Mini Me Moves to the Beach: Busy Doing Nothing OR . . . Relocating EGGS

Pass-A-Grille at dawn

Remember TED (Totally Electronic Device from 13 September 2014 blog post), our USA washing machine (fancy & over-sized by UK standards but not by US)? Hubby has worked out that our washing machine "cycle complete" audible indicator plays 'Busy Doing Nothing' by Bing Crosby from the movie 'A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court' (1949) -- so someone in the LG Product Development Team has a real sense of humour -- and it is so appropriate for beach life - the song even mentions a turtle!!

Railroad vine in bloom
colonizing the beach

Having said that, mini me is very busy as a professional volunteer in 8 organisations and being a social sand hopper! On a recent morning (11th June) she was a 'beach walker' and located two turtle nests on her very own; hubby rode in the jeep and found two more! This is accomplished by 'reading the sand' to discern the turtle tracks and decipher what is human activity, other animal tracks and what might just be our local loggerhead turtles. Sometime easy, and sometimes (especially if the sand is hard packed) not. SO EXCITING!!!!

My nest: Turtle Nest 16, Turtle tracks away from sea to left, made a couple of body pits before making nest high on beach, return crawl on right and crossed incoming track near high water mark before return to sea, Pass-a-Grille, FL

Turtle Nest 15, laid inches from high water
and will be relocated, temporary stakes
while we search more beach, St Pete Beach, FL

Hubby's two nests were laid close to the mean high tide water line (MHW) and hence liable to flooding. To give them a chance of survival, they had to be moved.

Look closely - do you see eggs?

First you take measurements to locate the original nest and find the 'clutch' of eggs laid in a very neat egg chamber. Get the transport cooler ready.

Then gently remove the ping pong sized eggs - they are soft, like the coffee creamer containers you get in a hotel. Counting all the while, Nest N15 had 81 eggs and N14 had 111. Note only the sea turtle permit holder is allowed to do this!

see we take some sand from the
original nest

Once safely loaded in the cooler, move to the new location. While Bruno was removing the eggs, . . .

Julie's picture with captions

Turtle Joe used a post hole digger to make a new nest for the clutch [of eggs] higher up the beach. Julie's blog shows exactly how far; she has shared a picture with us too. Then he put in stakes to mark the new nest.

Note these pictures are from different nests; all FWC protocols were followed and everything documented.

Then gingerly lay the eggs into the new hole, ensuring that you put them back in the same order taken out. Firm down with sand from the old nest, and then cover with sand around the new nest.

Notice we attract a bit of attention - all good publicity for saving the turtles and just maybe we will pick up a few more volunteers, nest adoptions and other donations (we rely solely on donations).

Turtle Nest 14, our activity has
drawn a crowd, St Pete Beach, FL

Anyone have a spare jeep they would like to give us to replace our aging 1960's army surplus? Will ours make it through this season (April-October) is anyone's guess!

We also patrol Shell Key Island (a nature preserve) but today (11 June following a torrential downpour of 7+ inches last night) the sea was too rough for our little boat and we couldn't go. Our captain said he had to wait for the sea to 'lay down.'

Sand swirls from recent storms

All this requires getting up between 4:00 and 5:00 AM - something mini me and life sized me aren't very good at doing; we are knackered for the rest of the day and usually have a late afternoon nap!!

However it is worth it, as in addition to tending the turtle nests, . . .

Pelicans in flight

we saw Pelicans riding the surf and a nesting colony of Black Skimmer birds. They are unique and drag their larger lower bill along the water's edge hoping to catch some fish. This colony is a bit controversial as they arrived 3 years ago and are displacing the local 4th July fireworks celebrations!