The past two nights we have been busy with turtles. Last night we had three turtles. Midge, Taylor and Julianne. It was the second nest of the season for both Midge and Taylor and it was our first time seeing Julianne this year. In 2006, Julianne briefly wore a satellite transmitter and we were able to track her movements all the way to New Jersey. We were happy to see her back in Jupiter.
The night before we saw three turtles as well. Bella, Icy and a new turtle. Since we take genetic samples from every turtle we encounter, we believe Bella and Icy are related and it was pretty neat to see them in the same night. Icy had new injuries since the last time we saw her. She had a somewhat fresh wound above her left eye and another one on the top of her head behind her pink spot. We noticed blue paint in the cut above her eye, which makes us think she was hit by a boat.
As of today there are 33 nests in Juno/Jupiter, 7 on Singer Island and 1 nest in MacArthur Beach State Park.
