Walk #6

The first thing I noticed was the moon, as I walked out onto the beach this morning at 6:15.

There was a huge cloud, straight in front of me.


This was the view to my left and toward the Sanibel Lighthouse, that always gives me a welcoming blink, when I arrive.

Right away, I was surprised at the size of the piles of manatee grass.

As the sun was coming up, the clouds gradually began changing color. That's one of my favorite parts of the sunrise.



There was a deep row of manatee grass at one of the high tide lines. It was as much as 1 to 2 feet deep in places.









The deep manatee grass was not pleasant to walk in and someone had made a path through this pile of it.

Those scattered clumps along the high-tide line actually have a name - beach wrack - and are an important part of the beach ecosystem. Today there was a lot of beach wrack. There were some curiosities that came in along with the sea grasses.

These things had come in with the newer clumps of sea grasses and were still alive.

I thought this was a piece of some kind of sea grass at first, then I saw it move. Another one of these was swimming in a tidal pool. I saw around 30 or 40 of these. I've been searching, but haven't found a name for this yet.





The two treasures found today. A teeny tiny Turkey Wing and a pretty hibiscus bloom laying on the beach. I'm just not going to discuss the bad things like a nasty pamper floating in a tidal pool and the two full bags of trash that we carried away. These two things made up for that. :-)


Most of the walk was very pleasant today. At first it was cool enough, but about 10 minutes before leaving the beach, it had begun to warm up quickly. We had some rain during the night, so the noseeums were bad at first; but after using the bug spray, they stayed away.

There were no new turtle tracks today. The only tracks were raccoon tracks over the top of the one sea turtle nest in our zone. Thank goodness, it had done no digging into the nest. If all goes well, our nest should hatch around July 10. We got to see the little Plovers again this morning, and I always love watching them and counting to see if they are all still there. I'm not sure, but I think one chick was missing in the second family. Maybe it had just wandered further away from the parents.

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



This video of the Plover chicks is so cute! I think they will soon be a little too big to squeeze under their Mommy's wings.

Twenty Three Sea Turtles Released Back Into the Wild

The Karen Beasley Sea Turtle Rescue and Rehabilitation Center on Topsail Island released 23 rehabilitated sea turtles back into the wild this morning. Hundreds of people were in attendance to help send the turtles on their way.

Turtle Walk #5

Started out just as it was getting light out this morning. There were clouds all around and I could see lightning in some of the clouds that were further away. There were only a couple of other people in sight as we walked out onto the beach, but within a few minutes there were many more.




The sun seemed to come up very quickly this morning. I suppose it was because the Snowy Plover chicks caught my eye again and kept me well entertained for a while.



You have to click on the screen to start the player and then click on it once more to take you to YouTube where you can see the entire screen. If you watch it here, you miss seeing the birds on the right side. My blog is not set up to view the full width. I'm going to work on that soon!

The Plovers scurry around so fast that their parents can hardly keep track of them. If the adult bird sees anyone or anything move toward the chicks, they hold their wings out and the tiny little chicks snuggle in underneath them for protection. The one legged male Plover that we saw last week, was there again today.

This morning we saw 2 sets of chicks. One set was 3 chicks and the other was 2 chicks. You can help these endangerd birds by suporting the SCCF Snowy Plover Project.

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






The tide was out pretty far, so the shore birds were having great luck, gathering their breakfast.


These birds stand on only one leg so much of the time, with the other leg up and hidden, that you sometimes think they only have one leg. I was thinking about that as I watched this one for a long time. Finally it took flight and for sure, it did only have one leg. It had a little trouble on the take-off but then did just fine.

The pelicans were out early, diving for their breakfast too. I never get tired of watching their antics.


There's just something so cute, about a little child toddling along in the water.

Found some things tossed here and there, but the strangest thing was the red retainer. Somebody's Mamma is probably very upset.


A very cute scupture!


There were a lot of places where the water was coming in and then swirling around to run back again, making trenches. You could stand by them and watch the small shells drifting back through. I think these would have been good places to sit in your chair and just wait for a tiny junonia to come drifting by. :-)


There was a little of the manatee grass on the beach, but nothing that would bother you at all. What was there, had no odor at all.

