On June 2, 2010 Kelly found a Loggerhead Sea Turtle nest in Walton County. This nest was to close to the high tide line and was moved straight back. Because of the oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico the nests were to be relocated into coolers and transported to the East Coast of Florida. When this nest was dug into to be relocated it was found that some eggs were already piping. Piping is when the sea turtle hatchlings brake open the egg. The nest was quickly reburied and a cage put over it to catch the hatchlings so they would not hatch and go into the Gulf of Mexico. Two days later an indentation appeared in the nest and that night volunteers Sherry and Anthony watched the nest. About 9 p.m. the hatchlings started to appear. They wanted to go to the water. The hatchlings, 91 in all were gathered up and up into two separate coolers and kept overnight. Early the next morning Bob Reddick and his Fed Ex truck were waiting to take the hatchlings to the East Coast to be released into the Atlantic. With great care the coolers were strapped in for their ride to meet Bob. The coolers were labeled and the volunteers present introduced Bob to our Hatchlings. The hatchlings in the coolers were very happy to be going to the water. Bob took his time and got the coolers securely into the truck and away the hatchlings went with the words “Come back and nest here in Walton County.
What fun it is to walk, Nests, 1,5 and 7 have been relocated into coolers, Nests 3,4, and 6 were found to be piping and caged. Nest #3 has hatched out 88 and the hatchlings are being taken to the East Coast to be released. This will be the case of the other caged nests. Nest 2 hatched into the Gulf and dug. I do not know of any nest digs at this time. This all is being coordinated by others. I will just update.
So I get home, sit down with dogs and coffee and the paper and the sheriff’s office calls, a turtle has been spotted on the beach in 3 different areas down near Whales Tail. So off I go again. She is way up in the dunes laying her eggs, so I take pictures, measure, call FWS and do all the things we do, here are her tracks. By the way it is really hot now at 8:30
She had been in twice before, and some people had put her back into the Gulf. After all my paperwork was done…at 140 feet from the water she hit a walkover, the she went 46 more feet up and hit the seawall, then she went another 30 feet alone the seawall and was nesting in the sand and grasses, I thought, but she did not move. So I took the sand off her as I talked to Lorna. I did not know what I had as she had completely covered herself up and was not moving.
This is the Loggerhead false crawl #22 on 4 Mile also. She came up and made this body pit before going up to the dune and then went back to the water. Note you see the back flippers no sharp front flippers and also can see the swaying of when she pulled both flippers at one time. This is one and then the other.
My non beach day started early with two false crawls at 4 Mile Village , this is a green she came up as far as she could and then went back. Notice the track the ridge on each side of the middle, no swaying motion as she pulls both flippers at one time and the the long sharp front flippers on each side, this tracks measured 48 inches in all, a fine green but no nest.
Found this morning by Bobby, he also found Deer Lake false crawl #1 and Anne found our false crawl #19.. Ugh
On May 08,2010 An endangered Kemp’s Ridley sea turtle was seen by a Walton County Life Guard nesting in the Dune Allan area. We were called and marked this nest. At this time the Deep Water Horizon Oil disaster was ongoing. We marked the nest according to our sea turtle permit. As this oil disaster continued it was decided that all sea turtle nests on the Gulf Coast be dug up and hatched in coolers at the Kennedy Space Center. So at day 49 the eggs were dug up by a group of trained people and moved to Kennedy. This was the very first nest on the Gulf Coast moved. The eggs hatched and out of 67 eggs, 57 hatchlings came out. These endangered sea turtle hatchlings were released into the Atlantic Ocean. As the summer goes on we will continue to relocate our nests to this area. We are having a very big part in protecting the endangered sea turtles.
Nest #27 Seagrove again, a good learning time for the contractors on the beach…
Nest #25 was found by Alan Newsome, Alan found 3 nests today, yes, three, we were very busty, I had to walk and go to Seagrove. All nests were in seagove and we found the eggs. Hurrah….
Was found this morning by Kate Johnson. What a morning.