proved me wrong

Last night's turtle count reached four (that we know of)...so I guess I was a bit quick to say that things were slowing down. I started south and found Clover nesting on Singer Island. She is a special turtle, missing her entire left rear flipper. Although it is harder for her to dig an egg chamber, she manages and fills it right up with eggs (often times spilling some over since the hole is usually a bit lop-sided). It took me a bit longer than I had hoped to get back up north. Once I finally did,I found a leatherback nest north of Seminole Golf Course. Sadly, I did not catch her so we don't know which turtle it was. Chris, however, found Julianna nesting south of the pier (a 2002 nester's first return) and then Shirley up in Carlin park. Shirley is also a turtle with missing parts. She is missing half of her right front flipper, an injury we don't see very often, but when we do, the turtles tend to be really large! Shirley is the exception, though, measuring in at about 134 cm carapace length, so she's a bit under average in that respect. With only a few rain storms soaking us from time to time, the night was rather pleasant. Let's hope for FOUR more tonight!