Walk #11

Today was our 11 th turtle walk. We have a nest in our zone that should be hatching any day now. There were some big clouds hanging around, the water was very calm, and there was no breeze at all. I sprayed myself with Deep Woods OFF, knowing I would probably be fighting off noseeums. The spray helped, but there was no way I could stand still, or they would start landing on me. There was a lot of leg slapping going on when I stopped to talk to two different ladies. Our conversations were very short, to say the least.

One lady told me that she had been coming to the beach everyday to see if that nest had hatched yet. The other lady said that we had a turtle crawl in our zone; but as it turned out, it was a little way further and in the next zone.

Walking out the Buttonwood access I could see a big cloud, hanging pretty low over the water.

View looking toward the Sanibel Lighthouse.

There was a lot of seaweed on the beach, not red algae but almost the same color. I think it is Sargassum, but it looks more red than what we've been seeing. I also saw more Manatee Grass in a few areas. There were hundreds of tiny flies around the seaweed. A lady walking past me said, "It's a buggy morning."





This hole was 2 1/2 to 3 feet deep. It wouldn't be safe to walk on the beach in this area because you could loose a leg. There were several of these scattered around, making the beach look like an obstacle course.



MAN DOWN!!! I knew eventually someone would get down in one of those sand holes.

Two race cars had collided, flipping one over on it's side. I hope no one was hurt.



I picked up three plastic sand pail handles and one sand pail. This turtle was ready to eat one, but I grabbed it, just in time, to add to my growing collection of trash. Items found most often are: tissues, baby wipes, foil juice containers, the straws and cellophane wrapper, popsicle wrapper, gum wrappers, broken beach toys, and flip flops.

I picked up another fillet of sole. I sure hope you don't need a permit to do that.

I think this is deserving of the title of sand and shell art.

Yesterday when my grandsons were out in the water they picked up some chunks of sargassum and found a tiny crab and 3 very tiny fish, hiding in it. It shows you how important this seaweed is to wildlife.

You can make up your own conclusions for this one. A candle and two empty bottles on the beach???



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

We were hoping to see tiny turtle tracks heading toward the Gulf, but the nest still hasn't hatched.