Fort Pickens as Hurricane Ike Flood Water Recedes

It was much easier to see Fort Pickens today, though it still wasn't possible to get down to the fort without a boat.



The Santa Rosa Island Authority parking lots will both need some repair!



The flood waters had greatly receded, leaving interesting patterns in the sand...



and dune erosion



and missing sand from the pedestrian walkway



and the new dry gully from the hike with Mark the other night.



The asphalt pile lost the bank of sand Gustav desposited on it last week...



Even the nest signs and screen were missing from FP7111, but the eggs were still there when I went to assess the nest!



That said, the visitors seemed to enjoy slogging through all the standing water,



and the birds were having a blast as well!



We're lucky the storm stayed so far away, but Ike still left a mark we won't soon forget... Pensacola Beach is a barrier island, and it will breach at will -- it's no place to stay during a hurricane!

Hurricane Ike Irks Island Waters

Hurricane Ike is passing well to our south, headed west to visit Texas or Louisiana, but we can still feel the strength of the storm here, especially as we watch over our turtles nests! Mark, park VIP DJ and I watched over PB7111 for a bit in the late evening, with Mark eventually determining it was most likely safe, and it was, at least until about 0200.

I left the Pensacola Beach nest to check on Santa Rosa nests 7081 and 7111. One nest had 62 hatchlings a little past midnight, that all went for a very harrowing first swim. They all seemed to do very well though! After chatting with Mark, I stayed a while longer to listen to both nests, then planned to head home, checking on the Pensacola Beach nest on the way.

Leaving was not such an easy prospect. At first, the tide was just high in the Opal Beach area, but it wasn't that significant.

Once I got about a mile west on my little Honda ATV, water was covering the road.

By the time I had traveled another half-mile, there was water running across the island, with the occasional wave crashing across it. Water surrounded me on all sides, though most of it was only a few inches deep.

Since it was 0230, it was hard to see the extent and depth of the flooding, especially in the distance. I started to panic a little. Do I risk the few inches of water on the road, knowing there's a huge breach in the road that I may not be able to see? Should I head for the few inches of running water on sand that could be lik driving through quick sand? Or just find a high dune and park? It was clear that water was rushing across the island, from the Gulf of Mexico to the Bay, and high tide was still almost 5 hours away. Standing still didn't seem like a very good option!

I could feel myself losing control, and knew that would be even more dangerous. I had no choice but to talk myself through, or wait like a sitting duck as the water rose around me. Not my idea of a fun activity in the wee hours of the morning.

As you may imagine, it took longer than normal to exit the park, so my work plans were a little delayed, and the combination of fatigue and supressed fear was overwhelming. Once I finally got back to the main road, things were still flooded. My nerves sure had a workout, and did not appreciate the water that knew no boundaries -- not the gulf, the dunes,the nests, the roads, nothing was safe!

The nest on Pensacola Beach that had been ten feet from the water when DJ left at midnight now had waves washing as far as 20 feet north of the hatchling chamber (we knew the eggs had hatched as we'd heard them crawling towards the surface for a few days). I called Mark for a little advice, and Monica and DJ for a little help.



DJ, Monica and I helped a nest full of hatchlings get to the water by about 0500 this morning. We were completely drenched in the process, planting our feet firmly in the sand when the largest waves came in so we wouldn't accidentally step on hatchlings tossed in the surf. I think the tiny turtles did better than we did!



Once all 70 loggerheads were in the water, several washed back on the higher-than-normal surf.



Thirteen made their way north, towards a Gulf Power streetlamp. Happily, we found their tracks and recaptured and released the wayward turtles. Disorientation can have a lethal result if they're not found in time...



After that, I tried to check on a nest at Fort Pickens, but my little work truck didn't seem like a match for the flooded road...



in either direction...

After getting hopelessly lost in the Santa Rosa area earlier, looking for a safe way out of the very flooded park, my frazzled nerves couldn't handle any more flood water!



Even the Beach Patrol seemed to think we should stay out of the water, with red flags flying high.



Some of the waves crashed over the long Pensacola Beach pier. A pier employee said there's already damage along the end, and we're not even within 400 miles of Ike!



Quiet Water Beach is flooded as well.



