Turtles Hatching

Great news from my brother Tom, who lives on the water in Bellmore… his turtles hatched!

“We had a BBQ yesterday and JD reminded us the turtles should hatch soon. So I slowing started uncovering some sand. I went down about 6-8 inches and found nothing. Stated going down a little more when I felt something move under my finger. I stopped and we all waited. We then saw the sand start to move. About an hour later a little turtle came out about 1-1.5 inches long. He crawled around a bit, but mostly was staying still. I picked him up and placed him down about 3 inches from the edge of the water. After a few seconds he crawled in and swam away. Going back to the nest a saw the sand move some more, but it got dark and we had to go to bed. Before a left I smoothed out the sand to see if I could see any tracks the next day. In the morning I saw 5 separate tracks leading to the water!”

In this picture, you can see the cage my brother John put up around where the eggs were laid by the mom turtle. She laid the eggs in the beginning of the season.

I am reminded of Lisa and my honeymoon, on Jumby Bay Island off of Antigua. At the resort, there was a turtle nesting grounds and we were able to request a wake-up when the turtles were set down in the sand. It was an amazing midnight spectacle when we were roused from our bungalow and brought out to the beach. We saw at least six giant turtles laying eggs and we watched quietly in the bushes until they finished and crawled back to sea. When the beach was quiet, the nauralists dug up the eggs counted them and placed them back at specific depths before covering the eggs back up. A turtle’s sex is determined by depth (temperature).

This is the second year turtles hatched in my brother’s back yard. A good omen, I say.