July 2, 2013
I had Laura and her friend Patti with us. Laura first came to Singer Island in 2007 for the annual Central Michigan Universities summer break program. Laura told me she had such a great time on that college trip, that she wanted to ask if she and her friend could accompany me and my group while we did our nesting surveys during the first week of July while they are on vacation.
It was a busy morning today, and along with lots of nesting and false crawls, we excavated our 3rd hatched leatherback nest. As I dug down into the nest to collect our hatchling success information, I pulled out two stragglers.
The first one was pretty sleepy, but the second one was much more peppy. Unfortunately, neither one was quite ready to be released into the ocean at that time. Therefore, Donna and Mark took them up to the Marinelife Center in Juno Beach, to be held until they could be released sometime in the dark of the night.
You won't see any leatherback hatchlings in the tanks at Loggerhead Marinelife Center, because this species will continually swim into the sides of the tank and clunk their heads. They will be placed in a cool, dark container lined with sand until they can be released. The darkness of the inside of the container will calm them down and help to keep them quiet. Some are released to the ocean during the dark of the night, and some will be "VIP" turtles and given a boat ride out to the sargassum seaweed beds, about 10 miles off our shores. We are so lucky that we have such a wonderful sea turtle rehab facility right in our backyard. If you haven't visited it yet, please make sure you take the time to do so.
Wednesday, July 3, 2013
Saturday, June 29, 2013
June 25, 2013
Monday morning, Adriana and Sandy, two of our volunteers, excavated our first Leatherback nest that was laid on 4/8. This was the nest that we watched 52 hatchlings rush to the ocean on Friday morning, 6/21. After the mandatory 72 hour wait period, the final count was as follows:
I was surprised at the high number of hatched eggs. Leatherbacks have an average clutch size from 60-80 eggs. But as I tell my Volunteers, once you think you know everything about the "norm", nature will throw you a curve ball and leave you standing there in astonishment.
This Leatherback sea turtle was named "Pumpkin" by Christy back in 2010, when she was part of the night time leatherback study being conducted through the Juno Marinelife Center. Christy is now back with our group helping me with the morning surveys. We found out about Pumpkin nesting on our beach back in April by one of the night time surveyors from this study.
Today, my volunteer trainee group watched as Tyler and I excavated our second leatherback nest that was laid on 4/10. Here is the final count:
Another successful hatch for this critically endangered sea turtle.
On Thursday, 6/27 our first loggerhead nest of the season hatched. It was laid on April 25. We will get a hatchling success count on that nest on Sunday.
Monday morning, Adriana and Sandy, two of our volunteers, excavated our first Leatherback nest that was laid on 4/8. This was the nest that we watched 52 hatchlings rush to the ocean on Friday morning, 6/21. After the mandatory 72 hour wait period, the final count was as follows:
Hatched
|
Alive
|
Dead
|
Infertile
|
Pipped Live
|
Pipped Dead
|
Spacers
|
101
|
10
|
5
|
11
|
0
|
1
|
12
|
I was surprised at the high number of hatched eggs. Leatherbacks have an average clutch size from 60-80 eggs. But as I tell my Volunteers, once you think you know everything about the "norm", nature will throw you a curve ball and leave you standing there in astonishment.
This Leatherback sea turtle was named "Pumpkin" by Christy back in 2010, when she was part of the night time leatherback study being conducted through the Juno Marinelife Center. Christy is now back with our group helping me with the morning surveys. We found out about Pumpkin nesting on our beach back in April by one of the night time surveyors from this study.
Today, my volunteer trainee group watched as Tyler and I excavated our second leatherback nest that was laid on 4/10. Here is the final count:
Hatched
|
Alive
|
Dead
|
Infertile
|
Pipped Live
|
Pipped Dead
|
Spacers
|
75
|
2
|
2
|
8
|
0
|
2
|
19
|
Another successful hatch for this critically endangered sea turtle.
On Thursday, 6/27 our first loggerhead nest of the season hatched. It was laid on April 25. We will get a hatchling success count on that nest on Sunday.
Saturday, June 22, 2013
Leatherback nest hatches in the morning 6/21/13
June 21, 2013 (Written by Debbie)
Erica and I began the turtle survey at 6:30 AM. This is a busy time of the year (JUNE) for turtles nesting on our beaches in Palm Beach County. Singer Island included.
One of the loggerhead nests we came upon was located at the base of a 4 ft. escarpment at the waterline. I dug around until I located the clutch of eggs while Erica moved directly westward of where I was working and dug a new loggerhead nest. I was worried that we would loose that clutch of eggs at the next high tide, due to it precarious location. That loggerhead mom just couldn't make it over the escarpment and decided to nest anyway.
