last night another new turtle - Caeli nested in MacArthur Park and was tagged by Niki and Chris about 3 am. the waves were so high they were washing into her egg chamber and the eggs were relocated. high winds and seas last night made surveying difficult, as most of the beach and several nests were washed over. the nests should still survive as long as the water didn't pool over them for a long time.
tonight we had 2 new turtles and they emerged within 6 minutes of each other about 2.5 miles apart. we called Jeremy and Honza to tell them we had just spotted a giant turtle emerging from the surf, and were waiting for her to get comfortable. they had just seen one emerge too. I don't think anyone knows what this cue is that makes turtles emerge right around the same time to nest, but it is really amazing to witness. something only they know and we can only wonder about. India (Jeremy's tagged turtle) was a quick nester and was back in the water by 1241 am. the one that Niki and I saw did not nest (Meissa, which means shining - she had a big pink spot), but instead crawled around near the dune, threw some sand, looked like she wanted to go higher on the beach but could not due to the dune, and then she finally left after an hour - without nesting. she was missing half of her right front flipper and had a huge white spot on her head, so she should be easy to recognize should she come back to our beach. she just looked like she could not get comfortable.
26 tagged turtles now, way beyond our expectations....
