich browns which had been my original goal.  I changed the pattern in the head slightly after studying photographs of other turtles.  They are never exactly the same but I tried to do what was most common.

The Crabs and bottom as well as the turtle herself are gradually changing and reaching completion.

Back on the beach Lisa is excited to find such a huge cluster of "Dead Man's Fingers".  She decided to try to dry it out to take it home even though they don't dry that well.  Feeling it at this point will instantly explain its name, with the cold, clammy, wet fingers 'feel' it has.  Not sure how it dried out.

A view I seldom photograph but thought with the morning colors slightly glowing through the tops of the grasses with the humidity in the air that it had a nice early morning feel to it.  We are looking back from the west end of my beach ride with high tide almost covering the rocks on the point across the Cumberland Sound (the river) to the south end of Cumberland Island.

Thursday Marie and Lisa excavate nest # 3 gathering all the pertinent data while I stand watch.

Last year we had one Osprey chick which was very slow to leave the nest.  We called her Slow Learner.  Well this year many mornings I find that we have Slow Learner 2 often waiting in the nest crying for someone to bring home the bacon.  This morning I thought she was gone but as I eased out the gate she stealthily peeped over the rim of the nest and I knew she was still waiting.  I think the parents do still drop her some food but gradually will get her weaned and on her own.

You will be happy to know that the nest which was washed over exposing the eggs, in last week's story, and was re-covered by Lisa and me actually hatched.  Good to have a success from a near disaster.  Lisa and her hubby were able to count 44 hatchlings as they left this nest and could still see one little head sticking out but the bugs got too bad for them to wait for the rest to make it out.   When I excavated it this morning, there were 60 which actually were able to get out on their own.  The turtle tracks cross over the tire tracks left by our new patrolling vehicle to the park, a Sherriff's patrol, who has made quite a bed of tracks on his duly appointed rounds, protecting us all from...not sure what???

Another nest a bit further down the beach had also hatched the same night.  (I excavated these both in this Monday morning).  The bad old Ghost Crab is digging down in there telling us that we may find some live ones or maybe some dead ones due to the crab predation.  I did not find any live or dead here so if there was one Mr. Crab latched on to it and drug it off.

It was a successful nest as well as a very large one.  The turtles seemed to have made a quick trip directly to the water.

We have been enjoying Lisa's last week before she heads back to Georgia to start a new teaching job on August 1.  Spending longer than the usual time on the beach, checking out all sorts of beach treasure and critters.

This large couple of Gulls hang out close to any fisherman on the river, hoping for a hand out each morning when we pass them.  We call them Bonnie and Clyde.

The Painting is now finished.  Possibly a few very minor changes will be made but it is now in the drying stage.  After I am finished the paper is wavy from all the water so I have to dampen the back side without disturbing the colors on the front.  I then sandwich it between two pieces of Plexiglas and weight it down with anything I have that is heavy.  I will leave it there for a few days until it has totally relaxed then I will add a layer of strips of mat board or foam core leaving a gap between each piece to allow the moisture a way out.  I want it to dry completely before I take it out to mat and frame.

Sunday morning, and the long dreaded last morning for Lisa to be in the park.  The camper is ready to pull out.  The five dogs which accompany them are all prepped for travel.  All that is left is Lisa's last Turtle Patrol.  She gets the honors as she and Lee, the Ranger on duty, supervise and excavate nest #6.

One beautiful little hatchling remains in the nest waiting on rescue.

We have only a few people there for the excavation so we just allow him to crawl around while the contents are emptied from the nest.  Lots of things on the beach create an obstacle course for the turtles when they make that long trip.

This one will not have to do too much work because Lee felt it had waited long enough to get to the water.  It was a bit dehydrated and putting it near the water's edge was probably a good thing.

An additional send off was getting to see the submarine come in to the river.  A celebration for the families who waited with their signs to wave at their loved ones.

