Sea Turtle Nests, Hurricane Plans, and Plovers

It was an interesting day at Gulf Islands National Seashore. We had one turtle nest, one possible nest, lots of surveys, some active plovers and our Hurricane meeting. I guess hurricane season really has started.



Look at this pretty crawl. Hard to believe it's a turtle leaving a 27 inch path in the sand. I couldn't find eggs in the body pit, but that doesn't mean they're not there. Sometimes, I can't find the forest for the trees.



We're leaving the body pit marked just in case -- it will allow our volunteers to know where to look for hathclings we're not sure we're expecting.



Plovers make very good parents, dancing around to draw the big predator away from their precious eggs.



This one was doing the broken wing ploy, and casting quite a shadow at the same time.



The plovers will also drag their tail feathers in the sand, leaving rake marks behind. I really wasn't harrassing this little bird -- I grabbed my camera while I was checking on the eggs and took a few shots of their parenting skills.



In all, it was a pretty great day. I'm lucky to have a job that's so easy to love!