Sea Turtle Nesting on MY Beach

Got a phone call this morning that a loggerhead sea turtle was still nesting at 9 am about 6 blocks south of us.  Well that made me jump out of bed (okay, but it is Saturday) and race down the beach. There she was - nesting is about a 2 hour process and she lays approximately 100 eggs before returning to the sea.

Our main concern is for the turtle - not for getting pictures!! - we want her to be undisturbed.  In fact this turtle tried to lay a nest 3 times; 1. she crawled up the beach and started to move sand (a body pit), 2. moved a few more feet forward  body pitted and started her egg chamber only to be disturbed by a man coming within 3-4 feet with a camera  3. so she stopped digging the egg chamber but fortunately she moved further up the beach and did lay a nest on her third attempt. About 50% of the time the turtle does a 'false crawl' - that is gets disturbed for one reason or another - including humans - and goes back into the sea without laying.

So my first priority was to make sure she was undisturbed by the people watching, the second was to educate the crowd, and only third to take photos/videos.  Here's what I got - so exciting as loggerheads usually nest under the cover of darkness.

In about 50-60 days - weather dependent - the hatchings will emerge, and if not distracted by human light, will make their way to the sea, swimming 100 or so miles out to the sargassum grasses where they will feed and float with the Gulf Stream as juveniles.

Be patient - like a turtle - to watch this video - remember my priorities!

and she's off back to the sea . . .

two turtle 'body pits' in foreground
people too close disturbed her -
once they backed off, she laid her nest

And just to round off the day, we then went and built predator cages to protect the sea turtle nests on Shell Key from raccoons, coyotes and the stray dog or two (out there illegally with campers). I did get a couple of lovely, and now raw, blisters from those wire cutters and hog ring pliers, but hey seeing this nesting sea turtle is worth it!

We were thanked by one little blue heron who stood watch over our auto!

Hubby says "We leave our pets in the wild!" LOL