Walk #15

This morning, the humidity seemed very high, and there was no breeze at all. I was afraid it was going to be one of those turtle walks that makes you feel like you might melt into a puddle in the sand. And of course without any breeze, I always have a fear the noseeums might eat me alive.

After arriving at the Buttonwood Lane beach access,just before sunrise, I was met by a chorus of tree frogs singing. This is the first time I've heard them in that particular place. It was really kind of comical and got me started off with a smile.

After walking to the end of the boardwalk, I was happy to feel a nice sea breeze from the southeast. The temperature was near 80, but it didn't feel too warm until a few minutes before finishing the walk.

The approaching sunrise was making a pretty pink reflection on the water in a tidal pool, as two fishermen standing in waist deep water, were busy trying to make a great catch.

I'll have to say, I was amazed to see only one new hole in the sand today. It was a little over a foot deep.

I was surprised to spy an octopus trying to crawl back into the water. :-) Especially a pink one.

There were some small shells ,but mostly small white arks.





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I saw this small juvenile horse conch as I was walking, and that made it a 'Good Day', of course.

My plastic grocery bag was getting full of small pieces of plastic, paper, straws, cups, plastic water bottles, a pair of flip flops that were mostly buried in the sand, a beer can full of sand, a broken sand toy, and the prize of the day.....a stuffed pamper. On the way back there was another bag full.

There was one more little horse conch! Woo~Hoo!

I've mentioned Sanibel's Snowy Plovers before. The snowy plover is a state-listed, threatened species. The SCCF is working to preserve an important nesting population of Southeastern Snowy Plovers with a monitoring program here on the island.

The stakes around the nesting areas in our zone have now been taken down. I noticed last week, that all of the Plovers in our zone seem to be hanging out together. They had been in separate little family groups of the parents and their babies. I tried to count them, but they scamper around so fast, making that difficult. My count was l6, so it's safe to say there was just under 20. One of them has only one leg and I always watch for it. :-) It is on record as nesting here during a previous year. So, it seems that it is not an easy catch for a predator. I watched it hop along on one leg, for quite a while and it kept up with the others pretty well. When it seemed to be having a little trouble, it would flap it's wings to help. I tried to get a photo, but it doesn't show up very well.
A long tidal pool was full of water.


The water had made a trench almost a foot deep, from the pool, back to the Gulf. There was a strong, stream of water running through it, moving sand and shells along the way.

At the speed the water was moving, it shouldn't take long to drain the pool.

I had to laugh when I started hearing the frog noises again, just before reaching the Buttonwood board walk again.

The frog chorus seemed to be rehearsing in the Sea Hibiscus. :-)

It was a pleasant beach walk, but there was no sea turtle activity to report.

A nest that was dug a few days ago, produced 17 baby Loggerheads. We went to the beach that night, to watch them as they were released. Our St Louis visitors had just got to the island that day and they were happy to be a part of their send-off. It was the first time they had seen sea turtle hatchlings.

Turtle Walk #13

This was the 13th turtle walk of this nesting season. We arrived at the Buttonwood Lane Access, just after first light. The eastern sky was pink from the approaching sunrise. There was a nice breeze which is always a good thing, keeping bugs away and protecting us from a meltdown.

As soon as I started walking, I came across another pvc fishing rod holder that had been driven into the sand and left behind. There are usually 3 or 4 of these within our one mile walk. This eastern end of the beach has become a real obstacle course. Walking through this area is not very pleasant, at all, due to a growing number of sand holes, trash, abandoned broken beach chairs, & sand toys. Plus the sea weed from weeks ago is still on the beach, repeatedly getting wet, and is smelling rather bad.

This hole is about 2 feet deep.

Very nice, but not turtle friendly, when left behind.

This one had piles of sand on each side and the hole was about a foot and a half deep.

This is who we can thank for that contribution. Sand holes are a real danger to people and wildlife and should be filled in before leaving the beach.





Someone had gone away and left their chicken roasting, unattended.

Yes, it's a beached boat !

AND.....A frog; belly up!

Not a prize winner today.

Oh please! Let me carry this broken chair away for you.

