Big sis turns 11 this next Monday and she picked as part of her family celebration to go watch the sea turtles come in from the ocean, lay eggs and hopefully find some hatch-lings, too, making their way out to the big, bad ocean for their first time. We were blessed with both a couple nights ago. The Science and Discovery Museum has guided "Sea Turtle Walks" for a month each year here in south Florida. Since the sea turtles are all endangered, it is against the law to go searching for the turtles, especially at the egg laying and egg hatching time of year, unless with an organization with permits, such as a museum. We started the night off arriving at the museum early, which ended up being great because the guide gave us a private tour of the museum's animal section. He took us behind the tanks where they feed the animals, climbed inside a tank and got out a baby alligator we could pet (carefully!), a starfish and a cousin to the cockroach, a horseshoe crab (yuuuck...) The girls were so excited!
After a presentation on the Loggerhead turtles, we went down to the beach to wait, and wait.... we laid in beach chairs and hammocks listening to the oceans gentle lapping and far off into the distance the sounds of rumba-ing Latin beats... When we arrived some other turtle conservationist group was there helping release the newly hatching eggs into the sea, which was so cute and so sweet to see. The little turtle munchkins were like the size of a small pancake and had to paddle with all their baby might to make it over the waves and out into the sea. From about 10:30 until almost 1 am we laughed, talked with the guide in the pictures above about his work on a gator farm and fire spinning (the male version of fire hooping), traveling, etc. then suddenly another guide called in that he'd found a mama laying eggs about a half mile down the beach. We high-tailed it, quietly, yet quickly down to where the 300 pound mama sat in her egg-laying zone. The guides whispered for us to get low, get back as not to disturb her, and be careful and quiet. The group of 20 sat, open mouthed or slightly smiling, at the once in a lifetime sight of this huge prehistoric shell of a turtle plop egg after egg into her deeply dug pit. The girls were right up front, probably 2 feet from her, and were amazed. You could see the markings on her shell from propeller damage, a long piece of seaweed was stuck to her, and you'd hear a small grunt or snort every once and awhile.
( picture taken from the web as I was too in awe -- and it was pretty dark and flashes area no-no--to remember to get out my camera, but this is what she looked like. ) Then after she lays her eggs, she throws sand over the pit to cover up the many eggs, and then hauls herself back over the sand and out to the sea. It's an amazing sight. There are only a handful of places in the world where there are turtles, and they only do this a couple months out of the year, but if you ever have a chance to go walk along the ocean in the moonlight and see one of nature's wonders happen, I highly recommend it!
