Category: Local Wildlife

Sea Turtle season stated yesterday and the very first patrol got to see a mother turtle preparing her nest and laying eggs.  Witnessing a mother sea turtle lay a nest is a once in a lifetime event.  Yesterday, the very first nest of the year was a Kemp’s Ridley Turtle.  This turtle is very rare to our area.  Tyically only one or two a year are all that we see.  This turtle is unusual because it lays its eggs during the day.

  This is a very vulnerable time for a mother turtle because during the daylight hours predators can see her dark body against the light sand in our area.  Most predators will leave her alone but they will go after her unprotected eggs once she heads back to the water.  This is why she buries them.  In fact she buries these ping pong ball like eggs so well often you can even tell she has been there.  The only tell tale sign is her flipper and body marks she left as she came out of the water and returned to it.  These marks are called a crawl.  This is what the volunteers from the share the beach program look for when doing morning patrols.

Once these nests are fond by the patrol they are dug up to make sure we know the exact placement of the eggs.  Once they are found if they are not too close to the water they are recovered and marked so that they are not trampled by visitors to the beach.  You will see them surrounded by 4 stakes and brightly colored ribbon arond with signs telling about the federally protected animal. 

After about 55 days the turtles are ready to hatch out of their leathery shells.  Once they are out they head to the surface of the nest whichs the beach. They take a brief rest on the beach they like little soliders they march often in line to the water just as quickly as they can.  The Kemps Ridley babies hatch during the day as well which makes them vulnrable as they make their way to the water.  Once in the water the babies look like they are flying.  They swim to the nearest seaweed bed to eat and grow for a few years.

We cannot always post when a nest is found however the Bon Scour refuge does keep trackof them and they have a site dedicated to Alabama Sea Turtles.  You can keep track of nests you may have seen on vacation.  You can also learn all sorts of information on this site about sea turtles.  Hopefully you and your family will have a chance to witness this once in a life time happening!

I was just closing up our office to head home Thanksgiving Eve when I received a call from the refuge office at Bon Secour.  A year or two ago I went through some additional training to learn how to gather data from a stranded sea turtle and take care of it if need be.  Today it was not a stranded sea turtle. It was a stranded dolphin.  They asked me to go and take a look at the animal and help out how I could until the recovery team could get there.

Our maintenance man Jim Merrick was here with me and we received some brief training about what to do then headed that way.  Jim was there a few minutes before me and when I arived he was already knee deep in the water helping the dolphin stay upright.  I brought some towels to help keep it’s back moist and we waited.

While we waited we heard the story of how the dolphin was found.  Several owners and their children saw the dolphin splashing in the harbor and then it beached itself on shore at the head of the harbor. The owners headed to the cove and got the dolphin back into the water.  They even got it back into the deeper water where it could swim.  However, the dolphin was very sick and headed back to the shore.  Soon after, Fish and Wildlife were called to help.  The employees at the Bon Secour refuge contacted the Institute for Marine Mammal Studies in Gulf Port, Mississippi.  The IMMS were on their way to retrive the dolphin and move it to their rehab facility.

In the mean time, Jim and some of the owners from Navy Cove were helping the dolphin stay upright and damp while we waited.  Mike Reynolds from the “Share the Beach” program joined us and was in contact with IMMS throughout our wait.  The dolphin kept his eyes closed and seemed very confused. At one point he seemed to really be struggling so the helpful volunteers moved him a bit further out of the water and dug holes in the ground on each side so he could rest comfortably with his flippers in a resting position.

The night was getting cooler and our volunteers were getting weary after 3 hours of being wet and holding the 400 pound dolphin upright but they forged on.  We eased the hours by checking out the stars on the crystal clear night and coming up with a name for the dolphin that we now all claimed as our own.  The family that originally found the dolphin named him Chance.

Just a bit before 7 in the evening the IMMS showed up with a vehicle of doctors and helpers and a large box truck to transport the dolphin to the rehab facility in Mississippi.  They carefully examined the sick animal and then just as carefully loaded him on to the truck.  Since that day, we have heard that he is doing some better and seems to be improving daily.  It turns out that Chance is an unusual case and they are doing all they can to help him heal.  All of the dolphin found beached since the oil spill were dead.  Chance is the first live dolphin so he is getting some great attention from the doctors who are helping him.  We have so many things to be thankful for here at the beach and this experience is the newest on our list.

It is that time of year, and we are so excited!!!  It is baby Sea Turtle time.  We have 33 nests so far and they have been laid throughout the summer.  They are just beginning to hatch and it is an amazing sight to see.  100 baby turtles the size of your palm, fighting their way out of their nest under the sand. Then they rest for just a bit while sniffing the air.  Soon they are ready to begin scurrying to the water in unison.  They traveling down a tarped pathway put up by The Share the Beach volunteers.  Once the get to the end of the tarped pathway they stop and sniff the air again.  Their instinct kicks in a and they move straight toward to the water.  Visitors and volunteers alike work together to make sure these babies avoid crabs and sea birds. 

If you have a chance come down and try to see this unique event.  Give us a call to book today!     Special thanks to Chris Edlin for sharing his photo with us!