Just before finishing the walk, we ran into a nice fellow that we had met because has worked at Jerry's Restaurant. He was pushing a stroller and carrying a fishing pole and equipment. He called out to us and went over to see the cutest little baby girl, with big dimples and a huge smile. I'm guessing she is somewhere around 3 months old and he said she loves to go fishing with her Daddy. Now, how cute is that!

There were no signs of turtle tracks this morning. :-(

If you have the time, you might want to check out this cute article about Willy, who is at Topsail, NC Sea Turtle Hospital.

Today's post continued on my Lazy Days Blog.

Walk #4

Arrived at the Buttonwood access on the east end of the island, around 6:15 AM. The sky in the east was already getting pink. It was warm this morning, around 78. With a SW wind, it didn't seem that warm.

I saw the first turtle nest in our zone, as soon as I walked out on the beach. We checked to make sure it hadn't been disturbed. It was found Thursday, May 21, in front of The Colony Beach Estates. There have now been a total of 5 false crawls in our zone, as well.


It was obvious that there was a lot of traffic on this part of the beach over the holiday weekend. Plenty of kiddie items were left behind, scattered here and there, most all were broken and just left where they fell. A beach ball was hiding in the dunes. There were also a few cans, bottles, plastic bags, tissues and other items. There was one nice lady walking on the beach, carrying a large plastic bag, she was putting trash in. Thank you lady!! The critters and I thank you!


This was strange.

After a closer look, it was still strange! The square hole was about around 4 feet deep and 10 feet on each side. On the right and left sides, there are small palm trees that had been cut off, laying on the sand. They still had the green palm fronds at the top, so they hadn't been cut because they were dying. Talk about a turtle trap! So, will this be there until Florida freezes over, or what? Also had to dump this one in the Permittee's hands.

I got to see what I'm pretty sure was a Yellow-crowned Night Heron.

I found another Orange ?? shell ?? :-)

Now, I have seen a Common Egg Cockle shell, a Morton's Egg Cockle shell, but this is obviously half of an Easter Egg Cockle shell. :-)

I think this is a sea turtle who has just completed a 'false crawl'.

These sand sculptures in front of Sanibel Arms West, were very cute. Someone had spent a lot of time and effort making them. But, it's a shame they didn't take into consideration the fact it's sea turtle nesting season. They are right in front of the dune area, which is where turtles usually nest. They should have been taken down, but I didn't have the heart to do it. We did tell our Permittee, so they can do what they think should be done. We did fill quite a few holes on the beach today. I believe that someone from SCCF has been driving the beach lately, checking for holes and filling them. A friend of mine saw them a couple of times on the beach in the West Gulf Drive area.

The sun finally rising from behind the clouds.

The Gulf was pretty calm and wasn't bringing in many shells at all.

This pelican flew right over my head and surprised me by diving into very shallow water. It did get it's catch for breakfast. Just as a seagull landed right by it's head, I saw him swallow it down. The seagull had to go find his own breakfast.

I love the sunrises!



The mermaid looks as though she had a rough weekend.

About half way back, we spotted the Snowy Plovers again and thought they were the same two young ones that we saw last week hiding under their mother's wings. She was still with them or their father was, but they have really grown. They were also wandering farther away now, but the parent was still keeping a close watch.



We weren't sure if this was the Mother or Father Plover, but it looked like it was missing a foot. It had a limp as it walked, but still was able to get where it wanted to go. There was a band on its other leg. You can tell in this video, how fast they run across the sand. It is hard to spot them because their color is nearly the same as the sand. If you take your eyes off them, you can't quickly find them back again. They are very cute and fun to watch.

After spotting the little chicks running around last week, we sent an email and link to that video to Cara Faillace, who is the Snowy Plover Technician with SCCF Snowy Plover Project. She replied, saying that it look like the brood from nest 003 and thanked us for sharing the video. Today we sent another link to this video. She promptly responded with this interesting information: Those chicks are in our records as officially fledged. the adult in the video is the male from that nest- he is indeed missing a foot and has been since 2006. I believe he was banded as a chick in 2005. In 2007 he successfully fledged 2 chicks, in 2008 he fledged 1 chick and this year he has another 2. He's also a favorite with staff and plover volunteers. The female from this nest is banded as white over green on the right leg and silver over green on the left.

