Will it Boil? Turtle Vigil & Renovations

 

The BIG Wait:  Move In of a Sort or Will We Ever Settle and See a Turtle  Nest "Boil"?

Fort De Soto North Beach

We've been in what mini me can only describe as 'The Twilight Zone,' arrived in the USA, neither awaiting a home nor 'moved in,' but continue to sleep on our airbed camping in the condo.  A very strange time (5 months) indeed!  And now the Red Tide threatens, just off the coast.

Distractions definitely needed if only to keep our sanity as our 5 week renovation enters week 13, hopefully with carpet to be installed over this holiday weekend, and another 2 weeks or so for the kitchen countertop.

www.conversantlife.com/relationships/loggerheads-lights-and-landmarks

So we continue on the Turtle Vigil.  At day 45 post egg laying (mama returns to sea), a cage appeared, brought in by the Clearwater Marine Aquarium (CMA), to protect the emerging turtles from (a) predators, such as birds who find the hatchlings a tasty treat and (b) beach lights which disorient the turtles as they wander off in the wrong direction.  Hence the cage allows a controlled release guiding the babies to the sea and giving them a better chance of survival; only about 1 in 500 or 1 in 1,000 make it to adulthood and become parents for the next generation.

So Monday and Tuesday nights we popped down to see the cage between 10 pm and 1 am, but weren't expecting much.  Here and Here is video of what we're looking for.

 

Still no CMA volunteers sitting nest-side, but by Wednesday night we hoped ... and didn't want to miss it . . . so much like having a small child we were up every two hours checking - 10:30, 1, 3, and 5 am.  The sand was cool after a rain, a good sign for hatching.  Whew mini me is exhausted and still nothing!  

 

Thursday night we made trips to the nest at 10:30 pm, and 3 am; however, no visible action by the baby turtles.  Without a moon there is little reflected light on the ocean and it is easy to see how the hatchlings could go the wrong way towards the human dwellings and lights on the beach.  Watch this from the 2 minute marker into the video.

 

Friday night, cool with lightening.  Jim from CMA nest sitting as this is now day 50. 

According to Jim, the eggs are at the beginning of a 15 day window for hatching (who knew?!?) -- so guess my getting up in the middle of the night this week was just 'practice.'  Down to check the nest at 09:30 pm and again at 12:30 am.  Jim says unlikely to hatch this night, so off to a good sleep and rest for the rest of the night.

 

Saturday morning no sign of hatching.  At around 7:30 am the CMA comes by to open up the cage flap so that if the babies hatch during the day, they can escape to the sea -- if they don't run into predators or humans first -- and not fry in the Florida sun.   The life of a turtle, hey?

Tomorrow (yes, Sunday) the vinyl should be laid in our condo on Labor Day Monday (!).

Mini me will sleep in a hotel Saturday and Sunday nights as we must pack everything away (including the airbed) to clear the floors and avoid walking on the vinyl, once laid, for 24 hours (so no bathroom).

 

Will we miss the turtle boil . . . only time will tell.  Mini me crosses her fingers and hopes not!

 

Breakfast with Dolphins

Update on sea turtle nest as of Sunday morning of 24 August:  Cage over nest appeared this am so nest should hatch in next 5 days!  Mini Me now on 'nest watch.' 

 

At long last we moved into our condo on the night of 20 August ... and the following morning I shared breakfast with a dolphin and a blue heron!  The dolphin was leaping and spinning out of the water and then swam directly towards me as s/he chased a bit of food just off the shoreline.  Good news for the heron who was fishing at the waterline from the beach and managed to snatch a fish from the sea.  Then they both headed south towards John's Pass.

Not sure if he is the same one, but on day 3 in my new condo, eating my breakfast, heading north I saw a dolphin finding breakfast too, this time swimming in circles to corral the fish together.  Of course their breakfast consisted of fish and mine ... well it also had protein.


