2010 WALTON COUNTY SEA TURTLE NESTS PERMIT #120
NEST #1 058\10 MID WEST- BEACH HIGHLANDS KEMP’S
NEST #2 06-01-10 EAST PELICAN CIRCLE LOGGERHEAD
NEST #3 06-02-10 MID EAST- EAST OF SUGAR DNS LOGGERHEAD
NEST #4 06-02-10 MID WEST WEST END OF RETREAT LOGGERHEAD
NEST #5 06-03-10 MID EAST SEA GROVE VILLAS LOGGERHEAD
NEST #6 06-05-10 MID EAST—DUNES OF SEAGROVE LOGGERHEAD
NEST #7 06-09-10 MID EAST—SEASIDE PENSACOLA ST LOGGERHEAD
NEST #8 06-12-10 MID WEST—WEST END OF SEA CLIFF LOGGERHEAD
NEST #9 06-14-10 MID WEST BEACH HIGHLAND DR. LOGGERHEAD
NEST #10 06-20-10 WEST WEST OF WALKON 4 Miles LOGGERHEAD
NEST #11 06-22-10 MID WEST-GULF TRACE LOGGERHEAD
NEST #12 06-23-10 MID EAST—SEASIDE LOGGERHEAD
NEST #13 06-25-10 MID WEST—DUNE ALLAN LOGGERHEAD
NEST #14 06-27-10 MID WEST BELLA VISTA LOGGERHEAD
NEST #15 06-27-10 EAST-=HIGHPOINT-INLET BEACH LOGGERHEAD
NEST #16 6-27-10 MID EAST WATERSOUND LOGGERHEAD
Even with the rain the ruts are awful. She came up to the left of the picture, body pitted and started to nest then tried to get to the top of the dune, almost made it, slid back down came almost to the water and nested, the eggs were just to the left of the flag.
Once again please don’t walk without your flags.
Was found this morning by Johndra and marked by Sondra and Dawn, just east of the Retreat. As you can see poor Mom turtle came up through a tent, bumped into a pole where she nested to low and west out just missing another tent. Why oh why can’t people put up their stuff at night.
NE wind blowing, hard packed sand, beautiful beaches and water, what more could you ask for, well Nest #19 found by Bobby Stuart in Water Sound. Hurrah
Well, Buzz has been walking for us for many happy years and here he is with him nest.
Bobby found a loggerhead nest on Deer Lake State Park this morning, her and Joe marked it.
A false crawl #13 was found by Oyster Lake, a green this is the second night she has tried to nest, let’s hope she does tonight.
Not how after she nested she could not find the water because of the lights and went up and down and all over.
Found by Bobby Stuart the nest King east of Deer Lake State Park, Loggerhead. We also now have 14 false crawls
Sandestin of course. Found this morning, a small Loggerhead with a small crawl, we have seen her before. She did not come far out of the water to nest. Note the tracks, and they say Loggerhead, alternating, small no tail drag, no front flippers, can see all of the back flippers. Had to really work hard to keep the day cleaners off the beach, told them to stop at Sandestin and they did, and boy do they drive fast, hopefully after phones call they will stop nest time and go slower. Also had to fight the vendors, what fun. As always Sandestin has a nest. Next picture will be of the nest.
This is a loggerhead nest, not much to it correct. But it is a nest, she came in with her track on the right, she how she then covered up part of that track with thrown sand, they she went out to the left. Not a lot of thrown sand but loggerheads do not always thrown a lot of sand, Greens do…You who walk at night please know the difference between the two and never, I mean never follow a sea turtle up the beach.
I got a call from a family at Seaside last night about baby sea turtles and after another call and talking to Joe, this family saw the adult sea turtle come up on the beach to lay eggs, so they wanted to see her good so they and other shone their bright flash lights on her. Guess what she went back into the water, surprise, surprise, how many times do we have to tell people to not shines lights on turtles. Ugh, this was Seaside are they not suppose to be environmental, where is the education. Joe said when I called him and he went down there were people, with flashlights all over, some even had strobe lights. PLEASE PEOPLE NOT FLASHLIGHTS ON THE BEACH, USE ONLY RED LED LIGHT OMITTING LIGHTS.
Oh, by the way the women I talked to though the turtle came up to have her babies, this was about 9 p.m.
Was found this morning by Kate Johnson. What a morning.
Nest #25 was found by Alan Newsome, Alan found 3 nests today, yes, three, we were very busty, I had to walk and go to Seagrove. All nests were in seagove and we found the eggs. Hurrah….
Nest #27 Seagrove again, a good learning time for the contractors on the beach…
Found this morning by Bobby, he also found Deer Lake false crawl #1 and Anne found our false crawl #19.. Ugh
My non beach day started early with two false crawls at 4 Mile Village , this is a green she came up as far as she could and then went back. Notice the track the ridge on each side of the middle, no swaying motion as she pulls both flippers at one time and the the long sharp front flippers on each side, this tracks measured 48 inches in all, a fine green but no nest.
This is the Loggerhead false crawl #22 on 4 Mile also. She came up and made this body pit before going up to the dune and then went back to the water. Note you see the back flippers no sharp front flippers and also can see the swaying of when she pulled both flippers at one time. This is one and then the other.
So I get home, sit down with dogs and coffee and the paper and the sheriff’s office calls, a turtle has been spotted on the beach in 3 different areas down near Whales Tail. So off I go again. She is way up in the dunes laying her eggs, so I take pictures, measure, call FWS and do all the things we do, here are her tracks. By the way it is really hot now at 8:30
She had been in twice before, and some people had put her back into the Gulf. After all my paperwork was done…at 140 feet from the water she hit a walkover, the she went 46 more feet up and hit the seawall, then she went another 30 feet alone the seawall and was nesting in the sand and grasses, I thought, but she did not move. So I took the sand off her as I talked to Lorna. I did not know what I had as she had completely covered herself up and was not moving.
What fun it is to walk, Nests, 1,5 and 7 have been relocated into coolers, Nests 3,4, and 6 were found to be piping and caged. Nest #3 has hatched out 88 and the hatchlings are being taken to the East Coast to be released. This will be the case of the other caged nests. Nest 2 hatched into the Gulf and dug. I do not know of any nest digs at this time. This all is being coordinated by others. I will just update.
Great news out of the nests we caged and sent to the East Coast. We sent 270 hatchlings out of 3 nests and only 1, yes, only 1 died on the way. So thanks so much team. Hope they come back to our white sandy beaches.
Nest #29 is in Seagrove near the Villas,
Nest #30 is at Pelican Circle in Sea Crest
68 Hatchlings left by Fed Ex to be release tonight on the East Coast.
Again as of today 8 \24\2010 all nests will be screened. Nest #19 at WaterSound has been predated and a few eggs are left, it is at day 54
Nest #20 was completely predated and 46 hatchling were found on top of the sand by the early morning walker, 39 were dead and 7 alive and released but only 3 on these poor babies made it to the water. This nest was on Blue Mountain Beach
Nest # 21 on Blue Mountain was also completely predated and nothing but a few egg shells were found.
Nest #22 at Water Sound was predated and a few eggs are left and day 50 will be 8-29-10
Nest #23 was undisturbed and will be at day 50 on 9-01-10
The predators appear to be fox. Coyote and dogs. If you see anything running loose near or on the beach please notify me. Thanks.