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A Star Is Born

Turtle Watch quickly arrived with their donated ATV. Loyal residents and visitors joined the volunteers for babysitting well into the evening. By 8pm, a sunken hole had formed in the sand and little subsurface flippers could be seen twitching at intervals.

Building lights were strategically turned off and one was quickly reminded how even starlight, the turtles' beacon, provides ample illumination once the eye can adjust. Drew and Susan sat faithfully nest-side the whole time and what amazed me the most was their ability to sit quietly and motionless for hours. Turtles were able to command what I could not.

Under turtle-invisible red beam flashlights, the creatures increased their bouts of fits and starts but failed to trigger the threshold needed to begin the instinctive chain reaction of a nest-synchronized exodus. Finally, at about 9:30pm, labor ceased and delivery occurred.

As if on cue, they spilled forth from their sandy womb like a herd of tarantulas to the squealing delight of children and adults alike.

Drew likened it to a horror movie without the horror and realized this was a rare experience. Spreading into a fan-shaped flow of crawling reptilian carpet, they enveloped many of the bystanders, requiring everyone to stand where they were to avoid accidentally stepping on the tykes.

We will always remember the tickling of their proportionally large flippers as they crawled over our bare feet toward their waiting refuge. While interaction with humans is kept to a minimum, some stragglers needed redirecting and coaxing in the right direction. Susan very diligently led one apprehensive turtle to its appropriate destination by pretending to be its mother. Other bystanders herded the rest as necessary.

In about 20 minutes, all that was left on the beach was the occasional ghost crab, the gurgling of the surf and a silent breeze.

Details, Details

If you decide to go, here are some very good online resources to help you plan your trip and join a volunteer organization. It's truly a remarkable experience, for adults and kids alike. Click here for quick turtle facts, photos and turtle conservation activities in Florida.

Some other helpful links on this topic are:
http://northflorida.fws.gov/SeaTurtles/turtle-facts-index.htm
http://cccturtle.org/
www.sccf.org/
http://seaturtle.org/