Friday, September 28, 2012

Turtle Time



My family and I recently visited Bald Head Island, staying at a friend's most lovely home. Bald Head is a barrier island off the coast of North Carolina on the east side of Cape Fear and has both beautiful shorelines and a maritime forest. 

Loggerhead and Green Sea turtles nest here. As all the nests were empty, we were too late to go on a night turtle watch to see the hatchlings head to the ocean. One of the volunteers at the Bald Head Island Conservancy suggested going to a nest excavation. Three or more days after the nest has emptied, they carefully sift through the sandy nest, counting the shells to determine live births, eggs that fertilized but arrested, non fertilized eggs, and check to see if there are any late bloomers. 

There were seventy nests this year, sixty-seven loggerhead and three green sea turtle. This Loggerhead nest had 91 hatched eggs and 23 unhatched eggs. Some eggs were unfertilized, some had arrested development.


Hatched and Unhatched Eggs

Occasionally, there will be one or two found alive in the nest. To my delight, this nest had six very lively hatchlings.




After allowing those  of us gathered there a close look at the little fellows, we watched them be placed on the sand and scramble their way into the Atlantic. It was a joyous experience. I felt very fortunate to be on this beautiful beach on a sunny breezy morning witnessing this miracle of life. 


7 comments:

  1. what a fantastic experience Jude.

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  2. Oh is was Pat! I always enjoy reading about your bird sightings during your travels. There are so many things to experience.

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  3. Jude, how lovely! So glad you were able to see the baby turtles scrambling off to their ocean and their new life. True joy.

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  4. (Second attempt to comment--maybe the other will show up?) New turtles, heading for the ocean and their new life. I can't think of anything more joyous!

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  5. Susan, seeing those little flippers churning as they made a beeline for the water was both comical and inspiring. The odds are stacked against them but I like to think they are out there now, swimming and growing bigger until they reach their 80 pound adult weight.

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  6. What a wonderful and life-affirming experience, Jude. Glad it worked out so great for you and for the baby turtles.

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  7. Sam I am already longing to be back on the beach. They allow dogs on all the beaches there. I took my Yorkie Buddy, thinking he would be puzzled by the moving salty water. Nope, he completely ignored it and seemed to only be puzzled as to why I kept trying to get him to get his paws wet!

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