After 11 hours of sleep, you'd think I'd be ready to get out of bed this morning. Not so much. I definitely take after my mom and her ability to sleep long hours. We rolled out of bed and performed the normal routine. Scratch normal, because big or small, something is always thrown at us. Today it was the Mule. The battery and starter worked, but the engine just wouldn't agree. Steve kept trying, pumping the gas, trying the choke. Then, BAM! We backfired. This happened three times. I have never seen it happen so when I saw an explosion out the exhaust I was pretty scared. We gave up and moved the gear to the truck. This was our first turtle patrol with it, so we didn't know what to expect.
The tide has changed our routine. I got stuck on the north end of North Beach yesterday because a small tidal creek reformed and I timed the patrol all wrong. Lesson learned, so we headed south. South Beach was first, but the truck couldn't make it past the boneyard so I walked and Steve drove the windy, hilly, neglected road. He eventually made it, and walking proved to be that faster mode of transportation. South Beach had a false crawl, which was nice after days of nothing. One of the nests washed over again. There are about four nests over the entire island that have washed over 3 times with these full moon tides. We're told not to lose hope. Nature knows more about sea turtle nesting than we do.
South Middle Beach had a nest (SM7) and a false crawl. The nest was placed safely up in the dune, thankfully. Lately I've been dealt relocations, so just having to find the nest and lay some screens was a treat. One part of the patrol that we haven't really written about is the opportunity to scan the beach for washed up treasure. Not really treasure, but objects worth recovering. Today we picked up a small boat fender and a blue crab trap buoy that I've had my eye on. I've been collecting the buoys to hang around the turtle shed. Only nice, brightly colored ones accepted. There's a green door mat out there, so Steve, if you read this, bring it home. You'll see it seaward of the high tide line ;)
Since we reached the north end before I thought it was safe to drive North Beach, we decided to kill time by walking North Middle together. We both hopped on the single person kayak and carefully paddled to the other side. Steve grabbed the bicycle and rode alongside me. We thought it safe to bring it along in case there was a nest and one of us needed to go get screens. Only a few minutes into the walk and we spotted a false crawl. Soon after, Steve decided to go ahead of me. I walked along the shell line deposited by this morning's tide while he surveyed the rest of the beach. I found some crabs and some small purple invertebrates I've never seen before. They we're shaped like flat mushrooms, though one side had tentacles. Steve returned with a report of another false crawl. After saving the purple things, and a sea star from the falling tide, we kayaked back to North Beach to finish the day.
North Beach had two false crawls and two nests. One of the false crawls was in the dead myrtles. So far all of the turtles hit the trees and turn around. This turtle was determined to crawl inshore. Turn after turn, she kept going deeper into the shrubby area. We had to crawl on our hands and knees to follow the track. Eventually she gave up and maneuvered back to the ocean. I feel bad for her and hope she didn't get lost. These nests (NB10 & NB11) were placed in the dunes and should be safe from high tides in the future. We tried to finish the beach by truck but were stopped by soft sand. After 4 wheel drive, low gear, and the help of a shovel, we were forced to drive back to hard sand and walk the remainder of beach. We ran into some nice people getting a head start to the Memorial Day weekend.
On our return patrol we stopped at the nests to check for depredation. So far we counted ourselves as lucky. Just as we passed an eroded area, I thought I saw something that needed further inspection. The hogs have started rooting again and sometimes the holes can look like turtle activity. Just to be sure, I walked to the scarped area thinking it was just hog activity. It turned out to be a depredated nest. My heart sank as I turned back to Steve to get out of the truck. We began collecting all the eggs in a bucket so we could count them later. The eggs were everywhere. We even dug up the hole to hopefully find intact eggs. After we thought we recovered everything, we set off for home. When we got back, I called Mark to figure out the next step. After giving him the details, he told me that he thought we found eggs from one of last year's nests. The calcified condition of the eggs could not have happened overnight, nor even several days. I was so relieved to hear that and to tell Steve. Although we know it'll happen eventually, we're just glad it hasn't happened yet.
The rest of the afternoon was spent cleaning out the dusty, mouse poop ridden laundry room. We're told the machines don't work, but Steve wants a crack at them. Right now we have to drive to the other house to use the machines, but every now and then, random people stay there. I hate to walk in on strangers, such as this weekend, so I'll wait patiently as Steve hones in on his Macgyver skills.
Updates:
We removed our 200th balloon today from the beach.
Gertrude (a mouse) was set free today.
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