I did see one turtle on the beach, it was crawling toward the dunes. But, it wasn't a sea turtle. It was a Florida Box turtle, who was kind enough to let me get a picture before he hid in the vegetation.


There was also a skate egg case, sometimes called a mermaid's purse, left at a high tide line. You may remember that I have posted photos of these before. A skate is related to the Stingray.

At the end of the walk, this is what we had collected. Next stop.....dumpster in Lighthouse Beach parking area.

These are the small shells I picked up today.

Turtle Walk # 3

This was a chilly morning for an early turtle walk. It was very cloudy, 68 degrees and a strong NE wind. I was wearing shorts and short sleeve shirt, was barefoot and wished I had a jacket.

It was pretty dark, on arrival at the beach. The Ft Myers Beach lights were shining brightly across the water, as was the beacon in our lighthouse.

In only a few minutes, there was enough light to start walking. It's important for any of you beach walkers to wait until it's light enough, because of all the holes, that are not easily seen. It's somewhat encouraging to know that the Sanibel PD is increasing their enforcement of beach ordinances. Holes on the beach are becoming more of a problem. Any large holes in a turtle walker's zone are to be reported. SCCF is working with the city to document the problem and find a solution.

All along the way, I kept noticing how many lights were on. During 'Turtle Nesting Season', there are notices in each condo, requesting that you keep the blinds or curtains closed if you have lights on during the dark hours. Keeping lights turned off on the lanais and by condo doors is also important. But, as dark as it still was, lights seemed to be glowing everywhere in this zone. I was thinking that if I was a sea turtle, I would most definitely turn around and try to find another place to lay my eggs. It is really surprising that people can be so thoughtless or uncaring.











There were so many clouds still hanging around this morning, that I never got a glimpse of the sun.









This fellow is doing my kind of fishing! I hope he won't be mad if he sees himself on my blog. I just thought he was so cute, sitting there all relaxed.



There were few shells, and all were small. It was very hard to spot the ones that I picked up, while walking along. I had to stop, do the stoop, and wait a few seconds to focus on them. Hmmm, is that another sign of old age? If so, I don't like that one either. Yes.....I have others.

It wasn't difficult to spot, the all too common in the sunshine state, 'orange peel scallop'.



You've probably already guessed, this is the common 'marked float on a rope'. A 10 foot rope, to be exact.



Better when viewed on YouTube in HD, by clicking on the screen below.


There were no signs of a turtle crawl today and I was ready for a stop at the Sanibel Cafe and some hot coffee!

I cleaned my little shells when I got home. Here they are....Ta...da!

NEW INFORMATION

2008 Statewide Sea Turtle Survey Results

Sanibel and Captiva weren’t the only beaches
to see an increase in sea turtle nesting last year.
In 2008, there were 61,455 loggerhead nests that
produced 3,583,893 hatchlings in the state of
Florida. This is down from the 1998 peak of 85,000
nests but an increase from 2007’s all time nesting
low. Despite this increase, the decreasing trend in
loggerhead nesting continues. Nesting has decreased
41% during the last ten years. With 90%
of all U.S. loggerhead nests occurring in the state,
2008 leaves us hopeful, but still concerned for the
plight of the loggerhead.
2008 was a good year for the other sea turtle species
that nest on Florida’s beaches as well. There
were 9,228 green sea turtle nests and 727 leatherback
sea turtle nests across the state. The rare
Kemp’s Ridley and Hawksbill sea turtles also made
a few appearances on Florida beaches. There were
thirteen Kemp’s Ridley and four Hawksbill nests.

First Nest of the Season

This year the honor of the first nest of the season
goes to Captiva. The nest was laid
on the evening of Friday May 8. Sanibel’s first nest
was laid on Sunday May 10. The first nest in Lee County was found
the morning of May 1 on Cayo Costa.

Adopt-A-Nest Challenge

The sea turtle program is issuing a challenge!
Last year, the program received 43 nest adoptions.
We want to reach 100 adoptions this year!

A-Dopt-A-Nest form and information.