Momma Turtle Returns to Nest??

Inbound track on left and return to sea on right
crossing over in foreground

It's the start of the 4th of July (USA Independence Day) celebrations here. We get asked all sorts of turtle questions when out patrolling the beach including:

"How does the mother turtle know to place her nest between the stakes?" :)

"How does the momma turtle return to/find her nest again?"

Obviously she doesn't, as she doesn't return, rather the sun and sand incubated her eggs, but you wouldn't know it from these pictures! This turtle crawled right up to the edge of a previously laid nest.

Actually little is known about much of the behaviour of loggerhead sea turtles, which were eaten in North American through the 1970s (turtle soup!) until listed as endangered in 1978, and still eaten in part of the Caribbean today. We do believe mommas nest several times in a season, and Friday morning's false crawl (meaning no nest) happened 2 weeks after the nest above was laid, so just maybe it could be the same momma trying to lay another nest - we plain don't know!

She made a nice crawl high up the beach (very good) and ran into the two front stakes marking the nest before returning to the sea. Hummmmmm . . .

Our Sea Turtle Trackers colleagues recently assisted in rescuing a turtle with the help and support of FWC (Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission). Click here to see video.

See my previous post for a video of a sea turtle nesting.

We can now see seven - yes  - turtle nests from our condo balcony - it is a bumper/record year! Yipee!! 

silly tourists huddling in the rain

Back to the 4th of July theme - summer is also the tropical storm and regular afternoon thunderstorm season - and some people are determined to enjoy the beach no matter what!  But I must warn you that thunderstorms with lightening are very dangerous and one should vacate the beach which these people did shortly after I took the picture.

Looking for turtles and I
accidentally found these!

Other silly tourist activities bring out the sheriff's department; here a helicopter circling and letting off his alarm/horn right in front of our home.  No idea of the problem.

Friday night is movies on the beach - showing - you guessed it Jaws complete with ominous clouds/lightening overhead! Remember, get off the beach if you see lightening nearby (and it travels 25 miles).

And if you are wondering - yes there are whales and SHARKS in our Waters, the Gulf of Mexico.

the way to watch Jaws??

on her way to the Jaws movie - spot on!

yes, this is the true colour Friday at sunset