Finally!!!!!!!!

I finally got my morning turtle! Well, sort of. This turtle was spotted on Juno Beach at around 5:20 on Tuesday morning. We were expecting a perfect morning turtle, actually a full daylight turtle since the sun comes up around 6:30 and leatherbacks typically take about an hour and forty-five minutes to nest. This turtle didn't stay to nest but she did crawl around the beach for about an hour so Chris, Rebeccah and I got to watch her return to the water just before sunrise. The turtle was Kaysie, a turtle that we first saw about ten days ago in MacArthur Park. It was a gorgeous morning and we were able to snap a few pictures before she left. I was very excited to see my first true morning turtle - although I do wish she had stayed to nest. She did return the next night to successfully nest back in MacArthur Park. We've been averaging about 3-4 turtles a night for the past week. We are excited to report the return of Alice! Alice was the first turtle ever spotted by our researchers when the leatherback project started in 2001. She has since returned in 2004, 2005 and 2008. Chris spotted Alice in Jupiter on Monday night. We've had a good mix of new and returning turtles. Rosie came back to nest again on Singer Island. Kathy, Romy, Melanie and Deema returned after ten days and Olive returned after 20 days. Our new turtles include Belinda, Denise, Michelle, Tillie, Kona and a very special turtle to me - Lucille. Lucille is named after my neice, Madilyn Lucille, who received her middle name after her great grandmother (my grandmother). My mother got to watch this turtle nest on Wednesday night and decided to name her Lucille. There are many generations represented in this turtle. We've also had a few interesting stories with our turtles that did not occur on our beaches. Over the weekend, we received an email that one of our turtles had been caught in the Port Canaveral Inlet. There is a dredging project going on in the inlet and a trawl net is towed through the area to make sure that no turtles are pulled into the dredge. The crew was surprised to find a leatherback in their net and even more surprised to see that she was tagged. It was Annie, a turtle that we first saw back in 2006 and again ten days ago. The turtle was released unharmed. Yesterday, a leatherback was spotted in the intracoastal near Jupiter Island with a boat strike. After our rehab staff and FWC personnel observed the turtle for several hours, it was decided that it would be in her best interest to move her out to the mouth of the inlet. Leatherbacks generally do not do well in a rehabilitation facility and it is usually better to allow them to heal on their own. After scanning the turtle, we discovered that it was Piper, a turtle that we tagged in 2007. Liz and Rebeccah are on the beach tonight and they've already seen two turtles - Melanie - a turtle from ten days ago, and Corey - a turtle that we just saw last year. Corey, named after my sister, nested twice last year. She is the second turtle that we've seen this year that also nested last year. We've currently got 37 nests on Juno Beach and 12 on Jupiter. Last year by this date we had 84 on Juno and 8 on Jupiter. Although 37 seems low, we've typically seen an up and down pattern in nest numbers so it still looks like we're on the high end of a low year.