A Long Two Days -- Rainbow Weekend and the Santa Rosa Area

Have you ever felt as if you've been running in place and getting nothing done? I spent most of this week on the same section of sand, and can honestly say all I did was spin my wheels. It was a good week, just strange and unproductive. The office was, of course, typically stunning...




The weekend is Rainbow Weekend on Pensacola Beach. It means hundreds, or thousands, of people come to camp on the beach -- illegally, but no one really enforces that particular law. It made my early mornings a challenge though! I had to try to get around this in the pre-dawn hours while looking for nesting turtles. This is actually pretty empty. It was so jam-packed that I eventually walked the last mile of my turtle patrols both days, not that I mind an early morning beach walk.



With so many people, lights and noise on the beach, there were no living turtles in this area. This was the only sea turtle I've found since the 21st.



I didn't get much else done today though. The least terns are still setting up nesting areas and moving. Some of them have actually stayed in place long enough to have chicks, but most of them seem to wait until we've closed and fenced in an area, then they move 100 yards east overnight. It's an endless cycle of musical beach, which makes for an excellent, if frustrating, daily workout.



Even when my week ends up like this, with me feeling as if I've accomplished nothing, it's still a good week at the office. What a gorgeous place to call 'work'. Even the storm clouds are ethereal and illuminating, in their own way.

Birds and Gardens

Today was a tern day, and went as planned. We spent a little more time with the stranded turtle first to get a more complete assessment of the cause of death, then moved on to Fort Pickens, where we had over 200 least terns. There are about 60 in this picture -- can you see them?



There are fewer here, but they may be easier to see.



This poor little plover chick was lost in the least tern masses with his parents and a sibling. They finally dashed to the north shore for a little peace from the shrieking terns.



The darkened sky and vibrant salt marsh are a perfect backdrop for our ever-present great blue heron models. They even look elegant when they're grooming. You almost have to take pictures of them.




The snowy egrets seemed to think today was a good day to play in the water before the rains arrive. I'm not sure, but I think this may be a family group from our heron/egret rookery.



Though the skies and forecasts threaten rainy weather for the next 24 hours, I still watered my veggies -- my squash plants have their first blossoms, even in the sandy soil. I can't wait for some really fresh veggies! I know, it's not very exciting, but I haven't been in one place long enough to have a garden in a long time...

One Nest, One Stranding, and How Many Vehicles?

Today started out as planned, with an early wake-up (0445) to facilitate a day-long least tern survey in the Santa Rosa section of the Park. That lasted about an hour... The first detour was a simple matter of POD trouble -- and we've only had them a week. They're not exactly perfect construction.



The next detour was very welcome indeed! Jay Bonanno called from Perdido Key because he found a nest on the east end of the island. It was a very well-constructed, compact, nest for a loggerhead (Caretta caretta) with a distinct crawl, compared to the scratchy path from the Kemp's ridleys last week. It was a great training opportunity for our SCA, Sally.



All the recent high west winds have created erosion bluffs on our beaches -- look at the drop this lovely lady took after laying her 133 egg nest.



Since the egg chamber was only about 40 feet from the Gulf (it was on the seaward edge of this body pit), and the beach had already lost about three feet in the last week, we decided we had to move the nest.



First, we had to find a nice dune to move the eggs to. We try to move the eggs as little as possible, so we were happy to find a good dune about 100 feet north of the original nest. Then, I dug a new nest for the eggs to incubate in for the next two months. I use a cockle shell to help dig through the hard sand -- my skin is not as tough as a sea turtles!



Once I'd finished digging the nest, an upside down light bulb about 18 inches deep, it was time to gather the eggs from the original nest and place them gently in a cooler.



We line the cooler with sand from the top of the nest, and carefully remove the eggs, one at a time, placing them in neat rows in the cooler. This helps us keep the eggs steady, and makes it easier to place the eggs back in the same place in the nest (i.e. so the top eggs are still the top eggs in the new nest).



We then carry the cooler to the new nest area, and place them gently in the nest egg chamber, one at time, in a honeycomb pattern so there's air space between the eggs, just as there are when the mother turtle lays them.



It was fun playing a mama turtle, but it was a lot of work. After searching for the eggs, building a new nest, relocating them one by one, packing sand back over them and camouflaging the area, my arms were sore! It's worth it to know the eggs are pretty safe from high tides and full moons.



Our next detour was not so fun. Sally and I were headed back up the beach, checking on SNPLs as we did, when Mark called and asked for a contact at SRIA (Santa Rosa Island Authority). Eventually, he told me he needed them to move a large sea turtle stranding for us. I called them to arrange the transport (we have a 'sea turtle cemetery dune') and Sally and I headed for another training opportunity with the stranded animal.