Weather forecasts indicate tonight's tides will be higher. I'm not so sure I'm up for another night nest sitting like last night! I feel bad for the people who will really bear the brunt of this storm -- we're hundreds of miles away and still seeing much impact!

Fort Pickens, Post-Gustav

We were very lucky to avoid most of Hurricane Gustav this past week, but he did leave a few signs of his passage in his wake...



For those of you familiar with our bird nesting areas, you know these signs stand about 5 feet high. With all the sand Gustav pushed around, this is now less than 2 feet off the ground. That's quite a few sand grains re-arranged!



There were breaches in three areas that I could identify, but the water has receded enough that I had no trouble accessing the western point of the island on ATV.



The two remaining turtle nests on Fort Pickens are doing well...



The dunes around them were a little worse for wear. It looks as if there was a breach just west of nest 7111 (the nest in photo above).



The pre-Ivan road was very evident for about a mile-and-a-half.



Drainage ditches were appearing randomly at the west end as well -- the island has to shed the water somewhere!



The marsh looks really good though! The buildings fared well also. Can't wait to have them back in business for visitors sometime soon!

TD Fay

Luckily, Fay is spinning out as a Tropical Depression, though she is kicking up quite a fuss in the Gulf of Mexico this morning.



A few of our nests that were left in situ were under threat this morning, and had been flooded last night. We've moved several over the last few weeks as Dolly, Eduoard and a fierce South Wester blew by, but a few were still in place.... that's no longer the case as they've now been moved to higher dunes much farther from the coast.



Thankfully, the new dunes that Gulf Islands National Seashore and the Santa Rosa Island Authority have been developing are doing well. They provide good habitat for our remaining nests, and help the barrier island, and the mainland, withstand the pounding surf when a storm swings through the area. Sea oats are awesome landbuilders!



It's just an active year for erosion and flooding events -- you can see above just how high the tide was last night, and tonight's may be even higher... Eggs and hatchlings can drown in a nest, and we don't like that! Our tiny endangered species need a little help this year, and we're happy to provide it whenever possible.

Perdido Key and Eduoard

Eduoard continued his track west, but not without taking more of our dunes.



He also left a boat ashore on Perdido Key.



Check out this nest -- it's even closer to the edge than yesterday, and it's due to hatch in about two days. How precarious is that first 'step' for the little guys? I think I may have to take them to another stretch of beach to introduce them to the Gulf of Mexico.



We're fortunate to have so many sea oats to help hold the dunes, and the island, together, even in the face of the battering waves. Their delicate seedheads belie the strength of their underground root system.



There was one more loggerhead hatchling from PK6021 this morning.



Unfortunately, it looked like a ghost crab had attacked it. I'm not sure how he'll do in the Gulf.



See the neat anomaly on his vertebral scutes? I keep calling this hatchling a him, but I don't know if it's male or female.



S/he seems to be swimming in a heart of bubbles. It will take that to help this little loggerhead survive amidst all the obstacles ahead.



It was still a beautiful morning on the Key, but then, isn't it always gorgeous in paradise?



The egrets seem to agree...



What a wonderful life!

Tropical Storm Edouard

First, the good news... See nest number 44 (or is it 45 -- I meant to count this afternoon). I am so overdue on a nesting update for all the staff and volunteers! We have so many hatching at the moment that none of us have a spare minute, but we'll get it accomplished by Wednesday at the latest.



With TS Edouard spinning just offshore, making way for the Texas/Louisiana border, I had to relocate this lovely 103 egg nest to a dune just north east of the original site.



The storm will have little impact here, other than erosion and wave action. The seas are already pretty impressive.



The dunes are rapidly disappearing near Pensacola Pass.



The bad thing about this dune moving is that there's a nest on top that's expected to hatch by the end of the week.



That's a ten foot drop for the little babies!



I think it's quite likely I'll move this nest tomorrow morning and allow it to finish incubating in a cooler. With June 2nd nests already hatching, I imagine there are plenty of hatchlings in this nest, they're just not quite ready to emerge.



A cooler isn't the ideal environment, but it will protect them from the force of the storms increased wave action. They'll be safe from ghost crabs there as well. I just hope the dune holds until tomorrow morning -- I won't get out there until at least 3am.