Yup, umbrella whist sea bathing!

No thanks, says mini me

Now as I said there are many interesting sights on the beach ... (I missed the shot of a plane pulling a banner welcoming a local back home)

... which distract me from the seven (+) phases of an international move; I've lost count of the number of times I have packed up our merger US belongings.

Phase I - Jan/Feb	Clear Out:  getting rid of stuff; very painful
Phase II March	Packing:  packing up sea shipment and then living in your home without your stuff
Phase III April	Arrival:  at new country and staying in hotel (then packing to go to ...)
Phase IV April/May	Camping:  moving into the new place without your stuff and sleeping on an airbed -- doing boring admin like getting new driver's license, bank account and health insurance
Phase V June	Renovating: packing up our few belongings to make our footprint in the condo as small as possible; spend days at local DIY stores and internet sourcing materials
Phase VI July/Aug	Scram:  packing up again moving out to [supposedly] allow faster and higher quality renovation ... fortunately for us to a neighbour's condo -- very kind of John & Diane -- with a brief respite trip to London/UK
Phase VII 20 Aug	 I guess you call this glamping? Camping Again: moving back in camping again as renovation now 100%+ overdue.  Concrete floors, partial electrics and water and plenty of dust! Lucky for us, a neighbour gave us a loveseat when they bought new furniture.
Phase VIII --??	To Come - Completion:  will we ever get to DONE???

Before ... and this looks better than it really was.



After ... low water plants

 

Mini me found another way to distract herself and get her hands dirty doing a bit of gardening for the local church. See her green thumb!

Then she went off to a programme called "How to Read a Beach" by Dr Tonya Clayton at Weedon Island Preserve, to learn our beaches are some of the most biodiverse in the world. 



Satisfaction!

Rain prevented her for seeking out a roseate spoonbill (no these are not flamingos) mini me's & sister Sue's favourite bird after Pelicans.




It is hot, hot, steamy hot in Florida in August -- all outside activities (even standing still) involve buckets of sweat.










3 Strikes . . . But wait, hatchlings --

 

-- on our fourth attempt, we did get to see hatchlings crawl to the sea!

Pine tress along sand beach - as it used to be

Yes, we tried to see nest 109 hatch outside our door and missed, went to see a hatchling release only to be told the wrong night (but saw beautiful sunset, see picture below), and offered to volunteer at a local marine rescue facility only to find they didn't need us. 


So with some trepidation and holding our expectations in check, we set out again to Fort De Soto  North Beach to see if we could catch up with those releasing hatchlings into the sea (August 19th).

And yes there they were.  Three buckets of turtles about 80 in all.  One strong nest, but co-located with a nest where fire ants (non-native species) had invaded - so not good and both nests needed to be removed before ants ate their eyes and killed them.  And one nest where about ~12 were being smothered by un-hatched eggs, so they couldn't get out of the nest and would have died if not rescued.

Hatchlings find the sea by the reflected light of the moon and stars - any other light disorients them and drastically reduces their chances of getting to the ocean.  However, they don't see the red spectrum so infrared or red LED lights are the ones to use on the beach.  We purchased red LED torches (US English:  flashlights) and that is all we could use to take pictures.  So here they are making their way to the sea ...

They are scrambling just like in the nest, where they create a sand ladder and crawl up one on top of another ...

Off they go into the ocean ...

And the following day we moved back into our condo!!  What a night.

No!!! Nest 109 Hatches Without Mini Me!!!



Nest 109 -- See the depression? -- Eagle eyes required!

You may recall mini me's excitement when she found a nest outside her home on 26 June 2014 - nest 109 (see blog post of 29 June).  These nests are monitored and managed by the Clearwater Marine Aquarium (CMA).
Now upon her return from visiting family in North Carolina over the weekend, nest 109 had a cage over it.  The cage is a sign of imminent hatching! 

