A Mother's Day Story

Mothering takes a lot of different forms from adopting animals, taking grandchildren in to rear, and our of course raising your own children.  In nature there is another whole world of mothering going on regardless if the offspring is a product of egg or live bearing.  Our latest venture into offspring rearing came in the gallery door via a story reader, in the form of a young squirrel which although probably not orphaned, had been captured by her cat which had already destroyed the nest and killed the other siblings.

After a couple of months inside she is now out in the big wide world, this canopy of Live Oak Trees which extends throughout our whole neighborhood.  This is the direction she has chosen after trials and tribulations in other directions to focus her existence.  She spends a lot of time in the neighboring yard because they have more exposed sand, which is covered with acorns (although they are mostly bad) for her to hide.  She can usually be spotted and distinguished from the other squirrels with the meticulous way she hides those nuts.  She is very, very through, digging a deep hole and covering for a long time then patting and smoothing the earth so that you would never know a nut was buried there.  I hope to get a video of that for you all to see, it's hilarious to watch.


We like for our children to come back for visits even though they are growing older and more independent.  Lacy (the Lucky One) is usually around for those visits in the morning and again in the evening.  She stays around more the days I am home because I often leave the back door partially open, and it is nothing to walk into the kitchen and have a squirrel land on my shoulder.  She still, if she can finagle it, likes to take a nap on the top of the kitchen fridge.


We like for our kids to have a balanced diet.  Lacy has lost some of her love of sweet potatoes and green beans that used to be a main stay with her and will only eat a little of that now.  She does still enjoy her fresh corn but likes pecans most of all, with sunflowers running a close second.  Unfortunately the sunflowers are like candy to them and you really don't want that to be their main diet.


When the Chickadees moved out we almost had Bluebirds move in but they found there was way too much traffic on our back patio with Lacy and us out there a lot in the  morning and early evening and finally gave up, moving on to another spot.  I will move the birdhouse a bit further from our back door soon.  


An invasion took place at the Port a couple of weekends ago.  We were invaded by the French.  In celebration of 450 years since Jean Ribault's landing on our shores a couple of French Tall Sailing Ships re-visted, but in a friendly non combative atmostphere.  The sunlight was doing a dramatic dance on the sides of the boats as I made my way to the docks to see the ships.


Although beautiful, they are somewhat small for the voyage across the Atlantic they had just made. I really wanted to see them under sail.  With their 10 pm arrival and departure that was not to be.


We had our own welcoming committee to greet them as two of our own Great White Egrets found the front sails a great place to hang out.


Definitely a French touch in the decorative accents on the ships.


Working hard on my painting it is nearing completion here with the addition of Moon Jellies, one of our own native species as well as the beautiful Green Turtle I chose to represent our Sea Turtles.  Now I had to decide on which species of fish I wanted to school below the turtle.


After researching a lot of fish I decided on the Blue Fish which does travel in schools and it not too bright to take away from the Sea Turtle which I wanted to retain the center of attention.  And now it is finished after working all weekend of Shrimp Festival, not even leaving to go check out the hundreds of booths on the streets.  It was a hot weekend anyway.  The painting is now personally delivered and hung on the walls of its new owners, overlooking the ocean below, which this is to represent.


We have a pair of beautiful orange headed Skinks on the back patio.  This fellow lives underneath the water fountain on the patio.  I have seen another one which is a bit larger on the other side of the patio, so who knows, we may have baby Skinks soon.  The short stubby tail they both have is a result of a near death experience.  Something grabbed them but as nature would have it they are able to detach the tail and leave it wiggling for the predator while they make a swift get away.


We are learning to see a lot going on in our backyard as we sit and wait for our little girl to come home from her busy day of gadding about.  A wren sits atop the ladder and sings his song seranading for anyone who will listen.  The whole family of Chickadees flit around us occasionally checking out their old home, a squirrel and a mockingbird have a squabble over territory up in the trees.  Its a whole world of survival into which we have freed our girl.  A large hawk has been frequenting the trees around us.  Bruce called one day to say the hawk had a squirrel in the neighbors yard.  It was a great relief to know it was not our girl.  Our squirrel, not being an island girl, has a little bit grayer coat and a darker area between her nose, and also has some light areas behind her ears.


It is a great relief to have her come back in the evening to sip a drink of water, nibble some food, hide more nuts, play a while, and then scramble up to her nest box to go to sleep.  Exciting life...waiting for the squirrel to come home, but actually more like an excuse to put the rat-race aside for a few minutes relaxation.


Having a wild squirrel around which is semi tame is fun but I don't think I will do it again.  Pondering about this one living in the wild will drive you to worry way too much about their very survival.


I found out that on Mother's Day one of the busiest places in town besides restaurants is the Nail Salons.  I, though, can get my own person pedicure right on my back patio.  First the big toe...


...then making sure the others get the proper attention.


