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!

Mountains of Sand and Trash

When you have a place this beautiful to play -- miles of untouched beach -- how can you treat it with complete disregard? If I had these pristine beaches near my home, I know I would cherish them... I am always surprised by the way people behave when they no there is little chance they'll be caught.


We have long sections of the beach at Fort Pickens that have sandfencing to help rebuild the dunes after Ivan, Dennis, and Katrina. The fence is also meant to be a deterrent to visitors accessing the beach over new dunes. You would think this would work. While the fence does a great job catching sand and artificially recreating dunes from windblown sand, it doesn't keep people out. They just walk right over the fence! As a result, we had lots of signs printed and I spent the day posting these:



After that, I had time to do a little field work, assessing the shorebird population on the beach today. The sea turtles and shorebirds are finished nesting and hatching, so we have a lot more time for other pursuits. I had a mule with me, so I picked up a lot of trash too. By the end of the day, I we as totally depressed. I picked up a full load of trash just a few days ago, from the tides and visitors who don't use trash cans. I filled the mule again today, and I didn't even make a dent in the debris load. It would take a solid week to clean up the beach, then at least a day a week to maintain it. With staff as stretched as it is and the focus on getting the buildings reopened three years post-Ivan, there's no one to do this. If people just picked up their own trash, and maybe one or two extra pieces, this wouldn't be an issue. Finding so much trash makes me sound cranky, but I'm really not. It was nice to see I'd accomplished something at the end of the day. Knowing that I made this section of the park a more beautiful place for the animals and people that use it is a good feeling. I just wish it was easier! Check out what I picked up in less than an hour:



When I was a child, my grandparents used to take us to Crescent Beach, South Carolina. I loved playing on the wide beach at low tide, and often took walks with my grandmother. As a young child and teen, she would frustrate me with her slow pace. Grandmom insisted on walking from the sea to the dunes, picking up every bit of trash she could see, and carting it off the beach. In my impatience, all I wanted to do was play, but the lesson took hold. As I move up and down the beach now, like a shorebird bobbing for plastic food, I honor my grandmother and her lessons in stewardship and civic responsibility. Thank you, Grandmom, for being a positive role model. Wherever you are, your spirit and your legacy live on in your grandchildren.

Explosions of Color

It's back to work today after a nice weekend away. I've never really had weekends, so it's a change for me -- it's like a mini-vacation every seven days! I never know quite what to do, so I find more work though I do try to stay away from the office. Simply doing something different, like working on my book, provides a great mental break and leaves me refreshed for a new week in the field.


I spent most of the day repairing the guideposts on what passes for a road at Fort Pickens. After Hurricane Ivan, the asphalt road was replaced, and washed away again by Hurricane Dennis. Now, there are two sections that still breach with every full moon high tide, and miles that are underwater if something tropical swings within 1000 miles. The sandy corridor is impassable, even to 4WD if it's really windy, so we're the only ones with access to the park via our ATVs just after a storm. I'll try to post a picture of the road next time I'm at Fort Pickens -- I totally spaced on that today! The picture above is road on high ground that wasn't destroyed.


There are two significant gaps along our seven miles of asphalt in this section of the park. The breaks have been good for the wildlife, and the severely decreased traffic has allowed for a lot of shorebird nesting and feeding. The new wetlands are full of migrating shorebirds -- semi-palmated and piping plovers, several species of herons and egrets, ospreys, brown pelicans, black terns, sandwich terns, sandpipers and peeps galore. It's a circus out there; this week, the migrating monarchs are joining in the fray.







It's great to see the animals back in the park, but the land itself is still in disarray, three years post-Ivan. Sometimes, there's an unexpected jolt of color that lifts the sombre scene. I love finding flowers like these growing in the midst of all the rubble. After a day spent staring at dusty grasses, burnt gold sea oats and grey, salt-killed trees, this impudent burst of sunlight tickles me to no end!


Here's another unexpected splash of color... Normally, I try to avoid these! They are truly graceful 'swimmers' for gelatinous water bags. They wash up with the tides from time to time and leave jelly flowers in the sand.
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It's amazing how beautiful it can be out here if I just slow down and look, without being driven with an insatiable urge to get to the next task. Sometimes, I really do have to stop to smell the roses. If I don't, I'll miss the world around me and I won't know or care enough to protect the resources we all share.