Nest Galore

Our nesting boom started really booming two Fridays ago.  I found a nest on Friday's Turtle Patrol on the ocean side.  

Since that was my last day for the week I left without much thought of the weekend.  In the gallery that Saturday one of my patrons told me that she had seen a new nest that day in the park.  I thought, "since our less experienced, and youngest ranger was on Patrol, I would check it out the next day to make sure he found it".


We were doing a family cookout at my sister's place just down from the park boundary, so we thought checking the nest was a good excuse to slip out and take Sis's granddaughter, Reagan, out for a walk on the beach.  She just loves picking up shells.  Once we got to the tracks, we found that they had been rained on since the nest was laid, and I thought them odd but...


...the minute I saw the nest itself, I knew.  We have a Green Sea Turtle nest.  They are rare for our beach and from what I know the only Green Turtle nest on the island so far.  We have had a Green Turtle the past 3 years but the year before last, it was laid so late, (they tend to be late nesters), it was frozen our during winter before it could hatch.  You may remember what I kept calling our eternal nest.  Last year we had another late one, which was totally washed out by an October Nor'easter.  This year, our Green has laid early and high, so maybe we will get to see some Green hatchlings.


Looking at the whole picture, you can see that the nest is pretty high up, and in a great location on the ocean front.


I found another nest on Monday; by Tuesday morning Rhonda, a former ranger now working as our girl Tuesday Turtle Patrol, was waiting on me when I got to the gallery.  She did not know how to get me on the phone that morning, when she found a Leatherback Turtle nest.  WOW!!! It can't get any better!   Unless we have a Hawksbill and a Ridley, (that last, we thought we had, but it got washed away by Beryl).

Back to the Leatherback nest, I put my sandals down to show the width of the tracks, which by noon, with wind and the high overhead light, were not as visible.  Rhonda had marked it with a very large area just to be sure, but we believe the nest is near the center, from all the signs she left with spray.  Leatherback Turtle tracks are over 7 feet wide.


Now, this season is really getting exciting.


In the hard sand below the tide line, you can see the massive track she left a bit better.  This is one track not two, as it might appear to you.  We think this one may have an injured or even missing right front flipper.


Each day that whole week we found more nests.  Most were Loggerheads, and on the oceanside.  The beach was still very shelly from the Beryl mess.  Though this nest looked more like a Loggerhead, it could be a Green Turtle.  It is a fairly large nest, but I still did not think it as massive as a Green 's usually is, so officially I labeled it a Loggerhead.


However, in the shelly beach, the tracks looked a lot like the tracks of a Green turtle.  We will have to wait and see on this one.


With all the beach upheaval there have been lots of beach treasures, and I often find beauty in some of the less perfect of the shells.  With all the nests to log, and having to get to work, I had very little time to explore.


More Horseshoe crabs but not the large numbers we had seen earlier in the season.  This one had an unusually long tail.  So often they get broken.  The tail is their rudder in life and without this important piece of equipment they don't have a very good chance of survival for very long.


This Dead Man's Finger's seaweed was a precurser for what was to come all this past week.


More nests.  I put an X where I think the eggs are in this nest.  The reason I think so, is the two crab holes dug right into the nest.  Often a clear indication of the egg's location, since the Ghost Crabs do like fresh turtle eggs.



This turtle had a bit of a different pattern to her tracks, although clearly a Loggerhead she seemed to have a longer reach on one side with her front flippers but not on the other side.  Usually you don't even see the front flipper marks..


My sister, Susan, has been a big help, as she walks up most mornings and meets me part-way through my run, helping me by driving in the stakes while I write up the reports.  I give her a wake up call when I hit the park, and then let her know if there are nests as I make my way down.  Nice to have a sister around.  We have not lived in the same town since she was 12 years old.


Our nest on the river had been washed out by the storm, but it looks like the mother is back to lay again.  She went as high as possible without climbing this escarpment.  Usually we have about as many on the river as on the ocean, but not this year. Marie found this one.


Pretty patterns were in the washes near this nest, and I paused a minute to take some photos while the low light was making them much more dramatic than they would be if I waited until I returned.  


Sometimes I wonder if this always new, but repeating subject will bore you, but I fear much more that I will get so used to them that I won't see them anymore myself.  This Sargassum Sea Weed, which is washed in from many miles offshore, was only the beginning of much to show up.  