A grand finale for sure.  It has been a busy week with lots of Sea Turtle happenings with new nests, hatchings, social things with Lisa and J. before they have to leave, getting the painting finished, seeing doctors, getting eyes checked, even worked in a mammogram, and for the first time in about 3 years I will once again own a pair of glasses.  Those of you driving on the roads with me at night will be happy to know this.  I lost them on the beach a few years ago and just never did get new ones.  Wow, a knee that works (even if only temporarily) and vision all in one week.  Life is good!!

Our Turn

One of those glassy water days which means not much wind.  Clouds teased, but did not give us much in the way of showers, which we still need.  Has it been hot? Yes, but cooler then most of the rest of the US.

It would have been a good day for fishing with clouds and calm water.  I guess I will be tossing my line over the pier and bridge which is not nearly as much fun as wading out into the surf and staying wet and cool.

A group of Brown Pelicans were doing their usual early morning beach patrol, a larger group than usual.

I am wondering if this might be our Willet family with all grown up chicks now.  They both seemed to be following the mom closely.  Usually they are pretty solitary birds with maybe two in the same general area but not really hanging out together like this.

This beautiful blue tailed lizard is a Skink with his big size and reddish head.  I rarely see them, but that reddish color is a 'courting' expression, and maybe he's out more because of that pursuit.  I try to spend some time in my yard, especially trying to keep things watered; three days without rain here and the sand just loses all its moisture.  It makes such a huge difference in how things grow when they get natural rain instead of a watering hose.

I have finally gotten some of my Mexican Sunflowers growing.  I love their color, and hopefully with enough seeds from this plant, I can have lots of them next year.  The butterflies love them.

I had a new spider this week different from our usual Banana Spider.  It was more like the yellow Writing Spider of North Georgia but different.  I thought it interesting the way it pulled its legs together to look more like a 4 legged spider.  But then I guess it wouldn't be a spider with only 4 legs would it?  My research shows it is called a Saint Andrews Cross Spider so called because it looks like a cross with its legs in that position.  It had disappeared the next day so I hope it just moved away from my watering hose and didn't get eaten.

The high tides brought a near calamity to one of our low nests on the river.  The rough surf (60 mile an hour wind gusts will do that) coupled with fairly high natural tide gave a good bit of washover on several of our nests. This one on the river was in a very vulnerable spot and with a lot of beach erosion, exposed the top eggs.  A crab or possibly some other larger critter had helped itself to one of the eggs and had emptied its contents leaving us the empty shell.

Lisa and I got permission to cover the eggs with sand from the escarpment and it held through the next high tides.  Now we'll just cross our fingers and hope it will hold and allow the eggs to hatch naturally.

We were puzzling over whether this gal actually laid, but decided when we saw sand spray and also uprooted vegetation that she did.

Lisa did her Stop!!! command once again to recover this beautiful red sponge from the surf.  It is very much like one I found last year only mine was bigger and prettier.  I can't let myself be outdone all the time by this upstart helper of mine.

Our last two Wilson's Plover chicks are pretty much grown although still in the protective custody of their parents.

Our last nest so far #28.  We fully expect to find several more before calling it a season.  With the open door cart design you can see how I have come up with a way to ride and drive without further hurting my injured knee.  I just hang my foot out the door on the driver side, since it is my left knee that is the problem child, keeping the straightness I need and as long as I don't side swipe some object I am good.  Only have pain when I bend the darn thing and then it is bad.  Makes for a very sandy shoe and ankle as the wheel throws up a lot of sand in that direction.

GI Joe was almost a goner but I rescued him before the tide came and dashed his little body against the seawall.  There is another young Joe who lives in the park who will like getting this beached GI Joe.

The deer are so hard to photograph and blend so well once they hit the cover of the trees.  The spots on the little one are still very visible.

The Turtle Trot painting is progressing.  I started putting color to cover all the stark white left by the removal of the masking agent.  The crabs are starting to get some color.  The Sea Star is blending into his natural environment and Mrs. Loggerhead is starting to crack her shell of white to become a turtle.

