It has become a tradition to make the same silly joke each year around mid to late April when the "little" turtles arrive on the beach. So, here it is... Last night at around two AM, I heard the sound of chain saws on the beach and I knew it could mean only one thing. The loggers have arrived!
I spotted the first loggerhead of the season as she was heading back to the water after she had hit the dune and turned around. We usually find our first loggerhead around this time of year, but this one surprised me. I was expecting a big, shiny black Leatherback up near the dune when I first saw the crawl in my night vision scope. It took me a few seconds to realize what I was looking at and I almost did not notice the small yellow turtle crawling down the beach. They are really quite "tiny" when compared to the Leatherback in the scope. She did not nest anywhere on our survey area and will likely be back tonight.
We also found two nesting leatherbacks last night. One of them nested near the Juno Beach fishing pier and the other was found down south.
