HATCHED!

Surprise! Its a girl, and a boy, and a girl, and a boy, and, uh, well you get the idea, but just say it a total of 102 times. The first loggerhead nest hatching of the season has occurred on our beach. The beautiful sea now has another 102 loggerheads that shall call the Atlantic "home." See? Here's a picture taken this morning!

Today was the first day of the calculations to begin watching this nest. Mr. Beach Coordinator went out there to see if there had been any activity, and got quite a surprise when he saw 3 hatchlings making their way across the sand in the bright sunlight. This is unusual, as they usually hatch under cover of the night. Somehow, they know to protect themselves from predators (hungry birds & crabs) and the sun (very dehydrating and burning) by usually making their trek to the sea in the darkness. However, these little guys either overslept, or were too excited to wait for tonight (not sure which). Also, nest excavations typically do not occur until the evening after a hatch, but there was fire ant activity in the area of the nest, it was crucial to make sure any stragglers were not stuck in the nest.

Within seconds of my phone ringing announcing the hatch, I was literally running out the door and down the beach. I called 2 other volunteers who patrol a segment of the beach, they arrived just minutes behind me. The tide was out, so the stragglers got a helping hand from us across the flats to the sea once they crossed the sand. There were 5 stragglers in the nest. One was stuck in roots under the sand. He was ok, once he was ever so gently helped out of the pit, he took off like a shot down the sand. The 3 that were crossing the sand on their own also got a hand once they made it to the edge of the flats. That's a total of 8 hatchlings we assisted early this morning.

This nest that hatched was the nest I blogged about and displayed a photo of in my May 29, 2010 entry. The one where the mommy bulldozed her way through large pieces of driftwood and rocks. If a 200 pound adult had a lot of work getting past all that, can you imagine what it must be like for a 2 inch hatchling? Talk about being "driven" and having a will to live!

Today was another incredibly rewarding and emotional day. I haven't even mentioned, but there was ANOTHER new nesting that occurred under the moon last night. So... that's 7 nests total on the beach, with already 1 hatch!

Welcome to the world! Welcome to the sea! Welcome to the Universe! Swim strong & conquer. Be free. Be strong. Be fearless. Brave baby turtles. May you be protected, and your journey safe.