Beach records first turtle nest of season
The pursuit to find the first sea turtle nest of the season is over. On Sunday, May 23, Turtle Time, Inc. volunteers Bob Pichler and Carol Lis located a Loggerhead nest just before sunrise on their patrol on the south end of Estero Island.
“It’s an exhilarating feeling to find one, and to know that an endangered (turtle) species came up during the night and found, in this case, a very good location to put her eggs,” said Turtle Time founder Eve Haverfield.
The location of the first nest was up on a dune protecting it from any wash-over. Being on higher ground also allows proper drainage just in case.
“The eggs can tolerate a wash-over,” said Haverfield. “They just can’t tolerate being submerged. This turtle was very smart and nested in an excellent area.”
The nest, which was located in the Little Estero Critical Wildlife Area, was found between two roped off bird areas, according to Haverfield.
“We don’t want to sacrifice anything,” she said. “We have threatened and endangered species nesting out there with snowy plovers, Wilson’s plovers and Loggerheads. We don’t want eggs damaged. We are grateful that this turtle nested in a good location.”
According to Haverfield, Turtle Time volunteers tend to look 15 to 20 feet ahead of their paces for changing patterns on the beach.
“Once you see your first turtle track, it’s unmistakable,” said Haverfield about the find. “It’s a pattern in the sand that begins at the previous night’s high tide line. It looks like a tractor has come out of the water. A loggerhead track can be three or four feet wide, so it’s a very characteristic marking done by the turtle’s rear flippers, front flippers and the part of her shell that is dragging on the sand.”
Haverfield said each sea turtle’s tracks are very distinctive. In 31 years, she has documented only Loggerheads on Estero Island.
“The Leatherback (sea turtle) track can be more than six feet wide, and that animal lumbers and undulates when it crawls on the beach,” she said. “The Greens do the butterfly (by paddling their flippers at the same time). Kemp Ridleys nest in the day time. Loggerheads walk like we do with alternating flipper motions.”
Haverfield says the last phase of the Loggerheads nesting process is to camouflage the nest.
“There is a considerable amount of sand that’s dispersed when they cover and camouflage their nests,” she said. “If it’s not a nest, you can follow that track on up and back. None of the track would have been obliterated by her throwing sand around.”
Now that turtle nesting season is one month old, Haverfield is more than happy to have that first nest recorded. She said the winter’s unseasonably cold stretch delayed the start.
“The latest first nest that has been documented is June 2,” she said. “It probably puts us about three weeks back because the Gulf water temperatures have been cooler. They like the water to be consistently over 80 degrees.”
Due to the impending threat of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, many Turtle Time volunteers have taken the HAZMAT online training to help address any sea turtle issues.
“We hope we don’t have to go to those measures,” said Haverfield. “We’re keeping our flippers crossed.”
As far as lighting issues, the Turtle Time founder applauds the effort of Town Environmental Sciences Coordinator Keith Laakkonen as well as residents and visitors. She does ask anyone who digs holes on the beach to fill them up before leaving.
“I want to extend my gratitude to the home owners, visitors and businesses who have gone the extra step to stack their furniture, chain their furniture, shield lights and install proper lights (amber LED lights are best),” said Haverfield. “I’d like to see the beach left more natural, not flattened out through beach grooming methods. Because of so much erosion, the beach is very low. If we get even the mildest storm event or the mildest cycle where we get high tides, the Gulf waters go all the way up to the sea walls. I’m certainly in support of building up the beach so that it becomes an excellent habitat, becomes attractive and becomes protective.”