Slow as a turtle...

Ahhh...have you noticed my efforts at being consistent with my blog lately? Hope all who could, wished your father a Happy Fathers' Day.

I did another "Florida" outing this weekend. On Friday evening, I drove to Canaveral National Seashore for a turtle walk. I'd made reservations a month ago, on the day the lines opened, to ensure myself a spot. The program began at 20:00 with a park guide telling us about the various sea turtles that come to Canaveral seashore to lay eggs. The most common is the loggerhead, in addition to Green turtles and on a rare occasion, the monstrous leatherback. She told us about their dietary habits and what happens when people litter. One incident involved a male loggerhead which wound up on shore (only the females come to shore). Emergency surgery revealed fishing line, plastic bags, cigarette butts, and even bubble gum all clogging his digestive system. Hence his being ill. Unfortunately, he died two days later.

But while we're being educated on turtles, two park scouts were roaming up and down the beach on ATVs looking for turtles. Around 21:15, they radioed to the information center where we were at, that they'd located a female moving ashore. So we all jumped in our vehicles and drove down to the boardwalk that she was nearest. Sure enough, there she was. She'd moved rather quickly, because when we got there, she had already dug the nest and was laying eggs. This female was around 250 lbs. As we were watching her, the guide told us that every time her back flippers move, she's having a contraction and 1 - 3 eggs would drop. After depositing around 100 eggs, she started covering the nest back up. We could tell she was beginning to get tired because she was slowing down as she flipped sand to cover the nest. I suppose I would be tired too after bulldozing my way onto a beach, digging a nest hole, laying eggs, then having to cover it back up again with the hopes that those dumb raccoons won't find the eggs. Speaking of raccoons, the guide told us about a raccoon they saw, that positioned itself behind the turtle, and as the eggs were dropping, it'd reach in and take them!

After she'd finished covering the nest, she slowly turned herself around and starting lumbering back to the ocean. We followed her until she disappeared into the water. Then we dug to locate the nest, put a fence screen over it, anchored it with rebar stakes, and placed a wooden marker at the nest site. During the nesting season, there are people who work 23:00 - 7:00 locating the nests each night and screening to protect them from animals who like turtle eggs. And it's work to locate exactly where the nest is, even with a ribbon placed in the nest to help find it.

And then there's silly me, who you'd think would've learned by now to bring bug spray. Even though I had long pants, socks, shoes, and a long-sleeve top, I was EATEN ALIVE by mosquitoes. I didn't realize how bad it was until I got back home and into the shower. My legs looked like I had contracted chicken pox - red welts all over the place. I spent half the time on the beach swatting at my face until a lady took pity on me and offered me some bug spray. Note to self...get bug spray before venturing out in nature again.

But I enjoyed myself so much and found it so interesting, that I signed up to go again in July. I'd be so thrilled if I could see a leatherback. Loggerheads are big enough though. It was great to witness this cycle of nature.

Hope your week is a super one....