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Be sure to check out this months issue of National Geographic! One of "our" nesting leatherbacks is featured in a story on light pollution. In May, the leatherback crew assisted world renowned photographer Jim Richardson, as he captured the image on Singer Island.

This turtle was new to our beach and Jim captured images as she was measured, tagged, and sent on her way. We named her "Kathy" after Jim's wife, and we are excited that Kathy has become an ambassador for creating awareness about this important issue facing wildlife and those of us who appreciate a dark sky filled with stars.

The image can be seen in the print magazine and here:
Jim Richardson photography

No leatherbacks the past two nights. We have had a couple reports of some of our turtles nesting up in Melbourne Beach. Seems like they are slowly making the migration back north. The morning did turn out kind of interesting though. On my last pass back to the office I found an upside down male green turtle near the golf course. I first thought he was dead but he eventually moved a flipper. He was probably mating and then got tossed off and turned upside down. When we got him turned right side up again he didn't move. He stayed on the beach for one hour before going back in the water and was around for a beautiful sunrise. First we thought something was wrong with him because he wasn't going anywhere, but then all of a sudden he freaked out and went back to the ocean super fast. It was all kind of strange but really awesome to see a male up on the beach at sunrise.

Last night was pretty busy. Thank you to the turtle walk volunteers for spotting the first leatherback of the night, Sugaree, right by the office! We first tagged Sugaree early this season and we have not seen her since. She is probably one of my favorite turtles this season since she is named after one of my favorite songs.

We had a new turtle in Lost Tree Village that was already tagged, but not by us. We think she was tagged in Melbourne by the UCF crew. The turtles in Melbourne aren't given names unless they wear a satellite harness, so I named this turtle Olive. We also saw Ridgey and Musca, both Juno Beach regulars this season. As well as Joy, who was first tagged 10 nights ago.

We have been averaging about one turtle a night the past week, but last night we had two! We started the night off with a new turtle in the golf course named Olivia. At the end of each season there is a small wave of new turtles and I guess we are just starting to see that. Later on, Chris was heading south to check on suspicious foot prints in the golf course when he found Morsel right in front of the office! We all met up by the turtle and watched her dig out a perfect egg chamber for over an hour. Earlier in the season we posted a blog about Morsel being one of our smallest turtles with a ccl of 125 cm. She would be a little bit longer but she is missing her peduncle, which is an extension of the carapace that covers the tail. We think the peduncle would add about 10 cm to her ccl, but she is still a really small turtle! Last year Kelly and Chris published a paper on the minimum size of leatherbacks at reproductive maturity and a few of the new turtle this year would fit right into that!

Tonight we encountered on leatherback turtle as she was laying eggs south of the Juno Beach fishing pier. She was a turtle we had tagged during the 2001 season - seven long years ago! Lucy has been nesting pretty regularly since then and she was last seen here during the 2006 season.

I do think that the season is now winding down pretty rapidly and this next weekend will likely be our last survey day. We are expecting quite a few turtles this week and I hope they show up. I like to say goodbye to them before they head off to colder waters up north.

As Sara and I are ending the night here in the office, we are contemplating the components of the Keystone Party Mix on the desk. One of the snacks listed on the bag "Midgee" is listed among the snack favorites including cheese curls, BBQ corn chips and tortilla chips. What could midgee be?? An google search comes up without any real results for this odd snack. Anybody out there know what it is?

Well, it was more of a twilight turtle, but it was still awesome! Sara spotted Alexandra around 4:30 this morning and she stayed on the beach a little after six. She was our first turtle to stay on the beach beyond 6 am, so it was pretty exciting. We also saw Musca and Julianne earlier in the night. All three turtles have been good nesters this year. We have a little less than a month left of the leatherback season and the start of hatchlings, but we expect a couple more big turtle nights before the end of the season!

Last night was a great night for turtles! The seas were rough, it was really windy, and we saw seven leatherbacks! One of the Marinelife Center volunteers was walking on the beach around 8 pm when she spotted a leatherback in the Seminole golf course. When I got there at 8:40, she was already covering. I'm sure it was awesome to see a leatherback at sunset! I think I would have kept going south in search of a turtle that Chris saw false crawl the night before on Singer Island, but I forgot my red light and needed to go back to the office. The turtle the night before was coming out of the water around 4 am when someone took a flash picture of her and scared her back in the water. Remember, flash photography is prohibited on the beach at night, whether the turtle is coming out of the water or going back in.

The turtles have been nesting pretty steady this week. We had three turtles three nights in a row. We saw a lot of regular Juno Beach nesters like Tuga, Espina, Hillary, and Reeves. On Tuesday night, there was a new turtle by the Seminole Golf Course. She probably was one of the loudest and deepest sounding turtles we have heard this year. We named her Janis, after Janis Joplin. Wednesday night started off pretty slow and we were thinking we weren't going to get a turtle. On my last pass I found Shelly nesting by the ramp in front of the office. Shelly had not been seen since 2003, so it was nice to have her come back after all these years. It's awesome to think about where she has been and what she has been doing these past five years. I'm sure she has traveled many miles since she was last seen nesting in Juno Beach.

The three turtles last night, Midge, Julianne and Musca, were all tagged in previous years and have already been seen a couple times this year. Midge is one of our tiny turtles this year and she is very cute! I found Musca nesting near Ocean Mall in Singer Island. I am always amazed how the turtles are able to sneak through all the beach chairs and find a comfy spot to nest down there.

We had our first green turtle nest last night in Lost Tree Village. She was a very early turtle! The first green nest last year wasn't until the beginning of June. I guess it's not just the leatherbacks that are early nesting this year.

Whether it was the lucky shoes or the lucky dog, we ended up seeing 5 turtles! On our very first pass, Sara spotted Icy going back in the water by the Reef Club. We were surprised that she would be finished nesting that early in the night, but after seeing what she had done it kinda looked like it was a false crawl. We didn't end up seeing her again so she may have gone to another beach to nest or might be back tonight.

Next, I found Rhoda already covering in front of Ocean Mall in Singer Island. I knew it was her before I even checked her tags because of the extensive covering that she had done. Every time we see her she does a very good job of hiding her eggs and leaves a big mess behind. On her way back to the ocean, she was blocked by several beach chairs and did a couple circles trying to get around them. A nice man visiting from Maine helped me move the chairs out of her way so she could safely return.