Another Day of Stormy Weather

My early morning sea turtle patrol was a little soggy today -- this picture is from the very few minutes that it wasn't raining along Pensacola Beach, or at least raining little enough that I could take my cell phone out of it's ziploc...



I spent the day in the office, which is very rare for me. I always work in the rain! There were times today though that the thunder rumbled continuously, and there is no safe harbor on any of our beaches, so I got a lot of paperwork done instead. Not my favorite thing, but I accomplished a lot! Maybe watching that tornado hit Pensacola a few months ago really did knock a little sense into me. It wasn't a nice thing to see while I was seven miles down a deserted beach with no shelter in the storm.

Tomorrow WILL be sunny. If I believe that strongly enough, maybe it will be true :). The least terns (Sternula antillarum) at Santa Rosa need some attention -- it may be the only way to prove that road construction through their nesting season isn't a good idea, at least not inside a National Park. So, it will be a sea turtle and least tern day, though I'm certain some plover chicks will be running through as well!

No Photos Today

It was a turbulent day in the Pensacola area. We spent time at Santa Rosa, but got chased by dark swirling clouds, pouring rain, and huge bolts of lightning. It was strange, with the sky as dark as night to the north and light as daybreak over the Gulf of Mexico.

The sun, when it peeked through the clouds, looked as dim as the full moon. Full moons are fantastic -- they look like sea turtle eggs -- but it was a strange sight at 8 am. Tomorrow should be more pleasant!

Pelican, Plovers and Hurricane Response

First thing thing this morning, Monica and I got a phone call from our SCA, Sally, about a brown pelican (Pelecanus occidentalis) that was tangled in fishing line. We found this little beauty still along the edge of the breaking waves.



After removing two hooks and yards of line, we hoped the bird would fly, but he just didn't take off. Monica and I tried chasing it, but it would only run and flap and run and flap. Maybe that's how it got tangled in the first place.

Since the pelican can't eat if it can't fly, we boxed it up and took it to our good friends at the Wildlife Sanctuary -- they take lots of birds for us and do a great job getting them healthy enough to return to the wild.



It was a great start to a fantastic day. After dropping the pelican off, I spent the day at Perdido Key, putting up closures around tern nesting areas and checking on snowy plover (Charadrius alexandrinus) nests. This little guy had recently hatched, maybe even this morning -- the photo is from my cell phone, so it's not the best.



The plover family was kind enough to hang around while I got a real camera.



The parents were hyper-vigilant with their three young chicks.



You can see how tiny these guys are next the broken shells that litter the beach. They really are hard to find when they crouch down like that -- they just look like rocks!




Even the marked nests can be hard to find. On our three seven mile stretches of barrier island, we mark nests with simple foot-long sticks, painted yellow and numbered on top. A PK number is from Perdido Key, the others are SR (Santa Rosa) and FP (Fort Pickens); each series keeps a running count of the number of nests we have on that particular beach.



The nests themselves are small hollows in the sand we call 'scrapes'. The plovers line them meticulously with broken shells and get ready to lay and incubate the eggs for about three weeks. Sometimes the only way we know the plovers are still taking care of their eggs is if we see lots of plover tracks around the nest, like we do in this one. This nest hatched (it's the chicks and parents in these photos) so the reason for all the plover footprints is very apparent!



I didn't want to trouble them for too long, as stress for the small birds and young chicks can't be very good. If you look carefully, you can see the two parents and one chick among the ATV tracks on the beach here -- there really are too many ATV tracks here!



Around the point, this great blue heron, Ardea herodias, was on the lookout for a fisherman with a free meal. If you look really closely, you can see that his big feet hang off the edge of the piling. They really are enormous to help support the height and weight of the largest of our local heron species.



As I was finishing up with my surveys, a flotilla seemed to be leaving Pensacola Pass as the Blue Angels flew overhead. The seas were a little rough, and the skies getting gray, but it was a beautiful day in the National Park.



I almost forgot the hurricane part... At 5am, I opened my email to find that some crazy person decided to put me on the hurricane operational response team. I'm second team lead to my boss (if he's there) for resource management in the event of a tropical storm of some type this season. I guess I've done more before in the Caribbean, but it still gets me every time that we have to think about these devastating storms -- it's nice to live in denial sometimes!

