Sunrise on Perdido Key

Today was a day to assess damage, at least as much as possible. It started with a gorgeous sunrise on Perdido Key, where I filled in for a turtle volunteer on the morning nesting patrol.



There was still a lot of water on the east end of the island (that's almost a river flowing from the Gulf to the Bay)!



And the sand fence had blown away on the west.



I stopped mid-patrol to assess nest PK7121, which had some very strange eggs with pink yolks!



There wasn't much damage on Perdido, just lots of shifted sand and standing water, though there was still a lot of sheeting water at Spanish Cove (pictured above). it's still amazing though as we were never closer that 300 miles from Ike!



I love my Perdido mornings... Somehow, even the name of the island just fits my frame of mind -- lost wandering on the sand!

T. S. Fay and Turtle Nests

Well, the tropics are churning again...



Tropical Storm Fay is still in Cuba, but we're taking a few precautions here. The Gulf is a bit stirred up, and threatened this nest this morning.



With very careful attention, Becky helped me locate the eggs in this imperiled sea turtle nest.



Finally, the eggs!



We didn't have the egg crates I normally use to help stabilize nests this far into their development. All we had was Rishy's red cooler, and the beach.



So we created sand egg crates inside the ice chest. They're more biodegradable anyway!



The eggs were securely nestled, protecting them from any movement, rotation, temperature extremes or rain as we carried them a hundred or so feet north, to a larger dune system far removed from the waves.



Once in the dunes, we built a new nest, about 18 to 20 inches deep, rounded out at the bottom, to protect the eggs for the next month.



The eggs were carefully replaced in the new egg chamber...



buried with sand from the original nest...



and marked with the original sign.



Now, we just need one month of relatively stable weather for the eggs to finish developing and hatchlings to emerge. It was a risky move, relocating a nest this late. We may have a lower hatch rate because of the action, but we would have completely lost the nest had we left it in place.



Thanks, Steve, for warning us that it was so close to the surf! And a huge thanks to Becky and Michael who helped move the nest this morning, and Michael for taking over my photograher role -- it's so much easier with extra hands!



If TS Fay stays on the western side of the predicted track, we'll be doing this all week!

Still Nesting

I've been bad about posting lately. Perhaps it's the 18 hour days trying to keep up with hatching nests, egg-laying adults and a little paperwork...



It's so good to see the turtles here this summer! I can't believe the difference since last summer!



I know this is a different turtle from the last weird eggs -- it's just long enough between nests. What's going on with our adults? I wish we had the staff and time to do more night patrols so we could see if either of these nesting adults are .in need of a little TLC.

Strange Eggs

I've been working with nesting sea turtles for about 15 years, and I must say this is the strangest nest I've ever seen. I really wish I'd seen the nesting adult -- she may have an injury or illness that lead to these unusual eggs. The smaller, "spacer", eggs in here aren't so unusual, but they're not very common in a loggerhead nest.



This one didn't have a shell or a yolk. Just plain odd. It was just an opaque white jelly with sand on it.



I've been calling this the "Snowman". Can you see why?



This one reminds me of the symbol for infinity.



What would you call this one?



A ghost crab had invaded the nest by the time Cinnamon located it on the morning of July 24 (this is nest SR7241). S/he'd left behind this sliced egg that wasn't placed in the relocated nest as it may lead to mold and mildew growth in addition to attracting ants and other predators.



I hope the nest will do well it's new location.



Isn't the dune I moved it to just gorgeous?