While I was removing eggs from the original nesting chamber, a few beach walkers told us that a nest was hatching at Ocean Reef Park and people were watching the emergence and keeping the crows from snatching up the hatchlings. At this time, we didn't know which nest or what species was hatching.
Erica and I finished relocating that clutch of 60 eggs, which is a small clutch compared to the average clutch which is about 100 eggs.
We hurried north as we continued our nesting survey, with a nice family accompanying us down to the hatch in progress.
One lady stood watch over the nest site. She said she was waiting for us to arrive, because she was afraid the crows would come down and try to grab a hatchling. There at the top of the sand, were 10 little black leatherback heads sticking out of the top of the nest site. Since it was daytime, I told everyone that was present that they could take photos.
* It is against Federal Law to bother a nesting female, or the hatchlings as they make their way to the ocean after emergence. All of this usually takes place in the middle of the night. People are not allowed to take flash photograpy or shine flashlights onto the turtles at night. Marine Patrol will regularly patrol the beaches and give out tickets to those folks who may be disturbing the turtles.
When my trained/permitted volunteers see hatchlings exposed to the hot sun and the heat of the day, we know we must get them moving and into the water as soon as possible.
I gently "tickled" up the leatherbacks that were exposed to the elements and they began moving out of the nest site and onto the early morning sand. And from that moment, all the others that were making their way out in a large group, began to move out too. They always try to hatch together at night in a large group, because there is safety in numbers. Also, at night, there are less predators waiting to prey on them. (Especially birds).
By that time, we had a large gang of people watching all the leatherback hatchlings march down to the water and swim away. They all stood on each side of the turtle trek and helped us watch for any crows that may try to swoop down and pick up breakfast. One boy chased a crow when it landed, not too far from where we all stood.
I told the people how special this event was, as we all watched in awe as 52 hatchlings emerged and ran down to the water. Hopefully, they will survive and return to their natal beach to nest, years later.
Erica and I began the turtle survey at 6:30 AM. This is a busy time of the year (JUNE) for turtles nesting on our beaches in Palm Beach County. Singer Island included.
One of the loggerhead nests we came upon was located at the base of a 4 ft. escarpment at the waterline. I dug around until I located the clutch of eggs while Erica moved directly westward of where I was working and dug a new loggerhead nest. I was worried that we would loose that clutch of eggs at the next high tide, due to it precarious location. That loggerhead mom just couldn't make it over the escarpment and decided to nest anyway.
While I was removing eggs from the original nesting chamber, a few beach walkers told us that a nest was hatching at Ocean Reef Park and people were watching the emergence and keeping the crows from snatching up the hatchlings. At this time, we didn't know which nest or what species was hatching.
Erica and I finished relocating that clutch of 60 eggs, which is a small clutch compared to the average clutch which is about 100 eggs.
We hurried north as we continued our nesting survey, with a nice family accompanying us down to the hatch in progress.
One lady stood watch over the nest site. She said she was waiting for us to arrive, because she was afraid the crows would come down and try to grab a hatchling. There at the top of the sand, were 10 little black leatherback heads sticking out of the top of the nest site. Since it was daytime, I told everyone that was present that they could take photos.
* It is against Federal Law to bother a nesting female, or the hatchlings as they make their way to the ocean after emergence. All of this usually takes place in the middle of the night. People are not allowed to take flash photograpy or shine flashlights onto the turtles at night. Marine Patrol will regularly patrol the beaches and give out tickets to those folks who may be disturbing the turtles.
When my trained/permitted volunteers see hatchlings exposed to the hot sun and the heat of the day, we know we must get them moving and into the water as soon as possible.
I gently "tickled" up the leatherbacks that were exposed to the elements and they began moving out of the nest site and onto the early morning sand. And from that moment, all the others that were making their way out in a large group, began to move out too. They always try to hatch together at night in a large group, because there is safety in numbers. Also, at night, there are less predators waiting to prey on them. (Especially birds).
By that time, we had a large gang of people watching all the leatherback hatchlings march down to the water and swim away. They all stood on each side of the turtle trek and helped us watch for any crows that may try to swoop down and pick up breakfast. One boy chased a crow when it landed, not too far from where we all stood.
I told the people how special this event was, as we all watched in awe as 52 hatchlings emerged and ran down to the water. Hopefully, they will survive and return to their natal beach to nest, years later.
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