It was still practically dark when I started my walk along the beach this morning. Fortunately I happened to look down and saw one tiny, struggling little turtle just before my big ol' clumsy foot came down. All these years of walking on the beach, seeing the nests and even seeing several turtles laying their eggs, I have never seen a hatchling. Wow!
Thrilled is too mild a word for how excited I felt at seeing this little creature. But he was all alone and a good distance from his nest plus he was headed south, not out to sea. I tried to take pictures of him and every one was woefully blurry. I've included one blurry shot so you could see how tiny he is. Amazing it will grow to weigh about 350 to 400 pounds.
Several of the regular beachgoers stopped and watched him and we discussed whether we should put him in the ocean. I do know they have to get their muscles strengthened by crossing the sand and they need time to make an instinctive "imprint" of this particular beach so they can return here as adults.
Fortunately during our discussion the turtle patrol volunteer arrived. She picked him up and took him out about knee deep into the ocean. He bravely swam away to begin his life on the Sargasso Sea. I returned to the nest with the volunteer and saw their escape hatch. It was just such a small hole in the sand it was hard for me to imagine that 100+ little turtles all made their way out of the nest and to the sea. She also pointed out their tracks in the sand which she called scatter. If you look in the bottom photo above you may be able to make out several faint lines in the sand fanning towards the sea. These are about mid distance in the photo. That's evidence that my little fellow's brothers and sisters all headed to their new life.
I wish him well and hope that our paths cross again some day. If not, he gave me enough joy today to last for many many seasons to come.
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