More color in the shell, crabs and of course the Sea Turtle as she now has eyes to see you with Mr. Crab.  Better watch out you may become part of the menu.

NOW FOR OUR FIRST HATCHING IN THE PARK, well kinda sorta two.  What happened is that the same morning our #1 nest hatched we also found a dead hatchling on the river, with no near to term nest hatching nearby, we decided it must have gotten caught in the incoming tide, washed upstream of the river, and washed in with the wrack.  It wandered around the beach until a crab caught it.  Perfect little turtle except for the tiny hole the crab had pinched in its trachea.  We thought our Nest #2 on the river must have hatched about a 1/4 mile away but on getting there it had not hatched.  Now we were really scratching our heads. One of our other rangers who was walking on the pier yelled down to us when we got there that she saw baby turtle tracks where there was no marked nest.  We thought we might have found its location and tempoarily marked it.  Obviously, we had originaly missed this nest.  Wow, guess they didn't need us at all. 100 million years of experience and doing it without us paid off.  We had also discovered that our Nest #1 on the ocean side had hatched.  It was clearly a good hatching with tiny turtle tracks exiting the depression in the sand.  The one at the pier was not so lucky.  They had seen the lights in the parking lot behind and headed backward.  Most seemed to have finally found their way to the water.  Underneath the pier the water is not very visible in the dark so any type of light distraction is a problem.  We will visually screen the rest in this area with black plastic to try to block that light.

We had meant to dig up the unmarked nest but could not find the nest chamber so then moved our operation on down the beach to Nest #1 on Thursday morning.  This gave the hatchlings 3 nights to get out on their own if they could before we dug into the nest.  It also gives the Ghost Crabs more time to try for a menu of "Turtle Bites" if they can find a straggler in the nest.  Lisa and Brandon work on the excavation of the nest aided by one young supervisor.  One dead hatchling was found and it is laying near the little boy.  Lisa let the child see that it had a belly button just like he did.

Lisa does like to get down and dirty.  She only has until the end of the month so is taking full advantage of getting in some real turtle time before that happens.  My knee says,  you go for it, I will stay straight and vertical, thank you.

After everyone left I decided since I wasn't doing turtle patrol to take some time and see if I could locate the other nest.  In a few minutes I did find it and gave Lisa and Brandon a call.  They came racing back and we found this cutie way down in the bottom in a mess of stinky eggs the Ghost Crabs had opened much earlier.  He was healthy and robust and thankful for a breath of "fresh air".  He did manage to get turned upside down as he waited in the holding tank until we were ready to release him.

He was very anxious to get out as he wound round and round in the bucket trying to climb upward.

Brandon, one of our newest Park Rangers, gets to hold his second live Sea Turtle having assisted in last years digging once before.

This fellow wasted no time once he hit the sandy beach in heading to the water.

Head long into the water he went.

I thought that cool wet water must feel so good after spending at least 3 days down in the dry hot sand trying to get out.  Now he is in his element where he can swim like a bird in flight.  If it is a boy he will never return to the sand again and if it is a female it will return to the place of its birth only long enough to lay its eggs.  The rest of its life, although an air breather, will be in the sea.

We watched until he was out beyond the first breakers.  We saw that tiny marble sized head pop up for a breath of air then he was off again on his great adventure called life.

Overhead the darn Osprey caught what I'm sure was destined to be my fish once again.  Looks like a Blue Fish, which seem to be running right now.  I only hope I can be as lucky when we go out next time.  I will promise to leisurely walk out and just fish off the pier, Momma.  Fishing has not been that good this year and when you are limited in time you can't exactly time it for the best conditions.  But I still remember that day last year when we actually ran out of bait because we caught so many.  That is what keeps you throwing that line out time and time again.  I believe all fishermen are optimists and even a bad day fishing is a better day then being at work.  Not true when I can be painting; but it definitely applies to working on the computer.