Enjoy Watching the Annual Hatching of Loggerhead Sea Turtles

Perhaps it is only true for me but, I have always considered a long walk on the beach to be the best of all possible therapies. To walk barefoot in the foamy surf with gentle ocean breezes in my face and the unique aroma of the sea sweetening every breath, I find nothing more calming, more relaxing, more soothing than to stroll leisurely among the scattering flock of sandpipers to the sound of the ocean's gentle rumbling in the background.

As one who grew up on the coast but, who now lives inland I relish every opportunity to return to the coastline I love so much. It has been said that once you have salt water in your blood you can never quite get over it. I believe this to be true. As I drive eastward en route to our family vacation location at the beach I can always pick up the sweet scent of the ocean several miles from the coast. At that time I know that I am home again.

While there is no bad season to be on the beach my preference has always been to be on the beach during the fall months. From the Labor Day weekend to the Thanksgiving holiday is a wonderful time to be on the beach. The summer crowds are gone, the heat and humidity of summer are on vacation and yet the ocean breezes and the incoming surf are still warm and welcoming and the fall sunsets are glorious.

My favorite pastime during fall season visits to the beach is monitor the nesting and birth of the loggerhead sea turtles. These gentle, giants of the sea return to the same nesting spots three to five times each year between the months of May and August, during which time a nesting loggerhead will lay an average of from 100-120 eggs per nest. The eggs will hatch in about 60 days.

I first learned about the loggerhead nesting several years ago while walking on the beach early one July morning. It was at this time I noticed a man about my age carefully examining a set of strange footprints leading from the edge of the surf thirty to forty feet inland. Noticing my curiosity he explained that he was a volunteer with the loggerhead turtle protective association and that in this capacity he and others would patrol the beach every morning between mid May and August looking for signs that a loggerhead turtle had come ashore the previous night to provide a nesting site for her clutch of eggs. He then proceeded to show me how he following the turtle tracks to the nesting site. Once located the nesting site would be designated and barriers would be put up to keep humans from inadvertently damaging the site. He also explained that once nesting sites were located they would be monitored by volunteers with the two-fold objective of protecting the site and monitoring the number of healthy hatchlings from the nest.

While the marking of nests protects these from inadvertent human damaging of the nests potential danger still exists from non-human predators. Foxes and raccoons often seek out and ravage nesting sites. For this reason many of the volunteer, turtle protective groups assign personnel to monitor the nesting sites 24 hours per day.

During my daily walk on the beach I always make it a point to check with the various nest monitors to see if there is any new activity. Typically, after incubating in the warm sand for 60 days the eggs will begin to hatch. This is when the fun begins. Interested onlookers, ranging in size from 10 to 20 people watch as the little hatchlings break the surface of the nest with a pawing motion similar to that that will propel them through the sea. They emerge from the nest no larger than a potato chip and immediately attempt to orient themselves. Whether it is the sound of waves crashing on the beach, the scent of the ocean or some unseen radar system the little hatchlings eventually turn toward the sea and begin and begin quickly dragging themselves towards the beckoning surf. To those watching the strength, agility and determination of these tiny creatures, only minutes out of the egg, is amazing. All of us stand in awe of what we are seeing as a the parade of spunky little creatures waddle and paw their way seaward, the silence only occasionally broken as someone lets out a cheer as the first little turtle enters the surf and paddles away into his first day of life.

There is something wonderful and heartwarming in observing the birth of one of God's creatures. It makes no difference whether this is seeing baby birds emerge from sky-blue eggs in a nest outside your kitchen window or the birth of kittens or pups in the corner of your garage. It is the beginning of LIFE. Still, I have a special place in my heart for these tiny, vulnerable little sea creatures boldly making their way to the ocean to face head-on enormous threats and challenges to their existence from which only one in five thousand will survive the first year.

If you have the opportunity to experience this heart-warming event I recommend it without reservation.

Loggerhead nesting sites include the beaches along the Outer Banks of North Carolina, and the mainland beaches including Topsail Island, Surf City and Wrightsville beach.