Using her bottom teeth she then gently starts scraping the surface of the skin, my own personal dermabrasion.


Moving on to the fingernails next and the job is complete.


A pecan reward, then off to nap time.


Waking up is sometimes a slow process for both mother, who has to have her coffee, and young squirrels who always take an afternoon nap.  Bruce sent this out to friends and put this underneath "We purposely didn't choose a Beagle for a pet because we didn't want it howling at the moon, and then, -this happened".  Now, now, Bruce that is just a biiiigg squirrel yawn.


A little stretching and she is almost ready to come down from her front porch.


A squirrels life is busy, busy expending so much energy that a little down time is also in order.  Sometimes after a vigorous workout wrestling with our hands and running circles around our bodies and shoulders she will just plunk down and take a rest.  You can see the whitish area behind her ears in this pose.


But the time has come to search the beach for other mothers of the egg laying variety.  Turtle Season has begun.  May 2 was my first day to hit the beach.  A lot of beach renourishment has left the beach a bit different, certainly wider in this area.  The tides have been extremely high this week with the super moon and the usual high Spring Tide.  This was before high tide, when the water completely covered this all the way over the escarpment yesterday.



The Black Billed ducks which I seem to see every year are back.  It seems odd to me that I never see ducklings.


And wonder of all wonders we had our first Sea Turtle nest on May 2, my first day of Turtle Patrol, about two weeks earlier than usual.  It was a bit unusual as someone reported seeing it late the day before, but it was not there in the morning when Marie did her patrol.  This led us to think it could possibly be a turtle of a different kind than we have ever had, possibly a Kemps Ridley, the most endangered of them all.


It was definitely a small turtle, which they are, the smallest in fact.  The tracks were a bit odd although very similar to a Loggerhead.  We commented on the unusual qualities at the time.  Anyway we will closely monitor it to be sure.  If she laid once then she should lay another couple of times this season.  Maybe we can catch her because a photograph or DNA is the only way you can prove it is a Kemps to the FWC.

When the Big Boys (and Girls) Came to Town

Once again the Georgia Sea Turtle Center has gifted us with a very special event, the release of some beautiful "rehabbed" Sea Turtles.  Thankfully I returned from Tennessee in time to see this.  These turtles were found in Florida waters, and therefore must be released into Florida, although a few strong swimming strokes and they could easily be back in Georgia.

Our work here is so involved with the hatchlings that sometimes we have to be reminded that these little guys do grow up, and rather quickly that first year.  The first and smallest was Duval, a juvenile Green Turtle, so named because it was found in Duval County down in the Jacksonville area.  When found, Duval had been weak, but after receiving treatment, is now well enough to go back into the sea.  It is important to get them back into the water before the water temperatures get any colder.

There was quite a crowd of the curious, and supporters of the Sea Turtle work, gathered to launch these very special visitors.  Many of the Turtle Patrol Volunteers were in attendance, as were some Jacksonville TV stations.

The Green Turtles have such beautiful markings on their flippers, back and especially their heads.

How many ways can you release a Sea Turtle into the water?

Several ways, but they all seem to involve getting wet.  The small ones are always taken out into the water far enough that they can make it beyond the surf without getting tossed around too much.

This is Marti who is almost adult size.  I believe it had the Pappilloma Virus which infects a lot of the Green Turtles and if left untreated can be fatal.  This virus has not been seen very much in our area but as with most infectious viruses it is now spreading here.  The virus is one of the Herpes type viruses.

Dr. Terry Norton is the head of the Georgia Sea Turtle Center a rehabilitating hospital on Jekyll Island.  He is right there overseeing each step of this release but letting his young assistants learn with a hands-on approach. We had a bit of excitement at the edge of the water as between the first and second release a fairly large, 5' or so, shark was in about a foot of water just beside the last people who were standing in the water's edge, waiting on the release.

Quite a handful.  The Green Turtles are herbivores, eating only plants, algae, mosses, etc.

It almost looks like our young assistant is going to do a little turtle boogie-boarding as the waves begin to break around her.  After a few tries Marti was on his way.

Then it was time for the "Big Girl', Squall.  Each turtle is named for an event, a place, or a person who is involved in finding them and getting them to the Center for treatment.  Squall had lost her right front flipper to a shark bite.  She was found by the Georgia Bulldog Boat which was out doing turtle studies, with fresh shark bites to her flipper and plastron.  After receiving treatment, including antibiotics, they felt she was ready to go back into the wild.  It took a lot of people to carry this big girl to the water.  The staff had evidently made going away signs for their recent charges with well wishes and signed by all.

With the adult turtles of this size, they like for them to make their own way into the water.  She sat for a while studying the situation.  Then she was ready to move slowly ahead, for the first time, with only one flipper.

We know that this is a female because she dropped some of her eggs in her holding tank.  X-rays and ultrasound showed she still had eggs inside.  She was given a drug to stimulate her to drop the rest of her eggs.  I wonder what they did with them.  Dragging that heavy body across the sand without the aid of that right flipper was much more difficult.

