Crawling Lessons, or .74% Really Can Make A Difference

I think my boss was a little amused when Sally and I brought back just two eggs from the assessment of Santa Rosa 8061 the other day. After candling the eggs, we knew one had stopped developing very early, but one had a rather large turtle in it. We weren't too sure about the little embryo, but kept it safe and warm in the fire cache to give it a chance at survival.



When I returned from a morning bird survey today, I was thrilled to see one little loggerhead crawling around in his cooler full of sand! S/he must be rather lonely without all those siblings. You might be able to see just a tiny bit of his sand covered egg in the photo above.



This little turtle represents 0.74% of the total eggs in the nest -- that's our hatch percentage for this nest. We usually have hatch rates of about 90% or better in relocated nests, so this was strangely low. The tiny loggerhead seemed fine though; in a short time, s/he was trekking around the cooler, dragging a little bit of yolk sac with him.



In a natural nest, it would likely take a day or two for the hatchlings to crawl through the several inches of sand above the egg chamber. These yolk remnants would be absorbed or rubbed off in the rush of tiny turtles attempting to reach the surface. With a hundred hatchlings tripping on each others flippers and stepping on each others heads, there's no way s/he would have emerged with this bit of egg left.



I was inspired while watching this lone ranger wander in his cooler... Normally, s/he would have a hundred more hatchlings crawling around with him. It's a good thing we dug this egg out of the nest on assessment - s/he would have died trying to crawl out of the natural nest on his own, exhausting the energy reserves in his yolk sac, and leaving him/her lacking in resources for the swim through the waves.

We're not sure why 134 of 136 eggs showed no development at all. Perhaps they were infertile. Maybe something happened on day one that stopped all development. Maybe it was too cold or too wet or too dry. There's so much we still don't know about turtles! All we do know is that one hatched, and s/he has no obvious anomalies :)



With just one tiny turtle in the cooler, I was able to get some great shots of s/him learning how to crawl... They're a bit out of focus as I couldn't get in the cooler with my camera, so I had to trust auto focus while the camera was suspended (with the flash off) just above the sand.



First, you reach, stretching as far as your tiny flippers will allow...



then grab a flipper full of sand, (I love how his/her little flipper curls under the layer of sand)



push the sand back while reaching forward with your head and neck,



then repeat! There, now that's easy, isn't it?

One turtle may not seem like much, but who's to say this little loggerhead, representing 0.74% of his nest, might just be the far less than 0.1 to 0.01 percent that survives to maturity? S/he's beaten the odds so far!

Little Loggerheads at Perdido

At sunrise today, it was time to assess PK7201, a loggerhead nest that has been hatching over the last several days. We had to count eggshells, live hatchlings and embryos that didn't hatch, for one reason or another. There were three stragglers in the nest, ready to greet the world.



Since this was a nest we relocated about 100 feet north of where it was laid, we gave the turtles a lift to the approximate site of the original nest (though the area was reclaimed by the sea about 5 weeks ago... talk about erosion!), and set them out for their first swim.



Two of the three seemed to stick together...



one crawled in circles because it had sand in it's eyes!



Eventually, they all greeted the huge sea (which came complete with it's own shadow),



and took their first swim. How overwhelming that must be for a one ounce turtle-ette!

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!

A NEW Nest!!!

Another turtle patrol on Pensacola Beach dawned with a rosy hued sky. Surely, this was a good sign!



I'm often accused of being the park "Pollyanna", but even my critics have to see the pink there without the aid of my rose colored glasses :). The pink sky turned out to be a very good omen indeed!



Melanie beat me to the new loggerhead (Caretta caretta ) nest on Pensacola Beach. She does such a thorough job on Santa Rosa, that meets Pensacola Beach to the East, that she nabbed one on the border between the two. Great job, Melanie!



I did get there in time to help find the eggs.



We decided to move the nest, so next came the cooler full of 106 eggs.



Even though the area was a little elevated, it was about 12 feet from last night's high tide. With Fay threatening to turn back to this coast, we couldn't just leave it and hope...



We found a nice area by the SRIA sand fence for the eggs to incubate in for the next two months.