Your guess is probably as good as mine, on this one.

Ok, so I think it's safe to say that this shovel isn't being used by children. Especially when there were two men and one woman just a short distance away, watching as I was taking photos of their things. They probably thought I was going to make off with a camera that was left on top of this pile of chairs. Which, by the way, are not supposed to be out on the beach. I believe that shovel would be considered an excavation tool and excavation isn't legal on the beach. I looked back after walking away and one of the men had gone up to the chairs to get the camera. None of the three went back there until we had passed that area on our way back. I saw the lady looking at us when we went by, she said something to one of the men and he looked toward us too.

I'm sure they went back to their digging. There was already a 3 ft high pile of sand there.

This made me wonder if a Captain had thrown his First Mate overboard.

I noticed a few small shells, that I had to pick up. :-) These were certainly more fun picking up than the two heavy bags of trash we carried away today.



Best viewed in HD on YouTube by clicking the screen below.


We had no new turtle activity and the remaining nests in our zone aren't due to hatch until August.

Walk #12

Began the turtle walk at 6:30 this morning. There was a nest in our zone that was due to hatch around July 10, but it hadn't hatched yet. This morning we were anxious to check on it.

It was very still out, hardly any breeze. Even after using bug spray, the noseeums were being a nuisance.

These were near the Buttonwood access and looked like snowballs, so they were sandballs?

At first, there wasn't anyone else in eye sight. But as it got a little more light out, people came flocking onto the beach.

Yes, more sand traps for baby sea turtles. :-(



I had a feeling that we might see a hole in the nest and little tiny tracks where hatchlings might have made their escape. But, what we saw was even more exciting. There was a hole in the nest, but there was also a tiny little turtle coming out of it. YEAH!! It looked like the first one, because I didn't see any other tracks. It took that little guy a long time to get out over the edge of the hole. When he did, he took a moment to look around and then headed toward the water. It amazes me that they know that is where they are supposed to go.

(Much better if you enlarge the photos.)





The hatchling had a problem when he tried to pass a shallow sand hole that had been washed over by the waves. He slid sideways and then flipped over onto his back. Poor thing tried and tried but couldn't get turned over. I finally helped him and he was once again on his way. This is a perfect example of the problem caused by leaving holes on the beach. I wish there were some signs posted at the beach accesses etc. with warnings about them. I know some people just refuse to follow rules, but I think they would help.

The videos are not the greatest quality because they are from my phone. (There is a problem with the video camera, as it was dropped and in need of serious repair.) You can view these in HQ on YouTube.


Follow the tiny turtle as he makes the remainder of his walk to the water. Just after the first wave came in near him, it looked like he hesitated and then thought, I've got to do this, and went for it. I saw his head come up four times at the top of each wave and then he was gone.



After the little turtle swam away, I looked around and saw that the sun had just come up.

There were tidal pools along the way, a lot of seaweed that smelled a little and had LOTS of tiny flies and bugs in it. The beach walk itself, was not too pleasant this morning.



You already know what I'm thinking. :-(

A basketball star was here and left his flip flops?

Is this nasty, or what? Now this person had kept their butts nice and neat, all in one pile, but they couldn't take them away. These are not the kinds of things you want to pick up, but you do what you gotta do.

These were left on the beach from last night. They were supposed to be at a pool near a condo building. Another thing to cause false crawls or for a turtle to get trapped in.

Mmm, Hmm, somebody dropped their noodle.

We see a lot of these little shell piles near the beach accesses. Tourists dispose of their rejects before leaving. I've seen other people thrilled to find them. :-)

This hole was about a foot and a half deep.



Is it a sign??? Does it mean anything to you?

Someones lost flip.

After we walked back, we stopped to check the turtle nest again. Since it was more light out, we could see several other little tracks around the hole and also the rain marks all over the sand. Possibly the nest hatched during the night and rain hid most of the tracks. Could we have seen the very last little turtle that came out? In three days, our permittee will dig the nest to make sure there are none that were not able to get out and also count the empty egg sacks. Then we will know how many hatched. I hope I get to be there when it is dug.