We stayed out for quite awhile and finally went back to the house for a late dinner. As we were finishing our dinner, we noticed a crowd of people gathering near the stuff we left down on the beach. When we looked closer, we saw a sea turtle crawling up the beach! It was right behind the house next to us. It must have came out of the ocean right around where we had been playing. 
As you can imagine, it was rather amazing to see the huge turtle crawl up the beach and start digging in the sand. (You can see her kickin up the sand in the last pic.) I don't think the pictures do justice to her size. We felt so lucky to get to see it. There were crowds of people on our section of the beach the rest of the night. The "turtle police" (as we like to call them) made sure no one made any loud noises or shined flashlights on her. When she was done and turned around to return to the ocean, they trapped her in an open top box and tagged her. They also did some bloodwork and other tests to check for any effects last year's oil spill may have had on her. They had her contained for a couple hours while they did their tests and allowed the epoxy on the tracker to dry. This morning more volunteers checked to be sure there were actually eggs in the nest (there were) and then roped off the nest area to keep it safe. 
A couple houses further down on the beach is a turtle nest that is ready to hatch. Tonight the "turtle police" let the kids listen to the special instrument that detects the "waterfall" sound the sand makes as the turtles hatch and the sand shifts around them. There were several waterfalls, and we could see an indentation on the top of the sand in the middle of the nest. It could take several hours or even days for them all to hatch and begin to emerge from the sand. The "police" asked for our phone # and promised to call when the hatchlings begin to emerge so the kids can come watch.
4 comments:
I am so excited for you!! We've seen turtle nests in Cayman and Florida but except for our turtle release in Mexico, we've never actually seen one lay eggs or hatch. So cool! Keep blogging!
No call last night. Hopefully it will be tonight!
Wow! Did you know your vacation would coincide with turtle hatching?
I thought they nested earlier. I had hoped we'd see a nest, but didn't figure we'd be lucky enough to see any turtles. Am keeping my fingers crossed that we'll get to see the hatchlings, too!
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