Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Turtle Walk Tuesday

Today was our 17th and final turtle walk of the season. We only have 1 nest left in our zone that is due and should be hatched and dug by next week. I believe there are 10 nests left in the area from the eastern tip of Sanibel to the Tarpon Bay Beach. From there to the West end of Sanibel is monitored by SCCF, using their beach vehicle. There are nests still to hatch in that area. I will put the statistics for the 2009 turtle season on my Turtle Talk blog, as soon as it's available.

It was about 75 degrees this morning when we did our walk but it got up to 93 later in the day. We had afternoon thunder storms that brough us a little more than a half inch of rain. There is a 40 to 50 percent chance of rain each day for the rest of the week.

There was a pink glow in the east this morning as we walked out to the beach.

An osprey was standing watch at the top of a tree.

There was hardly anyone on the beach for a while.

Gradually people began coming out onto the beach to walk under the pink cotton candy clouds, waiting for the sunrise.

It was so quiet and peaceful out, even the birds seemed relaxed and in no hurry to fly away.

It took a while to see the sun, because it had to climb up from behind clouds.

The only shells were small ones.

This bird seemed to be taking a rest, and just sat there watching me as I took it's picture.



Just before leaving the beach, there was an area at the high tide line, where some sea weed was lying beside a little pool of water that had been left. I spied a Bubble shell and as I bent over to pick it up, I saw a couple more, then a few more. After picking them up, I moved a little more of the sea weed and saw two Top shells, some Apple Murex, a Nutmeg, Augers, Drills, a couple of Whelks, Shark's Eyes and Top shells. Then I saw four, tiny white Wentletraps. I got distracted for a moment and looked away. When I looked back, I could only find two of them. I looked and looked and never could spot the other two again. But, I was content with my handful of shells. :-)

I'm pleased to say that there was hardly any trash on the beach this morning, and no new sand holes.

Best viewed in HD on YouTube by clicking on the screen below.


Late afternoon driving down Highway 41, in Ft Myers, the clouds were looking pretty threatening. After getting to a parking lot that was located right under the darkest part of those clouds, and going into a store, I think the bottom must have fallen out of them. It really poured down.

On the way back to the island, from the causeway, I could see heavy rain falling on Captiva.

5 comments:

Snowbird said...

I'll miss your turtle walk reports. What a nice gift for your last early morning walk though-finding all those shells. I love the little ones the best, I think. And I've done the same thing with spotting a shell, looking away, then looking back and can't find it. Do they get beamed up into some sort of shell UFO or something?

Gayle said...

I believe my girls would want to bring home every single shell they saw. I guess then we'd have to get creative using them in crafts! You warm temps sound delightful. It's getting so chilly here. You have such big clouds and they sure hold a lot of rain!

Little Black Scrap Cat said...

Fabulous little shells you found. Quite a variety as well. I can't wait.....

Tink *~*~* said...

Cute little whelks! I've been so, so busy lately, I haven't been to the island in over a month! Hoping to rectify that soon... miss you guys!

Tink *~*~*

gpc said...

I've never found a wentletrap, I'm glad to know they still exist and that you left a couple for me to find one day! :)