Next I went to South Beach, taking the back road since the tide was still to high to pass the Boneyard. I'm not sure if we've written about it yet, but it's a doosy. Sharp turns, steep hills, trees and brush. It's a fun drive but it's very hard on the vehicle, not to mention the driver. It has improved a bit recently as someone cleared some of the close trees to open up some of the hairpin turns. When I got to the south tip, I saw in the distance two small boats ashore in the marsh. There were a couple guys walking around the dune, so I was suspicious of their activity. As soon as they saw my green truck, they got back in their boats and left. I like that I can appear to have some sort of authority out here, especially when just my presence puts people on edge. Most visitors are fine, but there's always the group that pushes the "No Trespassing" boundaries. As I headed north, I tried calling Steve to let him know I was finished and could help him, but as I was awaiting his call back, I came upon a crawl. At first I thought it was a false crawl as she came up to a steep escarpment, but then I noticed tracks above it. The turtle pulled herself up a two foot wall of sand. She laid her nest in a very safe spot, and soon I was ready to drive north to help Steve.
Steve told me over the phone that he had a lot of nests and crawls, so I was excited to get there. By the time I found him, I only saw one nest and one false crawl. Where was all the activity? I didn't make it too far before I found Steve digging an area in the myrtles with two sets of tracks. He had already relocated one nest and was just starting to look for a possible second. The two turtles, perhaps at the same time, nested within 6 feet of each other. Just after Steve updated me on his work, he found the next set of eggs. This nest, which would also be relocated, made 6 for North Beach today. Since Steve still had some work left, I biked North Middle for him. No activity there, so I quickly made it back. We both arrived at the tidal creek at the same time. Steve took a dip in the water to cool off after his workout this morning, which was extra hot without a breeze. I'm happy for Steve to have worked so many nests, though I feel bad 5 out of 6 were relocated. He's tough though.
On the way home we stopped at the crab trap, and found that someone had just baited it. Since we had crabs waiting to be recovered, we took the 5 that were in there and will let the person have what comes next. We keep running into this odd problem where someone takes our crabs, and baits it for more. You'd think that if the trap were in the water with crabs in it, then someone was obviously using it, right? Oh, well.
The rest of the day we relaxed. We started to watch Lost again. We like the island theme. At 5:30 we went to the clubhouse for dinner with the visiting teachers. Steve was able to tell them that the nest they watched last night had to be relocated, and had 156 eggs. One of our highest clutches yet. We'll be sure to let them know when their nest hatches. This has been another great opportunity to share stories with people who are also really interested in sea turtles. Thanks for the company!
Tonight, after we entered the data, we wondered if our busy day related to the busy day we had a while ago. It turns out that 13, 14, and 15 days ago were all very active. We expect the next couple days to bring good numbers. We're excited to note that today we hit 70 nests!
I'd like to share a blog from the New England Aquarium Marine Animal Rescue Team. They have sent a team to Louisiana to help rescue and rehabilitate sea turtles impacted by the oil spill.
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