Sanibel Turtle Patrol

Every Wednesday morning at sunrise you will find me on the beach somewhere between Oceans Reach condos and the Sundial Beach & Golf Resort. Two years ago I signed up to be a "turtle walker", part of a Federal program designed to track the nests of the endagered Loggerhead Turtles. This early morning ritual has become part of my life. Loggerhead nesting season officially begins on the first day of May, and concludes at the end of October. My "duties" include scanning the beach for evidence of turtle tracks, marking them with flags and calling in the details to my "permittee" Tom. Additionally, I check all the existing nests for evidence of the tracks of preditors like raccoons, ants or sand crabs, any of which present a danger to the unhatched turtle eggs. It's against regulations to leave any beach furniture overnight because this can confuse the nesting females. Should I find any errant beach chairs they get tagged with a notice to that effect!! This year so far I have discovered two confirmed nests and three "false crawls" so I could potentially become a "grandmother" to 2000 baby turtles who will set off from the Sanibel shores en route to locations as far away as the Pacific Ocean! Once mature, the females make their way back to the location where they hatched to make their own nests. Sadly, only one of the thousand hatchlings will complete this awsome journey. It feels really good to be part of such an important program!