It's sad to see such a large, healthy, animal die needlessly. This particular loggerhead had swallowed two fishing hooks and a weight. It hadn't been dead long at all -- even the barnacles were still alive. Not a good way to end the day.



So the vehicle total for the day... At 5am, I drove my car to the park. I set up an ATV on a trailer and drove the blue truck to Santa Rosa. After the phone calls about nests and PODS, I drove Mark's white monster truck/fire engine to the Park, where I met Sally after her dawn Pensacola Beach turtle patrol. We piled into the red truck and I drove us to Perdido Key, where we took two ATVs to the turtle nest. We returned to the fire cache afterwards, changed from nesting gear to stranding gear, and returned to Pensacola Beach for the stranding in the red truck. Giant circles, lots of vehicles and LOTS of gas. I'm just happy I didn't have to pay for the fuel!

Full Moons and Plovers

It was a beautiful full moon last night and the tides this morning reflected that! The surf was up; partly due to a strong west wind, but that satellite of ours pulls on the oceans too. Even the blooming Spanish Bayonet were listing in the breeze.



Just to show my friends and family that this work can be hard, I'm including this photo of one of the nests that I located today. There is a female snowy plover here sitting on a four egg nest. Can you find her? She actually sticks out quite a bit.



She's a little easier to see here in an extreme close-up, from far enough away that she isn't scared off the nest (it's a hard balance).



She was not at all pleased to see my close proximity as I walked towards her to find her eggs. I don't like scaring them, but if we're going to close a section of beach, I need to know where the nest is so I close the right area. It's kind of hard to explain that to a plover, but I tell her anyway. Maybe she understands more than I realize.



After a few nest checks, they do seem to get used to us, and display a little less each time, knowing we'll soon back-off. I hope that doesn't make them less vigilant with other predators. This snowy had a relatively rare four-egg nest.



Some of her black-bellied plover (Pluvialis squatarola) cousins were hanging out in Spanish Cove, back in breeding plumage. Aren't they striking?



For some reason, bright yellow flowers always catch my eye, especially on the rather muddy expanse of Spanish Cove. It's a little sunshine even on a gray day :)



Tomorrow, we're doing a least tern/nest census on Santa Rosa -- again with the road construction question in the air. Apparently, the superintendent doesn't believe we have nesting birds. Strange. I hope to have time to work on turtle friendly lights too -- there's a lot of work to do before the hatchlings hit the beach! I need to study up in case anyone has hard questions -- maybe I should put a few turtle friends on speed-dial!

Just a Quote

I'm adding this because it's something I often need to remember, especially on days like today when I allow someone to hurt me. It helps to remember that true strength and beauty lay within each of us, and the pain in our lives can be turned into much brighter opportunities. Life lessons: sometimes they hurt, but we have them for a reason.

"What lies behind us, and what lies before
us are small matters compared
to what lies within us."
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Sunny Sunday

It's so nice to have a lazy, sunny, Sunday. I got lots of work done, then I decided to have a little fun...



There are new purple water lilies blooming in the back yard.



The lotus is out again, and has a buddy blooming as well.



and the Spanish Bayonet is blooming in the park again!



For those of you in Hockessin who shop at Lantana Square, this is a Lantana... Here, they grow like weeds! I'm not sure I've ever seen one in Delaware.



Even the garden gnome seemed to enjoy the bright sun.



With the wind blowing through the chimes, a mockingbird singing from the old longleaf pines (Pinus palustris) and the soothing sound of the waves nearby, I wish I could photograph sound. Maybe someday. Now, I'm off to finish a lazy day with some Chekov short stories and good dinner with friends.

A Long and Lovely Day, and it's only 2 PM!

Saturdays mean Pensacola Beach turtle patrols for me -- I help out the SCA (Student Conservation Association) Intern on Fridays and Saturdays so she has two days off each week. There weren't any turtles there, but there was a much more pleasant sky than yesterday.



I'm not well-versed in clouds or meteorology, but the edge of this one seemed really abrupt and strange to me, enough so that I had to take a photo...



As I was leaving the beach, VIP (Volunteer in Park) Carol Melton called to let me know she had a crawl and possible nest on Perdido Key, so I abandoned my plans for Santa Rosa and headed over there instead. Carol indeed had a new nest -- another Kemp's ridley (Lepidochelys kempii) not far from the nest last week. Maybe it's Gracie's way of letting us know things are ok for the ridleys. They are starting to make a comeback, after decades of effort.



