A Long Two Days -- Rainbow Weekend and the Santa Rosa Area

Have you ever felt as if you've been running in place and getting nothing done? I spent most of this week on the same section of sand, and can honestly say all I did was spin my wheels. It was a good week, just strange and unproductive. The office was, of course, typically stunning...




The weekend is Rainbow Weekend on Pensacola Beach. It means hundreds, or thousands, of people come to camp on the beach -- illegally, but no one really enforces that particular law. It made my early mornings a challenge though! I had to try to get around this in the pre-dawn hours while looking for nesting turtles. This is actually pretty empty. It was so jam-packed that I eventually walked the last mile of my turtle patrols both days, not that I mind an early morning beach walk.



With so many people, lights and noise on the beach, there were no living turtles in this area. This was the only sea turtle I've found since the 21st.



I didn't get much else done today though. The least terns are still setting up nesting areas and moving. Some of them have actually stayed in place long enough to have chicks, but most of them seem to wait until we've closed and fenced in an area, then they move 100 yards east overnight. It's an endless cycle of musical beach, which makes for an excellent, if frustrating, daily workout.



Even when my week ends up like this, with me feeling as if I've accomplished nothing, it's still a good week at the office. What a gorgeous place to call 'work'. Even the storm clouds are ethereal and illuminating, in their own way.