We had the opportunity to go on our own beach walks to look for nesting leatherback turtles. I've never seen leatherbacks, and I've always wanted to since the moment i started getting interested in sea turtles. They're massive. They dive deeper than the whales in search of food. They head into the oceans as babies and go where??????? They're fascinating and I think just pure magic.
So when I heard that there were good numbers of leatherbacks beginning to nest on the beach down south, I happily gave up a turkey weekend to go down to wander the beaches at night looking for one of these big creatures. Hoping that I could get even a glimpse of my first leatherback.
The weather was spitting rain sometimes and BLOWING wind all the time. You'd not think you'd get chilly on an almost summer time night out at the beach in south florida but I sure did get cold the first night.
As luck would have it, our first night down there, we found one leatherback. We were able to sit and watch her for about 30 minutes before she headed back into the water. She was MASSIVE!!! Her shell was as long as I am tall. Her head was as large as a soccerball at least. When we found her, she was in the process of covering her nest. You could stand 20 feet away from her and feel the impact of her big flippers hitting the sand as she brought them down just before flinging sand back behind her. By the time she was back in the water, it was beginning to rain some more and we decided we'd rather not search the beach in the rain. The next morning we went out to see if we could get pictures of the tracks of her coming up the beach.
This is how big a leatherback nest is.
The second night we went out the weather had at least quit spitting rain, but LOOOORDY the wind was really kickin it up.
One of our first stops yielded the first Leatherback of the evening. And she'd just gotten there. Her name is Jupiter and her shell is longer than I am tall (I'm 5'5") and she's been nesting on that beach since at least 2002. We got to watch as she dug her nest, her back flippers working as gently and dexterously as if we were using our hands to pull sand out. She'd alternate one scoop of sand with her left flipper then one with her right, and so on and so on until she could no longer reach sand with her back flippers. At that point, she started laying. AMAZING. with each push two or three, sometimes four eggs would come out. Once she was done laying she ever so gently began covering her eggs, using her back flippers to make a rounded top, packing the sand tightly, until eventually she began using her front flippers to cover everything up. When she's decided that she is done, she lumbers back to the ocean, to disappear beneath the waves. From start to finish it takes about an hour and a half or so for her to lay her eggs.
With the gorgeous night and excitement of seeing her actually lay, we decided that we'd continue looking for more turtles...so we continued north up the beach. We got to the very north part of the beach and using our night scope look down the beach and we actually see a leatherback coming out of the water, up the beach! As we head down that way, we encounter a set of tracks. A turtle had already come up the beach. Not wanting to scare that leatherback that was coming up the beach we followed those tracks up to a nesting Loggerhead! A bonus turtle for the weekend since they don't typically start nesting til May.
We watched her until she went back into the water, she was in the process of covering up her nest but even that took about 30 minutes. Afterwards we headed up to where the other Leatherback was and got there in time to see her dropping her eggs into her nest. This lady was quite a bit smaller, more streamlined looking, than the other two. Her shell was probably 5 inches shorter than me....so that would put her shell at about 5 foot long. We got to watch her, until she eventually decided to go back into the ocean. She however, took probably close to two -two and a half hours to finish her nesting.
For whatever reasons, Leatherbacks prefer to nest on coarse sandy beaches, often that are hit with a good deal of erosion. Here's a nest that makes one wonder how high the slope was when the lady came out to nest. Clearly a good deal of the sand has washed away, though the nest had not done so.
And there was a turtle that came up in the night, looking to nest somewhere and hit the cliff of sand and just could not get over it. so she followed the cliff until she decided to pick a spot to nest. It looks like a tractor went through there...
I look forward to going back down to hopefully see some babies hatch and see more turtles coming out of the water ....
Danibeth
So when I heard that there were good numbers of leatherbacks beginning to nest on the beach down south, I happily gave up a turkey weekend to go down to wander the beaches at night looking for one of these big creatures. Hoping that I could get even a glimpse of my first leatherback.
The weather was spitting rain sometimes and BLOWING wind all the time. You'd not think you'd get chilly on an almost summer time night out at the beach in south florida but I sure did get cold the first night.
As luck would have it, our first night down there, we found one leatherback. We were able to sit and watch her for about 30 minutes before she headed back into the water. She was MASSIVE!!! Her shell was as long as I am tall. Her head was as large as a soccerball at least. When we found her, she was in the process of covering her nest. You could stand 20 feet away from her and feel the impact of her big flippers hitting the sand as she brought them down just before flinging sand back behind her. By the time she was back in the water, it was beginning to rain some more and we decided we'd rather not search the beach in the rain. The next morning we went out to see if we could get pictures of the tracks of her coming up the beach.
This is how big a leatherback nest is.
The second night we went out the weather had at least quit spitting rain, but LOOOORDY the wind was really kickin it up.
One of our first stops yielded the first Leatherback of the evening. And she'd just gotten there. Her name is Jupiter and her shell is longer than I am tall (I'm 5'5") and she's been nesting on that beach since at least 2002. We got to watch as she dug her nest, her back flippers working as gently and dexterously as if we were using our hands to pull sand out. She'd alternate one scoop of sand with her left flipper then one with her right, and so on and so on until she could no longer reach sand with her back flippers. At that point, she started laying. AMAZING. with each push two or three, sometimes four eggs would come out. Once she was done laying she ever so gently began covering her eggs, using her back flippers to make a rounded top, packing the sand tightly, until eventually she began using her front flippers to cover everything up. When she's decided that she is done, she lumbers back to the ocean, to disappear beneath the waves. From start to finish it takes about an hour and a half or so for her to lay her eggs.
With the gorgeous night and excitement of seeing her actually lay, we decided that we'd continue looking for more turtles...so we continued north up the beach. We got to the very north part of the beach and using our night scope look down the beach and we actually see a leatherback coming out of the water, up the beach! As we head down that way, we encounter a set of tracks. A turtle had already come up the beach. Not wanting to scare that leatherback that was coming up the beach we followed those tracks up to a nesting Loggerhead! A bonus turtle for the weekend since they don't typically start nesting til May.
We watched her until she went back into the water, she was in the process of covering up her nest but even that took about 30 minutes. Afterwards we headed up to where the other Leatherback was and got there in time to see her dropping her eggs into her nest. This lady was quite a bit smaller, more streamlined looking, than the other two. Her shell was probably 5 inches shorter than me....so that would put her shell at about 5 foot long. We got to watch her, until she eventually decided to go back into the ocean. She however, took probably close to two -two and a half hours to finish her nesting.
For whatever reasons, Leatherbacks prefer to nest on coarse sandy beaches, often that are hit with a good deal of erosion. Here's a nest that makes one wonder how high the slope was when the lady came out to nest. Clearly a good deal of the sand has washed away, though the nest had not done so.
And there was a turtle that came up in the night, looking to nest somewhere and hit the cliff of sand and just could not get over it. so she followed the cliff until she decided to pick a spot to nest. It looks like a tractor went through there...
I look forward to going back down to hopefully see some babies hatch and see more turtles coming out of the water ....
Danibeth