Their crawls are much narrower and less distinct than other local species. It makes them much harder to find as they wear away quickly in the wind and/or rain. This one is about 27 inches wide. Loggerheads are usually around 32 to 35 inches, greens about 35 and leatherbacks can be off-the-charts... They're like bulldozers.



Their eggs are like leathery ping pong balls, buried about eight inches under the sand. The egg chamber itself is about 18 inches deep, but the mama turtle fills it up with dozens of eggs.



This particular turtle did a fantastic job. She crawled straight up from the surf, found a high dune, then started to get a little lost. She must be like me -- very intelligent, but a little silly and with absolutely no sense of direction. She hit the dune, crawled 50 feet west and built a body pit in the sea oats (Uniola paniculata), but didn't lay any eggs. There were a lot of sea oat roots there, and it may have prevented her from digging deep enough. This stake marks her first failed nesting attempt (don't ask me how I know, I just do). You can see how narrow Perdido Key is here -- that water is the bay to the north; the turtle had crawled up from the Gulf of Mexico to the south.



She then crawled behind the dune, did a couple of strange loop-de-loops and ended up exactly where she started, and laid a nest. It should confuse her predators a bit as her scent is all over. I also spread fresh sand over the egg chamber after I located them and packed them back in. We do what we can to keep them safe...



I spent the rest of the day GPSing (that biology verb again -- I may need to make a dictionary). We had least tern colonies, snowy plover nests and sea turtle nests that all needed to be mapped. It was a great day to be out and about on the beach, and half of Pensacola seemed to agree!

I startled a bunch of visitors who just laughed at me as I abruptly stopped my ATV, launched myself off it, and ran after a gull, my yellow GPS backpack and antenna bouncing along with me. A laughing gull (Larus atricilla) was chasing a snowy plover chick! The snowy plover mama was going a little nuts, squawking, flapping, flying and pretending to have a broken wing to attract the gull. I took a more direct approach and just chased the gull, though the visitors offered more permanent solutions.



Maybe it wasn't the best thing for a park biologist to do, but I couldn't just stand by and watch a chick get eaten. They're just too cute! In my defense, it is my job to protect all of the wild animals in the park, even the rattle snakes.

In all, it's been a good day, and the weekend has just begun :)

Good News/Bad News

I called the Gulfarium today to check on our most recent live sea turtle strandings. Clover, the Chelonia mydas Mark and his sons rescued last summer, is still there and doing well. She's grown by leaps and bounds and they're still hoping to release her. For now, they are fitting her with a weighted prosthetic of sorts that will help her learn to swim properly (aka 'not swim with her butt in the air'). If she can't learn to dive, she can't be released as wild green sea turtles graze on sea grass beds, so they really have to dive! She may still need surgery to correct her two dislocated hips.



Gracie wasn't so lucky. When Jennifer and I brought the large female Kemp's ridley (Lepidochelys kempii) in on New Year's Day, she was covered in barnacles and polychaetes and algae. She had lost her right front flipper to fishing gear entanglement and had severe cuts on the remaining front flipper. She was lucky that Grace, a Starbuck's barista in Gulf Breeze, was able to get her out of the cold Gulf of Mexico on New Year's Eve to get her some much needed medical attention.



When I went to visit in January, Gracie was doing really well! They had cleaned her carapace of all the marine hitchhikers and wrapped her flippers in pretty green bandages as they knew I was coming to visit (she was not on public display). She wasn't eating well, but seemed to be regaining strength otherwise. They started to force feed her and were concerned when her white blood cell count was elevated. The vet performed surgery, but found that the remaining bone in her injured flipper was dead and infected; the infection was apparently too much for her body to handle, and Gracie passed away.



Hearing that broke my heart. I really do love my turtles. You would too if you could look into their eyes and understand the struggles they've already faced, and the apparent turtle-wisdom gained. This powerful, fortunate and seasoned animal had overcome countless obstacles just to grow out of the hatchling stage. Reaching maturity and old age required decades of growth, long migrations, years of nesting activity and unimaginable demonstrations of strength and perseverance. I have so much respect for these turtles and their arduous journey through the wild seas.

Gracie was a champion, and her passing saddens me greatly. There are so few Kemp's left that each mature female has a tremendous impact on the species survival. As a large adult, Gracie had likely already nested for years and replaced herself in the population, reaching a measure of Darwinian success, but her loss is still a loss. Turtles are truly magnificent creatures. Guess that's why I've spent my life trying to help them survive...