Perfect u-turn

At the end of last week our county had counted a total of 451 turtle nests. The first one I reported on in May has already hatched and the little ones are off to the Sargasso Sea to grow. I still get excited every morning that I see a new nest and this morning I saw one new nest and this perfect u-turn of a false crawl... though this false crawl is unlike any I've seen before.

With most of the false crawls the turtle comes farther ashore and there are signs of preliminary preparation of the nest before deciding, for whatever reason, to head back to sea. This one was such a perfectly symmetrical about-face that it brought a smile to my lips. This gal didn't hesitate, didn't think about building a nest, she just came in and without breaking stride decided against the process and headed back to sea. Ah-h-h-h to be so decisive!

Here is a closer look at her perfectly formed flipper tracks in the sand. The hard sand makes them easy to distinguish and gives you an idea of her size by the distance between the left and right tracks. I'd say this one's bottom shell was 20 to 22 inches across. Dragging your 300 pound body on your belly across the sand would make me want to turn around and head back to the buoyancy of the sea too! Hope she comes ashore again soon, this time really making a nest and not just checking out the accommodations.