I love the rich colors of the Loggerhead and their big, big head.  That was why I choose the Loggerhead for my subject this year for the Turtle Trot T-Shirt.  Although the Green Turtles have pretty patterns on their heads they always look like their head is a bit undernourished to me in comparison to their body.  The Greens do grow to be larger than the Loggerheads by about a 100 pounds.

The water will help with the weight as she will become more buoyant once she can get a bit deeper.  Probably 95% or more of our Sea Turtles are Loggerheads, although we are getting more and more Greens and Leatherbacks these days than in the past.

Turtles have such beautiful eyes.  The red which is on her wound and her mouth is Red Algae and not blood.  It is not harmful.  Sea Turtles do not have teeth but the Loggerhead which does eat crustaceans as well as plants has a crushing bite with this massive parrot-like beak.  Since the Greens are strictly herbivores they don't need such a massive beak.

Her friend and mentor, Dr. Norton, slowly escorts her, correcting her path when she gives in to the less strong side with the missing flipper.

Good luck Squall, you big, beautiful girl!!  I hope I see your tracks on our beach in the near future.  It will be a distinctive track for sure.  Although with the Loggerhead, their back flippers leave most of the track imprints, we often see them have unusual and distinctive tracks telling us that they may be missing all or part of a flipper, but usually its a rear one.  A Loggerhead is a bit testy and will chase a shark, but sometimes get caught off guard when approached from the rear as they come up for a breath.

In she goes.  Her small tracking device attached to her back will help in a study with which the Turtle Center is involved in which turtles with disabilities like Squall has.

I am sure she is happy to be home.

I only put this photo in because I saw one of "my" older Turtle Trot T-Shirts on the assistant with the bullhorn from the Amelia Island Sea Turtle Watch.

We thought we had seen the last of Squall until a few minutes later, when someone spotted her.  With that missing flipper, she had taken a right curving track, and her path became a semi-circle back to shore.

Dr. Norton and his crew quickly ran to the rescue.

It seems she will have a bit of re-learning to do as she manages with a physical handicap such as this, but I am sure she will learn to compensate and will fare just fine.  In a few days you will be able to track her progress on the Sea Turtle Center's website, link>> Look for Squall, (there are three active Loggerhead signals).  The Georgia Turtle Center staff stands and watches this time, to be sure that she is not going to come back in, but it looks like she is on course, and out to sea.

New Moon Week Part II

Miss Shelly the squirrel came into my life a tiny baby a year ago.  She is expecting her second litter even though she is only a year old.  Usually they wait until they are a year old before launching into motherhood.  Must have been all that rich "puppy" formula I fed her but she matured early.

As you can see she is quite rotund and should be due very soon.  She has been very busy storing up nuts which she comes to collect from us most days.  She loves her pecans and likes some whole ones to store up for later.

We had lots of Turtle nest excavations over the weekend both in the park (Fort Clinch State Park) and on the Amelia Island Sea Turtle Watch's areas.  They have all been very successful in that most babies are getting out without stragglers left in the nest.  As a result I spent 4 mornings in a row getting up at "the crack of dawn" heading into the Park.  You just never know what you will encounter out there.  Sometimes it is man and his flying machines.

We have a bird feeding station in the park where in the past I have be able to see the Painted Buntings.  The feeders were empty but the mister water bath pool was active.  Even had a snake taking advantage of the fresh water.  After he slithered away this pretty Ground Dove, much smaller than the regular Mourning Doves, came for an early morning dip.  Painting Buntings which nest here are having a hard time because Cow Birds are invading their nests laying their big eggs and leaving the poor Bunting parents to raise this huge demanding baby instead of their own chicks.  Now that is a dirty trick to pull on an unsuspecting parent.

The beach was full of baby turtle tracks as we excavated 4 of our nests over the weekend and into Monday morning.  I also attended several by the Town Beach folks.  Nests are excavated 3 days after hatching to evaluate how well they did and also to make sure all the hatchlings have gotten out of the nest.

This is one of the Amelia Island Sea Turtle nests.  It is a very good example of what we look for to determine if a nest has hatched:  many tiny flipper prints and the telltale nest "depression" left by all that sand being displaced as the hatchlings marched upward and out.  The Turtle Watch people dig down and "verify" that there are indeed eggs there before they mark the nest.  That way they are able to mark a much smaller and more exact spot than we do with our "educated" guessing as to where the eggs are.  Our reason for not doing this is that we do not like to disturb what the mother has left.  It is just a difference in philosophies of different groups all working toward the same end.

Below these Georgia fans were in the process of taking down their tents for the night.  Unfortunately they only took off the canopies leaving the frames and all their stuff for me to fuss and fume over.  So hang on, "I'm gittin' ready to mount my soapbox".