Friday, June 12, 2009
More Sea Turtle Eggs Stolen
I've just read another story about poachers stealing sea turtle eggs from nests at Casey Key and Venice Beach. So I thought I would use this as a reminder. If you happen to be on a beach and see anyone tampering with a sea turtle nest, notify authorities. On Sanibel & Captiva Islands, you can notify SCCF at 239-472-3817, ext. 228, Monday – Friday. On weekends, report it to the Sanibel Police at 239-472-3111.
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Wee Willie's Off & Flapping
Want to read a nice story about a Kemp's Ridley sea turtle called “Wee Willie?" You could find out why he flew from London to NC and other interesting facts.
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
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.
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.
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
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.
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
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.
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.
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