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.

Nests and Ospreys

Last week continued with two nests, #7 and 8 being found over the weekend by one of the park rangers.  Meanwhile I was doing turtle patrol for Ranger Marie who was on vacation putting me on the beach more days than usual.  It seemed that turtle nests were popping up all over the place.

This one was a hard call as to if or where there were eggs because she had possibly laid right in the wrack line of the river, up against an escarpment.

Clouds still teased a bit, but mostly just flirted with us and moved away.  Still no rain.  I had out of town house guests heading my way for a week to take one of the workshops which Mikolean and I were offering.

"X marks the spot", or in this case the Ghost Crab hole gives us a good indication of the location of the egg chamber of this ocean front nest.

Interesting tracks as momma turtle came in on the right side got to work laying her eggs and beat a hasty (as turtles go) retreat back to the water.

The first thing a turtle does when she reaches the beach is to lay her chin down on the sand.  We are not sure what they are doing, if they are smelling to see how the sand is or if it is her hometown smell or if it is just the sudden weight of that big head out of the water, but this gal left a chin drag in several places as she struggled up the slight incline with that massive Loggerhead chin.

Staking a nest takes a good bit of time, with all the paperwork involved, staking, GPS'ing, and stringing the nest.  After we determine where we think the nest chamber is located, we place 3 stakes in the sand to form a triangle.  We place a GPS device in the spot to get our coordinates.  This is recorded in our log book along with other information such as a physical description of where the nest is located.  The nest is also recorded in the GPS gizmo.  A stake is placed in the dunes as a back-up and its location is noted and measured.  Last thing is to put a string around the nest stakes and to write on the stake the dates found and anticipated hatching.

When I stopped to check on a Horseshoe Crab stuck in a dry tidal pool area, I noticed these interesting patterns left by some crawly Crustation trying to find the water.

This tidy little lover's knot shape was formed by two, yes two, Horseshoe Crabs caught in the now dry tidal pool also.

I have learned to recognize the signs of a second (usually male) crab buried alongside the other half of the mating couple.  Lover boy had gotten  himself in quite a quagmire with only a tiny sliver of his shell visible.

I had to use a digging tool I found on the beach to get enough of the hard sand moved to allow me to carefully pry him loose.  Once released where does he head?  Well, of course he heads right back into his former prison.

As I walked the Crabs to the water's edge I noticed some pretty sand patterns formed in the runoff area of the pool.  The female was pretty tired and might not have had the energy to make it back to the water, but the male was pretty energetic still.  They both disappeared into the depths.

The Sea Oats are just starting to form their pretty seed heads.  They are now their Spring green color.

I noticed a photographer setting up his camera equipment with tripod just west of the pier.  I stopped to see what had caught his interest.  I grabbed my quick shot with my hand held camera out of the buggy door not wanting to interfere or scare away his subject.  Not too bad for shooting from the hip.

This one was Sunday evening as I gave my North Georgia guests a quick tour of the beach.  Being mountain girls the beach was a special treat for them.  This was out of my car window.  I only had a brief moment to get the shot before I lost it forever.  That is why setting up the tripod just doesn't figure into my way of photography very often.

One of the gals had never seen or heard of a Gopher Tortoise.  They were excited and they thought I had great control of the animals in the park to have them appear on cue like that.  When I said we often see deer in this area, one appears as if on cue then a few yards further on a Gopher Tortoise, so docile, she let me reach down and pick her up to get her across the road she was planning on crossing.

A little drama as we exited the rear of the park and I was pointing out our Osprey nest.

Here came Papa with what appears to be a crab cake on the whole shell.  I believe it was a Blue Crab in his talon.

He settles in as Little Girl seems to be giving instructions on how to set the table.

Looks like the Crab may have been resisting a bit.  Little Girl is certainly giving it a stern stare.

This shot was taken from the bridge Monday morning as I crossed over to the back gate of the park.  Unfortunately the nest box is so high that it is hard to get a shot of the chicks from underneath.  There are three this year and when one backs up to the side you need to beware below!  The white road underneath attests to good bathroom habits by the chicks.  No messing up the house while mom is gone.

Monday, about mid-ride around the beach, I witnessed a bit of a turf war on the big light beacon, in the water's edge on the river.  A crow was busy trying to convince the Osprey which sits there a lot that he wanted the Osprey's spot.

The Osprey was clearly disturbed, but not to the point of giving up any ground.

Several times the crow tried to persuade the larger bird to leave.

The osprey continued to resist the crow and probably just listed him as an annoyance to his otherwise good day.  The crow finally settled back on the railings but was still pretty vocal about his claims that it was "his" tower.  Who knows who the interloper was that day but I do know that the Osprey is usually in this spot and considers it his own personal fish-spotting tower. It was a fun week with more upcoming beach adventures, as I let my friends try their hand at being volunteer Turtle Patrol ladies with me the next two days getting to do lovely tasks like drive stakes in the ground with a sledge hammer.  Fun, fun, fun.