Fantastic Night!!!

What a perfect night! The moon was full and the tide was low, making for perfect survey conditions out there. I started the south survey and found a turtle right away on the south end of Juno Beach. She was a new turtle and she was giant! I was joined by Andrew and the Hamels, a wonderful couple out enjoying a stroll in the full moon. They decided to name the turtle after their granddaughter, Carrington. She was one of the largest turtles we've ever seen at 166.5cm and she had not a mark on her - a big beautiful turtle! Rebeccah took over on the south end survey and called to report another turtle by the Singer Island Inlet. This was Rosie, a turtle that we saw four times in 2007. The batteries had died on Rebeccah's tag scanner so I headed down to bring her a replacement. Along the way, I found Sophie nesting on Juno Beach. Sophie was also a 2007 turtle. Sophie was seen only once that year and had never received a PIT tag. She had also lost one of her flipper tags so after I gave her what she needed, I headed down to meet Rebeccah and Rosie. Three turtles already! On Monday night I made a somewhat gutsy bet - I bet that we would get 4 turtles on Tuesday night. When my phone rang at about 4:00am, I asked Rebeccah if she had found my 4th turtle - she had! It was June Bug, nesting by Seminole Golf Course. June Bug was seen twice in 2003 by Chris and I. She received a satellite transmitter when she returned in 2007 which she wore for about a month. She is a very robust turtle and has signs of an old boat propellor injury. Curiously, three of our four turtles last nested in 2007. On average, we see our turtles return to nest every other year. Occasionally they will nest in consecutive years or skip two years before returning but it's interesting that all three of them skipped two years, especially since 2009 (when we would have expected them to come back) was such a huge year for us. All in all, a perfect four turtle night!