As to the hints earlier about the Sargassum Sea Weeds' invasion, here is proof, as I surveyed the beach after taking Wednesday off to visit the knee doc for some more cortisone shots.  In my absence Marie had continued our winning streak by finding three nests that day.  (She is such a show-off.)  The beach looked like it had been carpeted by the same carpet I once used in my rental properties, because it didn't show dirt.  The higher layer which was left from the day before was starting to dry a bit so already darker in hue.  That was all I had to go by when guaging where the last high tide was.  We look for the tracks of the turtles starting at the last high tide line.


The turtles were not happy with it either.  I had 3 false crawls on Thursday.  The Sea Turtles would start in then when they got into all that mess of Sea Weed they would turn around and leave without nesting.  I found this on the river and the ocean front.  This one looked like she had it made, but still changed her mind.  There is a definite strong smell to the piles of seaweed, so possibly that could have been the reason.  I'm sure she just came back another day.


Another similar one, but this time she turned around once she hit the deepest of the Sargassum.


Another of Maries nests she had found on Wednesday.


I found this bird which I thought dead but then realized it was still alive.  There were several others which were dead. I took it, placing it in an old clothes basket I had found on the beach, but alas it died before I could get it help.  I was going to take it to B. E. A. K. S. the local rescue for birds.  I didn't realize at the time that we had a major event happening to birds up and down the coastal area.

I found out that they are Shearwaters and are rare to be found in our waters.  They are usually only out at sea and one of the few birds which go from the Southern to the Northern Hemisphere, nesting in Canada.  What is believed to be happening with these birds is that they have just been blown about by the strong winds we have had, rendering them weak and unable to feed since they are diving birds.  Running out of energy they are unable to survive.  A sad situation. The weaker ones both old, and the youngest, are not making it. The bad side, besides the seaweed, of the nice cool ocean breezes we have enjoyed the past few of weeks.  The knowledgeable ones tell us that relatively few of these birds have survived.  Whatever that means, I hope it is still a large number.


On the hopeful side, our Ospreys are busy building a new nest in the spot where their original nest of several years ago was located, right next to their storm damaged one.  Each day they are out there expanding it.  Hopefully the power company will leave the nest alone, since they have had such a sad year losing all their little ones.  We don't know if they will re-nest or not since it is pretty late in the season for that to happen.  We will wait and see.  Maybe we will get to watch Osprey chicks after all.


Friday revealed two more false crawls on the river.



With rain-laden clouds threatening in the background, the sun was peeking through to give a bright glow to the Spring green Seaoats.


After the two false crawls, we believe this lady finally decided she just could not hold those eggs back any longer and finally found a spot in which to nest.  We could tell by the tracks that she had not been gone very long.  She must have spent hours on the beach that night deciding to where to lay.


She has a funny track pattern which I have seen before.  I think she has one back flipper which has been bitten off, not sure, but something weird is going on with her.


Once around on the oceanside, I find more false crawls, but also the same situation, the turtle decided to go ahead had find a spot to lay.  She laid her nest nice and high, which is a very good thing with all the high tides we expect this week.

It was a wonderful turtle week for the whole island, with almost as many nests as last year, with still a month and a half to go.  I got a call at 7:00 this morning (Sunday) telling me that we had yet another new nest.  I checked with the rangers since it was my day off and they assured me it had been marked.  Hatching is about ready to start also in another week.  Then things will really be rocking and rolling.
Edited to add' We are fortunate that Debby did not damage any of our nests.  I realize that is why a turtle lays several nests a year, she is hedging her bets, but it still is hard to give up even one.

Back on the River

The last workshop of our workshop season came, and as we usually do, we like to take the group on the Amelia River Cruise for a good experience and to learn a bit of what our island is all about.  This time, it was a watercolor class taught by Ken Austin.  He must have worked those ladies too hard because only he and I made the cruise.  Workshop groups are each quite different, some wanting to get out and see the sights, and others just wanting to crash after a long, hard day of painting.

We were very lucky to find my favorite crew on board, Ellyn and Captain Pajama Dave.  I love going with them as it is so entertaining and not always predictable.  Sure they say some of the same things but they are flexible as are most artists and Ellyn is an artist herself.  I was taking photos of my favorite marina subject, the reflections, when Ellyn pointed out the Manatee in the water.  Do you see it?  She knew it was there because she put it there.  It was a sculpture she did herself and tossed into the he water.  When the tide is low as it was then you can see it stick its head up.  Very cool because real Manatees come to this area frequently and had been spotted there earlier that day when the tide was higher.  It is starting to cool down so the Manatees are migrating South and up into the rivers to get closer to the springs which feed into the rivers for the warmth that some of those springs provide.  Water coming out of the ground at 74 degrees feels good on a 35 degree morning.

