PVC and Rattlesnakes

Today, Mark decided to come play in the field. He has been on vacation since Christmas, so he hadn't seen the progress on the new road at Santa Rosa, and he wanted to check up on the birdies too. With saws and a mule in tow, we headed to the park around 9am.

Hurricane Ivan pretty much flattened Santa Rosa in 2004. Arlene and Dennis completed the job in 2005. Since then, no one has made an effort to clean the beach. Asphalt is scattered everywhere, miles and miles of PVC pipe litter the landscape and random hurricane debris intermixes with destroyed park structures. Mark has made it our mission this winter to remove all of the PVC on the island, which is not as easy as it sounds. This is one of two loads we removed today:



After struggling all day to get that small amount removed, Mark has decided to invest in an battery operated power saw -- it will make the job go faster, but it still won't be simple. Most of the pipe is buried in sand dunes, twisted at crazy angles and FULL of sand. Even ten foot long pieces weighed more than I do until we emptied them of their quartz cargo. This is going to be just the gym workout I need, and I get paid for it while making the environment much more beautiful. All we need to do now is find a way to recycle the tons of PVC we'll be removing. Any ideas?

Once we returned to Naval Live Oaks, we found a park visitor with this small, cold rattle snake in a cardboard box, searching for a new home. Sorry for the bad pic -- it's from my phone, but it does show the snake finding winter refuge in a gopher tortoise burrow, which is exactly where he belongs. Thanks, random visitor! Wish more people did that instead of just killing the poor snakes!

Coast Guard and the Kemp's Ridley

Jennifer and I got called in to work last night about 5:30 -- the coast guard in Pensacola had an injured Kemp's Ridley sea turtle at their station. Given the holiday, no marine aquarium staff were around and the stranding team didn't want to respond, so Jennifer and I ran over to pick up the turtle and nurse it through the night.



After we finished bandaging her front flippers to try to slow the bleeding, we brought her back to the park. She spent the night in our shower, nestled in a harsh Coast Guard wool blanket. She must have been sick for awhile, given the amount of barnacles covering her carapace.



After a long night at the office, we drove her to Destin, Florida this morning. The staff at the Gulfarium were expecting her, but had no idea her injuries were so severe. I'm sure she'll do well under their care...

While we were there, we checked on the green turtle, Clover, we took to the Gulfarium in June. She has two dislocated hips and a broken pelvis, but they don't know if surgery will work at this point. It would be great to release her as we need more nesting greens on the beach, but she may never be able to dive and feed herself without the use of her rear flippers. She was so much chubbier than when we dropped her off, and her shell sparkled in the early morning light. It's great to see she's doing so well!

Time Capsule

I spent a good portion of this morning at the Fort Pickens Ranger Station, hunting around for satellite location data for Shelly and Sandy, two loggerheads tagged at the park several years ago. It was like walking into an office that stood still while life moved on in the distance. The last day is marked on the wall by the visitor's entrace, just in case anyone forgets what flattened the park...



There's evidence that those in the offices beat a hasty retreat. Garbage bags cover old computer components, boxes and paperwork are strewn across the floor, spilled coffee mugs roll on desktops, cans of cat food, labels faded by years of intense sun, stand by an east facing window, magazines, unopened mail, random rain jackets and gum wrappers, bug repellent and family photos weave a crazy trail through recent history.



I felt as if I was disturbing a memorial, and apologized to the room as I dug through the debris in my hunt for the elusive data. Once I unearthed the priceless paperwork, I headed back to my ATV to return to our temporary office. Traveling by ATV in late December with a box of paperwork is less than ideal, but three years post-storm, there still isn't a road out here. How have we allowed this to happen to one of our national treasures? Have we sunk so low in our quest in the middle east (for what?) that we our trashing our own country? What a waste...



Thankfully though, this retreat into the recent past reminds me of how much better things are today than they were three years ago -- at least we have an office (in a garage, but hey, it's dry and has heat!). The road closure has been great for the birds, though the sea turtles continue to struggle. The lost dunes, flattened landscape, light pollution and frequent flooding make it nearly impossible for nests to survive, even when they are present. There's a lot of work to do, and not just in the box of paperwork now sitting at my feet.

Tangled Gull Anyone?

I spent most of the day today searching for a gull tangled in fishing line. Thankfully, I also had time to do a south shore bird survey and replace about 20 poles on the road, otherwise, my day would have seemed fruitless. I couldn't find the bird...

I did find this lovely tug and barge set up nosed onto the north shore, however. I wonder how they plan to get off later?