So as night crept in, we maintained a vigil watching the beach.  When we saw the CMA 'nest sitters' arrive at #109, we knew this might be it.  Every 40 minutes we wandered down to see what was happening in the nest -- first sign is a slight depression in the sand, then some sand balls appeared followed by ...

Just before midnight on the 13th August, a single lonesome turtle emerged from Nest 109.  Where's the picture you ask?  Well ----------- turtles are distracted by artificial light and this includes camera flashes.  So no pictures with a point and shoot camera.  The hatchling had enough trouble getting to the sea with the artificial lights on the beach from condos and with the moon behind us (as opposed to in front of us) as we stood looking out to sea.

Example of a sea turtle boil, photo courtesy of NEST

He/She finally made it after several false attempts and a bit of a gentle nudge from the CMA turtle captain. It is unusual but not unheard of for a single turtle to hatch. 

The rest of the nest, we were told, should have hatched on the 14th - so several late nights in a row we made the trek several times a night to see what was happening -- NOTHING! ... and no CMA nest sitters - hummm, not a good sign.

What does a nest 'boil' (sand churning when scores of baby loggerheads climb up through the sand from their nest) look like? It looks something like this -- a fun video (mute the sound) and it does look like something boiling, hence the name.

 



courtesy NPS.gov

Today (17th August) the nest stakes disappeared meaning a nest inventory was taken and all is over.  Mini me cannot believe she missed it and we are not sure when or even if the other circa 99 turtles hatched. 

Update from CMA:  The morning after the one hatchling emerged (ie on the 14th), 55 hatchlings were found in the cage at 5:30 am and were released.

A second nest (laid 11 July according to the marker)  appeared on mini me's return from London -- even closer to our home than nest 109.  We should be moving back into our condo this week, so we can make direct reconnaissance from the balcony.  We will be watching closely to see if we can experience another hatching (it is almost as exciting as a bee swarm for my beekeeper friends). 

Turtle Nest Inventory

Yup, big heads!

We have had the pleasure of meeting Turtle Joe and Theresa of Sea Turtle Trackers and learning a bit more about Loggerhead Sea Turtles - the main type of turtle nesting on our West Florida beaches.

Loggerheads lifespan is similar to humans, they grow to circa 350 pounds and they reproduce every 3 years or so with the female laying up to 6 nests in any one season.  Nests hold 70-100 eggs each and are quite deep - about 3 feet down.  The mamma emerges from the sea to lay eggs when the water temperature reaches 80 degrees Fahrenheit and eggs in one nest may have been fertilised by different males. 

Turtle sex is determined by temperature (similar to alligators) with warmer sand producing females.  About 1 in 1,000 hatchlings live to adulthood.

Nest ready for hatching in front of my condo

A nest takes 50-60 days to hatch and to protect hatchlings from predators (such as birds) a cage is often put over the nest close to hatching.

The turtles hatch under the sand and when all are hatched the dig their way to the top when the sand begins to cool - after sunset.  The emerging turtles are called a 'boil' and you can see why here.

 

Once the nest has hatched, a nest inventory is required counting the number of hatched and un-hatched (undeveloped) egg shells along with any partly developed eggs (pipped).  This information all goes into a report for the State of Florida and is used in the compilation of turtle statistics.

The shells are put back into the sand to nourish the beach and the ground carefully patted down.  And then the nest marker is removed and all traces of the nest are gone. 

Another glorious day on the beach!

Beach Brutality

Pipeline from shore to barge where beach is reclaimed

We went to check out the turtles at Pass-A-Grille beach (more on that in an upcoming post), and got side-lined into watching the beach nourishment programme at night.  What is a beach nourishment programme you ask? 



Sand pumping machine

Well, hurricanes and tropical storms have washed away much of the sand at Pass-A-Grille, with very little beach left at high tide and the water about to encroach on the snack bar - 40 feet of beach have been lost in recent years.

