This morning was an interesting morning to be on the beach! We had our first green turtle crawl onto the beach ....early for a green turtle and she didn't dig a nest. Green turtles are uncommon on Sanibel.
The characteristic tail poke/drag is missing, and the front right flipper appears to be damaged, but you can tell it's probably a green because the flipper marks are slash like (rather than comma shaped) and symmetrical (rather than alternating like a loggerhead).Greens usually nest later in the season as I mention, which makes this especially interesting. Too bad it was a false crawl so we'll never be absolutely sure. FWC did confirm that they also thought it was a green turtle. It was fun to use field science to try and determine the species.
Another turtle, a loggerhead was caught finishing up her nest at dawn the other morning by another volunteer who provided pictures.
And the most exciting event of all was recorded by a Venice, Fl resident who spotted the rarest turtle of all the Kemp's Ridley digging a nest on Venice Beach on May 9. Check out this Youtube video.
So Turtle Season is really gearing up!
