PB8201 Assessment

Sally and I met with VIP DJ early this morning to assess the last nest of the season, Pensacola Beach 8201. The lone hatchling I released on Saturday is still the only one swimming in the Gulf. That's the bad news...



The good news is that there are three hatchlings, and about 40 eggs, in the office. We finished assessing the nest as it was 72 hours post hatch, but there were some eggs that still looked viable. Rather than open them at the assessment, we're retaining them for a few days to see if the warmer weather in the office may allow them time to hatch.



They've already shown a little progress... The bottom pipped hatchling in this photo was so sluggish on the beach that we weren't even sure it was alive, until it had warmed up a bit in the morning sun. It can be a dangerous thing for these little guys to be so cold in the nest!



It may not work. Sometimes, it does, as in the case of the lone hatchling from SR 8061. Often, it doesn't. This nest is pretty sketchy anyway. It was interesting this morning to see how the nest stopped developing. There were several eggs that stopped in the first two weeks, at stage 1, 2 or 3, and several that stopped developing around three to four weeks, at stage 4 or 5. (Don't worry - I'll spare you those photos!) These dates correspond well with flooding events associated with Hurricanes Gustav and Ike. The earliest failed eggs likely died during Tropical Depression Fay, which was just about three days after this nest was laid. It's interesting, in a sad and clinical way, to see that unfold in the nest, and it's a good lesson about relocation sites for next year. Clearly, the eggs need to be a little further north!



It's great to see we still have a few determined hatchlings in the nest though...



They may be trapped in their eggs 22 days longer than expected, but they still show a lot of spunk!



This guy looks very determined to go for a swim. I wouldn't get between him and the sea as he makes his final dash for the waves!

Lonely Little Loggerhead

We still haven't seen a lot of activity from our last nest, but it is scratching around down there! I am so worried that the cold is getting to them. In the water, sea turtles will wash ashore 'cold stunned' at temps below 45 degrees. I'm not sure what the threshold is for hatchlings in the nest as sand holds the suns heat and keeps them a bit warmer than the air, but it's still been pretty chilly at night. That makes hatchlings sluggish!



This one little guy was hanging out at the sand surface when I arrived the other morning. He wasn't crawling around under the screen though -- there was a front flipper and half of his head above the sand, the rest of him was still buried underneath. After I removed the screen and waited a few minutes, he started to emerge fully. I did give him a little boost on his trip to the water since this was a relocated nest.



He was still a bit sluggish, even after warming in the rising sun. I gave him a quick dunk in the Gulf to see if that perked him up. As soon as he felt the water, he dashed for the sea. He just needed a reminder that that's his real home.

I feel pretty safe calling this hatchling a 'he'. We didn't measure the temperature of the eggs during development, but it's been pretty chilly since this nest was laid. Lower incubation temperatures yield more male hatchlings, so it's fairly reasonable to believe he's a he.



In addition to the cool temps, this particular nest was well washed in both Gustav and Ike. Frequent washings for several days can increase the humidity, remove or add extra sand (on this nest, it was added), change the incubation temperature and can, if it's washed enough, drown developing embryos or hatchlings in the nest. It's great to see this didn't happen with this nest. We don't know yet what the hatch percentage is, and it's likely to be low, but that's how mother nature works. If we'd left it in place, about 50 feet south of it's current location, it would have eroded out about three days after it was laid in the first of our tropical weather this year.

If you look in the above nest photo, you can see how much sand we had to dig out to get the nest back to it's natural depth. We had to do this three separate times -- after Gustav, after Ike and after a strange low pressure system about two weeks ago. Now I do know why I always have sand in my ears, between my toes and in my belly button. I'm sure going to miss this life!

There are Hatchlings in August 20th Nest!!!!

Today is a grey day here in NW Florida, and usually that dampens my spirits a bit. Not today. I heard the best thing ever this morning -- tiny hatchling scratching in our last loggerhead nest, PB8201.



People often look at me with confused expressions when I say that. What exactly do I mean when I say "I hear the hatchlings?" No, they don't talk to me, though I do sometimes talk to them! What happens is that I hear the turtles poke holes in their shells with their egg teeth, crawl out, straighten carapaces that have been curled inside round eggs for two months, and crawl through the sand above their heads to the surface of the beach. Once they're crawling towards the surface, you can hear the sound their tiny flippers make as they sweep sand past their small bodies. It's kind of like crawling through a sandy sea , and it can be noisy!