Beach erosion  gives the turtles very little space for nesting.  So in order to keep the locals happy, the tourists coming, and the loggerhead turtles nesting, the beach needs to be replenished or rebuilt. Reclamation I think it is called in other places.



Watch those bulldozers!

 

This is done by putting a pumping barge out to sea in the Gulf of Mexico alongside a pipeline to bring in offshore sand.

 

Sounds very civilised until you see it in action - the pipeline spews out large amounts of sandy water and the caterpillar trackers drive the beach/waterline in a crazed fashion making and then attacking large piles of sand without regard for the possibility of flipping themselves over.  This is done 24/7 so we actually saw them working under large mobile spotlights.

All in all it's a $16.2 million  project over 3 months backed by the Army Corps of Engineers.

What Mother Nature does, man is sure to try and rectify!  But ...

right in the middle of all this activity was a turtle nest "protected" by four stakes, a bit of tape and some signage!  The nest did hatch and we were there for the post-hatch nest inventory . . . as explained in my next blog post.

Watching Paint Dry: Renovation Realities

The 'bland' before

OK, yes as I pen this we actually are watching paint dry. 

Life-sized me got the idea to paint beach chair stripes on her small entry hallway for a bit of pizzazz . . . and this is the weekend to do it. 

Mini Me suited herself up in a Ziploc baggie (the greatest invention ever!) and after the obligatory trip to Home Depot (HD) for supplies, we were all set.

Florida walls are never smooth, but textured with choice names like orange peel (I always think cellulite) and knock-down, such that we had to Google to find out how to paint straight lines when the painter's tape leaks on a textured wall.  Turns out the answer is simple - dab a layer of the base colour over the tape line to 'seal it' before painting on the stripe.  Somewhat simpler if you only are doing two colours, but life-sized me wanted three.


Mini Me supervising

Mini me was assigned supervision duties, whilst the technical detail of working out the stripes fell to hubby, the engineer.  Life sized me, was of course, doing artistic direction and photography.  The end result is what we wanted (although some might think us mad -- this is our beach home after all) and allowed us to begin to put our stamp on the place.

The green, blue and coral colours are paint from nearby rooms and mirror what we see out the window -- sea, sky and sunset.  A girl has to have some fun after all.

How are those renovations going you ask - well double everything (time, money, frustration) and you are getting close.  Our overdue countertop arrived Friday so the kitchen is starting to look like a kitchen.  Now for the electrics to be finished so we have light, and the sinks to be plumbed in so we have water.  We should be in sometime in August, so not long now.  Will be nice to stop living out of a suitcase and find out what is in that sea shipment and the US family goods put into storage decades ago.



Voila! Beach stripes in entry hall

And by 5:00pm on a Sunday, after a battle with the paint coming off the walls (and lots of patient repair by hubby), we have ....

Yup it is dusty - hence mini me's Ziploc baggie suit


PS.  No sea turtles seen hatching yet ...

9 to 4: London 'Likes' and 'Misses'

London Hotline
An 0203 number that rings in FL!

On our recent London visit, Mini Me's nephew asked what we miss (and don't miss) about London ...
 so here goes London --

Don’t Miss (4)	Miss A Lot (9)
·         The Weather!!  Coats and feeling chilled	·         Oddly food – cheese, quiche, tasty fruit & veg, ethnic restaurants
·         Night noise and light pollution	·         Ability to walk/tube almost anywhere
·         Overhead aircraft	·         Diversity in everything
·         Lack of ice in drinks	·         My garden (esp fresh mint!)
	·         Quirky streets, alleyways and buildings – unexpected spaces
	·         Flower boxes
	·         BBC and Sunday Times (ie any decent news reporting)
	·         Sociable hours – working and eating
	·         Friends and connections – meaningful conversations

So the score is 9 to 4 - what does that tell you ....??  And yes that is our internet phone with an 0203 London phone number that rings at the beach in Florida - how exciting is that!?!