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Monday, July 1, 2013

Nest #6---Turtle on Beach

Stormy Sunday Morning. Arlene had just started to walk when she was stopped by NMB Sanitation, Keith who told her there was a turtle still on the beach.  Keith gave her a ride to the location, sure enough the turtle was just finishing nesting, throwning sand before starting her long, slow crawl about to the ocean.

Turtle crawling slowly back into the ocean


She had a long way to go, turtle is that dot at the end of the crawl


Body Pit
Fast moving storm with heavy rain forced everyone to seek shelter off the beach for about 30 minutes


Rain and wind has quickly erased a good share of the crawl


Arlene and other volunters


Rob and Sammy


Heavy rain has created interesting patterns in the body pit


Rob probed and quickly found soft sand
Rob and Arlene carefully dig


EGGS!!!!




Gang has gathered on the beach
Barry (yellow shirt) watched the turtle as she nested and then crawled back to the ocean
Annette watched from her condo and then came down and helped Arlene as she battled the strong wind
Maddy heard what was going and and quickly came to help
Corrina, her son and his girlfriend were soaked after getting caught in the heavy downpour but that didn't stop them from rescuing a mud turtle washed down in the storm drain and trying to get away from the salt water


False crawl #6-Linda was called by NMB Dispatch around 1:30AM about a crawl found on the beach. She went to the location, found 2 couples protecting it until she was able to rope off until the morning light when it could be processed only to be chased off the beach by the storm

Turtle started to dig, didn't like this spot and so crawled further up


She started to nest again, dug down and moved sand back, but apparently didn't like what she found so she crawled up a few feet before turning back to the ocean.
Rob probed this spot, hoping, but found nothing.


Crawl has just about disappeared from the two heavy rain storms before we could get there.


Incoming crawl, only a faint outline at 6AM, wind and heavy rain has just about erased it


Mud turtle rescued by Corrina and family and released in a nearby park
Fiesty little guy, he didn't like the ocean but didn't like being handled either


A huge thanks to Arlene, despite the weather she was out early and certainly rewarded
The way the wind and rain had filled in and erased both crawls, they might have been missed by the weather delayed walks

Thank you to all who saw and reported the first crawl and a thank you to those who saw the nesting turtle and just watched from a distance

Thank you Arlene, Corrina and Kathryn for the pictures

And a big thanks to Keith from NMB Sanitation for contacting Arlene and then giving her a ride so she could see this chance encounter

NMB Nest #6----False Crawl #6

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