So, what makes me so excited to hear the wee turtles crawling around beneath the sand? After all, we have already escorted over 3600 hatchlings to the Gulf this year. The end of the season has been sketchy thanks to Fay, Gustav, Ike and an unnamed low pressure system about two weeks ago. These storm systems eroded the beaches, flooded nests and generally made a mess, though none of them hit us directly. This particular nest was flooded, buried under two extra feet of sand, nearly eroded out of the dune system, buried again, washed by waves and subject to very cool weather in the October cold snap. All of these things can be fatal for sea turtle nests. After 80 days of incubation time, we were all about ready to give up on finding any hatchlings in this last nest.



That's why I am so happy today. I don't think the hatchlings will emerge tonight, but they might, so I've loaded up a nest screen and will either screen it myself tonight or see if DJ or Cathy can screen the nest. Since today will be gray and rainy, it will likely slow them down as they sounded pretty deep still and not close enough to the surface to emerge during the darkness of a passing storm. Maybe tomorrow morning though.

I am so excited. I am such a turtle geek!



There were other great things about today too though, like the sea oats in the clouds,



and a pod of dolphin between Perdido Key and Fort Pickens. Looks like a fun life!

Training a New Birder

Bird Watching is tough stuff, and not for the faint of heart, which is why I was both happy and surprised to learn a friend of mine really wanted to learn...



We have lots of volunteer opportunities in the Park, and Cathy already works on our turtle project, so this required even more of her time. But, she's a trooper, and she spent the last two days with me, freezing in the wind at Perido yesterday and enjoying a long day at Fort Pickens today.

I'm a bit of a task master, always asking too much of people, but I'm working on that. I hope Cathy had at least a little fun away from her other concerns.



She did great identifying birds! We only had one PIPL (piping plover) both days, but she was able to spot it right away.



We had lots of snowy egrets down by the old fort.



They seemed to enjoy playing follow the leader.



The little blue herons played a different game.



You can almost hear this one saying "I AM a tree."



It is great camouflage,



til they can't stand it anymore and just take off.



These two lesser yellowlegs (LEYE) seemed to agree with me that it was rather cold, as they huddled together on the beach,



rising in unison when we approached too closely on our mule.



There were literally hundreds of brown pelicans (BRPE), many choosing to roost on the roof of the boat lift at the Ranger Station. They were hard to count accurately!

In all, it was a gorgeous, if somewhat tiring, bird survey... but Cathy did a fantastic job!

Please Vote Today!

Regardless of your political affiliation, if you are eligible to vote in the US Presidential election today, PLEASE VOTE!!! It's more than a civic duty -- it's a privilege, and part of what makes this country a great place to call home.

So, Why Sea Turtles?

This is a question I get nearly every day... why would an obviously intelligent, well-traveled, cultured young woman choose to dedicate her life to such an esoteric topic, studying and protecting sea turtles? It's a good question, but not the easiest one to answer.

I started out in pre-med, and switched to ecology and marine biology after being inspired by a very tough professor in undergrad. He was impossible to please, and demanding to the utmost, but he pushed me to find the very best within myself. I'm lucky I found such a great mentor early on. After school, I spent a year working with nesting common and roseate terns on Great Gull Island, New York, then a year teaching, then a summer with nesting piping plovers and terns on Cape Cod.

I loved all of it, but have been called by the sea since I was very young. My mother will tell you that I ran away when we were at the beach when I was two years old. It seems I thought the beach was far more fun than nap time! She said my head was always in the sand... I've posted earlier about my grandmother, my mom's mom, who was also a lifelong inspiration. She taught so much about responsibility, respect and integrity, by example, though I didn't always appreciate it at the time!

I never really stopped searching for the sea ever since my toddler escapades. Though I'd seen many turtles at aquariums throughout my childhood, I 'met' my first wild adult sea turtle when visiting Holden Beach, North Carolina, with a friend in grade school, and I was fascinated. At first, I just loved watching the huge turtle lumber up and down the dunes, and the tiny turtles we later found emerging from another nest on the island. How did these baby turtles navigate the waves, avoid being eaten, grow to the size of their mother, and return to this same beach to nest? I was hooked by the magic and myth of it all. Turtles seem to do a great job capturing our attention!

After several years of volunteer work, I finally started working with nesting sea turtles in an official capacity with Dr. Jim Richardson on his remarkable Little Cumberland Island Loggerhead Project in coastal Georgia. At that point, he'd already spent 34 years of his life on the study -- now it's about 45 years old! Working with the turtles there, I got my first taste of the mysteries surrounding them. Jim was a pioneer in sea turtle science, having trained at the side of Archie Carr (the father of sea turtle biology), but it was apparent we'd been trying to learn about sea turtles by studying their maternity ward, and had seen little else.

