Squeaky turtle

kelly's first turtle

Two turtle night! At about 9:00PM our first turtle of the season crawled out of the ocean directly in front of me in Jupiter! She was an untagged turtle, and we tagged and measured her as she was laying eggs at around 9:45PM. The night did not end there though...
I learned my lesson the other night and stayed out during the low tide (I missed a turtle at low tide in Macarthur Park on Tuesday) At 3:15AM another turtle emerged right in front of the Marinelife Center. I was waiting patiently for the turtle to start laying eggs to check for tags, when the skies opened up! The rain was very cold and wet, but I wanted to tag the turtle. I sat for a bit in the rain, but in a few minutes, the lightning started and I decided to leave the beach. I first checked to see if she was already tagged- NO, another new turtle!
Unfortunately, I was unable to get back out to tag her. It was very frustrating to sit here in my office knowing there was a turtle on the beach, but I am sure she will be back here in a few days. Check out the audio post below to hear some sounds from a Leatherback!

first leatherback tagged

Doesn't look like I will get out on the beach any more tonight. The weather has turned miserable here in Juno Beach! The weather has given me a bit of time to work on the website though. I have added a mailing list feature, add your name to our mail list and we will send you periodic updates on our research during the course of the season. Link to mail list can be found on the left side of most pages on the floridaleatherbacks.com site.

I am sitting here waiting for the rain to stop once again! Looks like I might be here for a while though as the whole state of Florida is covered by thunderstorms.. No turtles yet on our survey beaches, but of course there is probably a turtle on the beach right now. Will write more later.

at 10:14 pm est... national weather service doppler radar
indicated three to five inches of rain has fallen over much
of the area during the past two hours... with up to eight
inches in the vicinity of jupiter and juno beach. the heavier
rains have moved south to the vicinity of wellington...
west palm beach... and lake worth
As you can see, the night started out very wet and stormy, but turned out to be a very beautiful night with thunderstorms offshore. Check out the picture! The lightning kept me entertained for the whole night. No turtles once again, but maybe tonight!

Quiet but interesting night on the beach. I guess people have no idea that I ride along the beach with a night vision scope?? The night vision gear allows us to see just about anything nearly as bright as daytime. Sometimes you see the wierdest things.....
I do not know where the leatherbacks are, any day now I suppose?
More Northern Gannets were found on the beach tonight, I added an image to the photo album.
I tried out a new feature we have added to the site. Check it out: Unhappy Gannet! We will be adding audio updates as the season progresses, stay tuned!

Unhappy Gannet

"The night of the birds"
Kelly was wrong! No turtles once again, but there sure were a lot of stranded birds. During the course of the night I encountered several dead Pelicans, four Northern Gannets, and one Herring Gull in need of assistance. I am not really sure why the Gannets strand on the beach during the night at this time of the year. I was able to see several floating in the waves and quite a few flying offshore during the night but it is a mystery to me why they strand. The Gannets were taken from the beach and brought to a lake very close to the beach here in Juno. They usually rest for a few hours and take off and head offshore once again. It was quite amusing to see the Muscovy ducks and the swans in the lake interact with the birds. I thought they just wanted to make me bleed, but it seems they do not like ANYTHING to get close to them. Those birds are just plain mean! The seagull will need some medical care and will be brought to our local wildlife rehab. center. Time for bed!!!!!

Turtle season has officially begun! As of this morning there have been two nests recorded in the state, both found on beaches to the north of us (South Hutchinson Island, and Sebastian Inlet) No turtles on our survey beaches yet but we are surveying every morning. Stay updated by checking in regularly!