Lat night was the first night it really felt like summer. Hot, humid, buggy and stormy. It was the first night with small thunderstorms moving up and down the coast. The lightning was very pretty for a while. I have been trying to capture an image of a leatherback nesting with a lightning storm in the background for as long as I have been carrying a camera with me. I really thought last night was the night, but the turtles didn't show up in time! They did eventually show up though. Three turtles nested last night; Sedna, a new turtle and another turtle that I did not see. I spent too much time with the first two and I just missed the third. I really hate that!
Sedna is a neat turtle. She has a large lump in her right shoulder that loooks like some sort of weird skin growth. Closer inspection reveals that there is a large fishing hook embedded deeply into her muscle. The hook feels like a J-hook that is typically used in commercial long-line fishing. We scan many of our turtle with metal detectors when we see injuries and will occasionally find fishing gear in or on our turtles.
On my way back to the office this AM I saw a large fireball that streaked more than 50 degrees across the sky. It broke into a few pieces as it flew to the northeast. It was an amazing sight! It must have been a truly awesome sight for the pilots of the plane that was heading in the same direction. It was really beautiful!