There were many exciting reflections happening in the water as we loaded up for the now familiar trip for some of us, but always something new too, even if it is just the sunset which never exactly duplicates itself.

The water and the light was a good time for reflections from one of the shrimpboats we passed.

A first for me was that there was no big ship docked at the marina, leaving the concrete docks to give me some very unusual reflections.  If you did not know what this was you would never guess, don't you think?

With the blue sky and the railroad cars all lined up, I thought the shapes and the lines of the whole Rock Tenn Plant interesting.  I am still a bit mad at them over the smog I saw coming from their facility on the Cumberland Trip though.

I would really like to do kayak fishing sometime.  I think that would be great fun.  It have wondered if you caught a really big fish wouldn't it propel your kayak a bit?  That might be a little added adventure.

I don't think I realized just how big this shell midden is at the mouth of Eagan's Creek next to Tiger Bay Marina.  The big Egret was using it as a good vantage point to sit and hang out for a while.

A dilemma for this fisherman.  Should he risk his footing to reach for the net nearby to land his catch or just try lifting it out without dropping it in the water.  Those oyster shells are pretty sharp.  Sure wouldn't want to risk dropping that cigarette either.

The cooler weather has brought more of the gulls onto the leeward side of the island to roost for the night.  Part of the answer to the question "where do the gulls go at night when they leave the beach?"  The gull poop makes it look like the old rusty barge is decorated with a fringe all around the top.

A large flock of Brown Pelicans fly overhead looking for a place to spend the night also.  Ellyn was saying that they always fly in a "V", but she asked, "did we know why there were always more on one side than the other?"  No one knew of course.  She said it was "because there were more on one side than the other."  OK, now I spilled her punch line.  Pretend when you go on the cruise that you don't know the answer.

Captain Dave was able to get us in close enough and early enough to see the horses.  We had to bypass the cruise by the fort to have enough time with the shorter days to make it before the horses left to go into the tree line for the night.

A great Blue Heron was hanging out at the flats, and with the tide low, the oyster beds were sticking up out of the water letting you know that wading here would risk unseen hazards for your feet with the water higher.

This is my favorite tree to photograph.  The low sun always gives it an interesting shape and color highlighting its gnarly trunk and branches contrasting with the straight lines of the palm nearby.  With fall, some of the trees have lost their leaves but not the Live Oaks.  They will lose them partially nearer springtime but will not become totally bare.

With the shorter days it becomes a rush to get into the creek and out in time to see the sunset over the islands.  We see that we are running out of time as we see it through the silhouette of the trees along the creek.  The setting sun makes the palm look as if it is a large lamp putting out the light for the night ahead.

It is only minutes before it is gone behind the tree line.  The colors in the clear cloudless sky are ever-so-softly blended with the yellows, oranges finally fading toward purple with the blues from the sky in the mix.

We still have enough light to see if we can find any more horses or birds up the creek a ways.  The calmness of the water gives us nice reflections of the creek bank which seems to move with the hundreds of Fiddler Crabs which are swarming its edge waving their big pinchers in their violin playing imitation to attract the females.

The reflections are almost mirror-like, but not quite as there is enough of a breeze to keep that from happening.  The setting sun on the opposite side gives a pink glow to the Eastern sky as well.

The Spanish Moss and twisted branches of a downed tree give a spooky feeling to the almost Halloween time frame.

The blaze from the setting sun sets the water afire also as it peeps through the tree line.

A dad was trying to get his beautiful daughter's attention as he photographed her but she was more interested in the strange lady who was also photographing her at the same time.

Now the sun is almost gone as we race toward the river to try to catch its final dip below the horizon.

We do not make it completely out into the river channel, but this is a pretty view also, just not the long reflections in the water we like to find.

The other Amelia River Cruise boat passed us with a charter group having a good time on it.  The surprise from what had appeared as a clear sky from the creek found us some colorful clouds as some promised rain clouds are moving in from the Southwest.

It gave the delayed cruise by Fort Clinch a very special view.  I may have to frame this one to go on display at the fort itself.

The light was almost too dim and the motion of the boat too much to get the focus I would have liked; we got our last glimpse of color as we neared our home port on another lovely, perfect evening excursion on the Amelia River Cruise.  Thanks to Ellyn and Dave, our crew, for making it such an enjoyable trip.