A hundred six eggs means 212 toe-touches for me, after spending 10 minutes digging for eggs. It felt great to stand up and stretch my aching back, even though that meant having to pound in the stakes surrounding the nest!



I'm getting too old for this, aren't I?



Just so you know, Melanie -- we're expecting at least two more nests on your patrols this season. A green would be nice, and she should be back to lay another clutch!

Many thanks to my substitute photographer, Melanie. Fantastic job with that new camera of mine!

A Perdido Key Morning

The day started very early here... I had to be back in Gulf Breeze for the ridleys, so I started to Perdido in the wee hours. I had a turtle patrol to do, and two nests to assess.



I rode my ATV down to the east end of Perdido before dawn, checking for turtle tracks and hatchling tracks and signs of erosion. The surf was calm, but this chair was a little funny. I wonder what the story was there...



The first nest I assessed, PK6131 (a June 13th nest), had a fantastic hatch. I haven't crunched the numbers yet, but it will be in the high 90s. This one last hatchling was waiting at the very bottom of the 20 inch egg chamber. Now s/he's swimming happily in the Gulf of Mexico.



PK6071 didn't have any more hatchlings, but it looks like there was one very recently! Check out that lovely crawl. The hatchling crawled to the gulf on his own... Usually, we like to shepherd them, especially on a relocated nest as they are often over a hundred feet from the Gulf. That's a lot of sand to get lost on when your head is only a few centimeters off the ground!

It was a gorgeous start to a great day!

Kemp's Not Quite Ready

Well, I tried to release the last Kemp's ridley nest this morning, but they just weren't ready. I knew that when I didn't hear them crawling around in the cooler...



They had crawled to the surface, as they would have in a natural nest, but most of them were not buried very deeply as the cooler limited the artificial nest dimensions...



So, they're hanging out, straightening their carapaces, absorbing their yolk sacs and getting ready for a fifteen year swim before returning to the nesting grounds.



Col Limpus, in Australia, has recorded nests taking as long as two weeks to emerge from the nest once they've hatched, so I guess I should cut myself a break... They really do look almost ready, and we'll try again to release them tomorrow morning at Opal Beach.

Drowning Eggs, Mystery Nests and Loco Boomerang

It's been quite a week at Gulf Islands National Seashore. I must admit, the lack of sleep and constant mini-crises where rather tough on my nerves. At times, I need a clone or another biologist!



The week started off well with the offshore release of Loco Boomerang, our sea turtle escapee from Galveston. I was very excited that we didn't see him again for over 24 hours... He's still swimming around in the Gulf as I wait for more advice from the NMFS Galveston lab. Guess I should take the time to call there, huh?



With so many nests due to hatch, most of the rest of the week was a whirlwind of listening for hatchlings, setting (and building) screens, nest sitting, nest assessments and hatchling releases.



I seem to always have a cooler of hatchlings with yolk sacs these days -- maybe 72 to 96 hours isn't long enough for all the hatchlings to emerge on their own...



There are still new nests as well.



This one on Perdido had a wandering crawl over half a mile long.



She also had some rather odd eggs -- there's another snowman egg and spacers here -- I really wish we saw the nesting mothers more often!



We had a few drowning nests as well. Since we have to wait til two weeks after a nest has been laid to move it, if we don't relocate it within 12 hours, we had to just watch these nests get closer and closer to the Gulf as first H. Dolly, then another storm front eroded over 35 feet of beach in less than two weeks...



While I was moving this precarious nest, I got a call about an unknown nest hatching on Perdido Key. I have no photos as visitors to the park escorted all the hatchlings to the Gulf.



It sounds like a Kemp's nest based on their descriptions, but I have to find the nest to be able to tell for certain. Having this photo of the two most common species this year together really helps! With all the recent rain and heavy foot traffic in that area of the park, I may not be able to locate the remaining hatchlings and eggs.



Somewhere in there, I actually had a leisurely day to spend on a bird survey, on my favorite north shore in the Santa Rosa area.



Aren't these semipalmated plovers handsome birds?




Who said reddish egrets are solitary birds?



We don't usually have them in the park, so it was exciting to see so many!



I have the most wonderful job, even if it means subsisting on about 2 hours of sleep a night during the turtle season. That just means the animals are doing well!