Walk #17

Today was our 17th and final turtle walk of the season. We only have 1 nest left in our zone that is due and should be hatched and dug by next week. I believe there are 10 nests left in the area from the eastern tip of Sanibel to the Tarpon Bay Beach. From there to the West end of Sanibel is monitored by SCCF, using their beach vehicle. There are nests still to hatch in that area. I will put the statistics for the 2009 turtle season on my Turtle Talk blog, as soon as it's available.

It was about 75 degrees this morning when we did our walk but it got up to 93 later in the day. We had afternoon thunder storms that brough us a little more than a half inch of rain. There is a 40 to 50 percent chance of rain each day for the rest of the week.

There was a pink glow in the east this morning as we walked out to the beach.

An osprey was standing watch at the top of a tree.

There was hardly anyone on the beach for a while.

Gradually people began coming out onto the beach to walk under the pink cotton candy clouds, waiting for the sunrise.

It was so quiet and peaceful out, even the birds seemed relaxed and in no hurry to fly away.

It took a while to see the sun, because it had to climb up from behind clouds.

The only shells were small ones.

This bird seemed to be taking a rest, and just sat there watching me as I took it's picture.



Just before leaving the beach, there was an area at the high tide line, where some sea weed was lying beside a little pool of water that had been left. I spied a Bubble shell and as I bent over to pick it up, I saw a couple more, then a few more. After picking them up, I moved a little more of the sea weed and saw two Top shells, some Apple Murex, a Nutmeg, Augers, Drills, a couple of Whelks, Shark's Eyes and Top shells. Then I saw four, tiny white Wentletraps. I got distracted for a moment and looked away. When I looked back, I could only find two of them. I looked and looked and never could spot the other two again. But, I was content with my handful of shells. :-)

I'm pleased to say that there was hardly any trash on the beach this morning, and no new sand holes. I will post the statistics for the 2009 nesting season as soon as it's available.

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