8th Graders and Shorebirds

I forgot my camera today which is sad as I had a group of students visiting from a local school. They helped me find plovers and terns today at Fort Pickens and spent a few hours helping clean the beach. Oh well...



I did get this great picture of the early morning sky from the fire cache though. It's not quite sunrise on the beach, but it will do!

Gardens and Beach Lights

It's so unusual to have a weekend during sea turtle nesting season, but I'm enjoying the very sane pace of life it creates. I have time to enjoy Florida a little, to plant a garden with my roommate. I'm learning a lot since I haven't gardened since I was about 12. I didn't know you had to treat the soil with lime and let it soak in for a few days -- it makes that 'instant gratification' thing hard when you just want to see your plants in the ground! Check out the rosemary Lisa already had growing! It seems to love the sandy soil.



My little plants don't look like much yet, but just check back in a month -- this is Florida, and the sun and water are abundant. The trellis is for the green beans and snow peas -- with farmer's markets hard to find around here, we're just creating our own :)

Wiley seems to love the garden and sunshine...



and baby carrots (how strange is that?). He really likes them!



It's wonderful to have a weekend just to enjoy the sun and nature that makes Florida such a lovely place to be this time of year.



Being the turtle geek that I am, I did stop by the office. In my defense, I had to ensure that plans were in place for our lighting survey tonight -- it was really the only night to schedule it. We have to borrow a vehicle from the Santa Rosa Island Authority (SRIA) since we're surveying their beach. It's one of the problems with having Mondays off -- I'm out of the loop over the weekend 'cause everyone else is off and Mondays are days to get back in touch. Oh well -- I'll make it work!

Getting Ready for Sea Turtle Nesting Season

I was lucky to have help in the park yesterday when our most dedicated volunteer, Jeremy, showed up for the day. He must have started very early in order to bike all the way to the fire cache in time for my 0530 sea turtle patrol on Pensacola Beach... After the turtle patrol on Pensacola Beach, we SNPLed (another biologist verb, meaning to check the 7 mile stretch of barrier island in the Santa Rosa area of the park for snowy plovers and their chicks/nests) Santa Rosa and got the the SR turtle pod ready.



For some reason, there's a huge influx of WIPLs (Wilson's plovers) this year at Santa Rosa. When you're accustomed to snowy plovers, the birds and their eggs look huge!



This mother was carrying on, trying to distract us when we approached her eggs. The photo isn't the best, but that's my fault. I really need to get a more powerful lens.



Turtle PODS were delivered Friday. They've been our solution for ATV and turtle nest supplies since Hurricane Ivan destroyed the Ranger Station and roads at Santa Rosa and Fort Pickens. They're great temporary garages, but I'm sure we'll all be happy when the roads and park buildings are replaced or restored and we can get back to business as usual.



We stocked this one with an ATV, gas (it's going to be an expensive season) and enough signs and paperwork to get us through the beginning of sea turtle nesting patrols on May 15th. We've already had our first nests, and our patrols have started on the city beach, but patrols in the park don't officially begin until then. It makes me happy just to see everything in place -- these turtles are the closest things I have to kids!

First Sea Turtle Nest of the Year!!!

We have a very early nest this year -- a Kemp's ridley visited us and graced us with a nest on Perdido Key. I hope this means it will be a fantastic year for our local turtles!



This picture makes the turtle look huge, but it's actually the smallest extant sea turtle species. They've made a great comeback from a low of about 700 estimated adults 25 years ago to about 2000 today. Numbers are still very far from the 40,000 that used to nest at the same time in arribadas in Rancho Neuvo, but it's a start!

The final day of plover state surveys...

I had the most amazing quote in my email inbox this morning that pretty much sums up the lessons I learned over the past five weeks while in Delaware, and after my return to life at the park:

In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer. -- Albert Camus



After so long in the depths of my experience, it's great to find that I really do have that light within. Sometimes, I just need the reminder, and a little more work. Now, back to the plovers :)

Monica and I finished our state of Florida surveys today. I did find another hatching nest...



No matter how many times I see a chick hatching, running around or hiding in the grass, I never get enough of it.



They really are too cute, and their parents are so fiercely protective. What amazing little bird brains -- we could learn a lot from their dedication to life and offspring.



Isn't it odd how much they look like their shells?