After working with Jim, I spent some time working with foraging turtles on sea grass beds and corals, trying to understand a little more about their life history and their role in the environment. I worked with satellite tracking projects to see where the adults roamed after leaving the beaches, and I worked with a consortium of scientists to find mtDNA markers unique to each nesting beach in the Caribbean. From personal observation, fantastic colleagues, and research, it became apparent to this neophyte turtle girl that turtles play a much larger role in overall ecosystem health than we realize.... And the Traveling Turtle Girl was born...

Sea turtles are an umbrella species, kind of like canaries in the global coal mine. Turtles rely on healthy rivers to bring clean water to near shore communities, supporting healthy grass beds, coral reefs, and nurseries for pelagic and neritic species. They rely on healthy reefs and sea grass beds and nurseries themselves as well. Greens need the grass beds, hawksbills feed on sponges growing on coral reefs, loggerheads, ridleys and flatbacks depend on near shore nurseries to provide a continuing supply of food for them, and leatherbacks rely on the jellies. Love those leatherbacks keeping the jellies in check!

I know, it still doesn't sound like much, but it seemed to me that turtles rely on almost everything related to the beach, in the water and out. They need strong dune systems to shelter developing eggs. They need low light levels to allow nesting to continue. They need beaches where their natural predators are not over-populated and decimating eggs and nesting adults alike. They needed reduced and/or controlled human exploitation. They need healthy ecosystems to allow them to feed, grow and thrive. Turtles bridge the gap between land and sea, relying on both and indicating overall environmental health. They are affected by so much, from ENSO (El Nino/Southern Oscillation) to the apparent acidification of the sea, to rising sea levels, to pollution in rivers and streams, to plastic bags and balloons, to high rises and road traffic on the beaches. And they are so lovable. What better animal to use to teach people about their impact on the world?

Everyone who sees a hatching nest seems to fall in love with the tiny turtles, and wants to know how to help them survive. I've seen people literally chase sea gulls hundreds of yards down a sandy beach to keep the birds from feasting on hatchlings. I've watched life-long turtle fishermen turn in to dedicated, enthusiastic environmental educators. I've watched people from every walk of life look on in awe as they meet these amazing animals for the first time. And all of them want to do more to help.

It's so easy to make a difference, once you understand how to do so. That's why I'm still here, still struggling, still trying to change my little corner of the world. If we can each take baby steps to increase our understanding of these magnificent ocean navigators, we really can change the future.

In the next several weeks, I'll talk a little about each turtle species, what makes them unique, and ways we can both learn about them and improve their survival odds.

Thanks for reading my little stream of consciousness... And thanks for caring... Please leave me a note and let me know what you would like to learn!

Plenty of Pelicans

Today, I recorded changes in the north shore tideline along Fort Pickens. Once I was finished, I was able to take time for a bird survey on the south shore. It's so much fun to watch the birdies!



I ran into another park employee walking down by the fort, trying not to disturb the flock of pelicans resting on a sand bar. They were everywhere today!

I did cause them to fly after I counted them and drove by. I try to give them space, but the sound of the ATV always seems to spook them.



That may not be the worst thing on a cold day as the activity warms them, and their sandwich tern (SATE), laughing gull (LAGU) and herring gull (HERG) friends!



Watching them float en masse on the wind, I wondered about the parallel behaviors between schools of fish and bird flocks. The impressive synchronized behavior can help protect them from predators, leaving the vulnerable, weak or slow more exposed to attack than the strong. Did the behavior evolve separately in these two divergent vertebrate groups?



Of course, there were other birds about as well, like this pair of wading willets (WILL). They sound like squeaky wheels when startled.



My favorite RUTUs (ruddy turnstones) were active as well.



This lucky one found a clam washed out by a passing wave. It looks like hard work to get at the tiny meal!



The pre-Ivan road is much more visible on the south shore these days as well. It's interesting to see how it's becoming part of the habitat, supporting algal growth and who knows what else... I may have to go tidepooling a bit next time I'm out there!

Road Crew at Fort Pickens!!!

The Park issued a press release regarding the road work at Fort Pickens, so I'm not telling any secrets here. Plus, all this huge yellow equipment at the gate is really hard to misinterpret. Road work is scheduled to begin Monday morning!