First Nest!!!

I am happy to report that the first nest was laid in our survey area!! The nest is at the very southern boundary of our regular morning survey area and only the third documented crawl in the state. It just so happens to be 11 days after the nest that was laid in Ft. Pierce on the 22nd (which happened to be eleven days after the crawl reported in Miami on the 11th). My guess is that it's the same turtle. Leatherbacks typically nest every 10-12 days and some of them have been known to nest all over the east coast. It was a frigid 37 degrees here last night! While our survey crew sat shivering, the weather didn't deter this determined leatherback. Unfortunately we are only monitoring a small portion of beach right now to ensure that we are closely watching the nourishment activity so we didn't see this turtle. We hope to catch our first turtle soon though! Stay tuned as the season heats up!