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Tag: Anna Maria Island Turtle Watch and Shorebird Monitoring

Turtle bench

Turtle Watch at loggerheads with city on benches

Written by Cindy Lane on . Posted in Awards, Awards 2019, Outdoors, Sea turtles, Special Sections, Third Place.

HOLMES BEACH – After the fireworks on July 4, beachgoers saw a loggerhead sea turtle come ashore, collide with a bench on the beach north of 66th Street and struggle to nest under it, said Suzi Fox, director of Anna Maria Island Turtle Watch and Shorebird Monitoring.

Turtle Watch staked and roped off the nest, including the bench, but city workers later removed the tape, moved the bench and re-staked the nest without notifying Turtle Watch, she said.

Third Place
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2019

“I question whether they are putting the stakes back inside the nest,” possibly damaging the eggs, she said, adding that the state permit that allows Turtle Watch to stake off nests does not extend to the city of Holmes Beach.

It’s the second case this year of a turtle nesting under a bench; two other turtles abandoned their nesting efforts – called false crawls – after colliding with benches, Fox said. Over the past two years, seven turtles have collided with benches and four have stopped short of nesting due to benches, she said.

In one case, someone went into an area staked off as a federally protected sea turtle nesting area and moved a bench further seaward, making it more likely to be an obstruction to nesting turtles, she said, suggesting the benches could be tied down to keep people from moving them closer to the water.

Fox said that over two years, she has contacted city officials including the mayor, police chief, public works director and code enforcement officer about the recurring problem, and has appeared before the city commission asking for the benches to be relocated to the city’s pocket parks or moved farther off the beach.

“We have removed a number of benches from the beach out of harm’s way,” Mayor Bob Johnson said, calling further relocations “unnecessary for the one or two (turtles) that may wind up under a bench.”

“Their own ordinance does not allow furniture on the beach during nesting season,” Fox said.

Benches are not the same as beach furniture, Johnson said.

“Can you prevent everything? Absolutely not. But we’ve done everything we can to accommodate memorial benches,” he said. “We’ve relocated them to keep them in the general vicinity. Those that are there, we monitor what’s going on there.”

Regarding city workers staking off the nest, he said, “Our people know what they’re doing.”

Adding to Turtle Watch concerns are the new memorial benches being added to the approximately 50 benches on the beach, Fox said, suggesting that perhaps a few benches could have several memorial plaques each, minimizing the number of benches.

Anna Maria and Bradenton Beach also have benches, but not nearly as many, and turtles are not colliding with benches there, she said.

“These collisions with benches have all happened in Holmes Beaches and are in violation of the city’s sea turtle ordinance,” she said. “I think if the donors knew the harm that they are bringing to the nesting mothers, they would be horrified.”

“The good news is, the turtle laid the nest,” Johnson said. “We’ve got more nests than we’ve ever had.”

bird harassment snowy plover

Bird harassment complaint investigated

Written by Cindy Lane on . Posted in Birds, Outdoors.

HOLMES BEACH – An unidentified woman has frightened two snowy plovers and their three chicks off their nest at 5400 Gulf Drive condos, and they have disappeared, Anna Maria Island Turtle Watch and Shorebird Monitoring Director Suzi Fox said.

“It’s a little three-ounce bird. What difference could that make to you?” she said.

Snowy plovers are a threatened species in Florida.

It’s possible the chicks were old enough to fly away, Fox said hopefully, but if they were not yet fledged, they would be easy targets for predators, such as osprey, without parents nearby to protect them.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission sent an investigator, but the woman, who was reported to Turtle Watch by anonymous witnesses at Martinique condos next door, eluded detection, she said.

Why would someone chase tiny birds off the beach?

“We suspect it was the woman who accosted us last year,” Fox said, referring to an incident that occurred when Turtle Watch volunteers were staking off a black skimmer nesting area at 5400 Gulf Drive condos in 2017.

“She came out and yelled at us,” Fox said, adding that volunteers always leave a path for people to reach the beach when staking off bird nesting areas.

“And it’s a public beach,” she said, not private property belonging to 5400 Gulf Drive condos.

“We think she just didn’t want any wildlife in her front yard,” Fox said.

The act was a violation of state laws protecting threatened species, and it was also a case of cruelty to animals, Fox said, adding that the witness said the woman struck one of the birds.

Normally Turtle Watch volunteers track at least 11 snowy plovers on the Island, but this year, only the family of five were seen, and they have disappeared, she said.

No other plover nests have appeared on the Island this spring.

“It makes me sick,” Fox said.

Sea turtle tagged, off to races

Written by Cindy Lane on . Posted in Featured, Outdoors, Sea turtles.

BRADENTON BEACH – Following in the flipper tracks of predecessors Amie and Eliza Ann, a female loggerhead sea turtle named “Bortie” was satellite tagged on Coquina Beach this morning and set free to “race” in the Tour de Turtles marathon.

Turtle release
Bortie, a loggerhead sea turtle, was detained after nesting Monday morning on Coquina Beach to be satellite tagged, released and tracked. – Cindy Lane | Sun

The project is a partnership of the Sea Turtle Conservancy, Anna Maria Island Turtle Watch and Shorebird Monitoring, Waterline Marina Resort in Holmes Beach and Bortell’s Lounge in Anna Maria, for which she is named.

Bortie will compete in the Conservancy’s 11th Annual Tour de Turtles race beginning on Aug. 1. The event is part of an ongoing research project tracking satellite-tagged turtles to determine where and how far they migr

Turtle release
Bortie’s release drew a crowd to Coquina Beach on Tuesday morning. – Sande Caplin & Associates | Submitted

Amie, named for Anna Maria Island and sponsor Anna Maria Elementary School, finished the 2015 race in last place, in true turtle style; 84 little loggerheads hatched out of her nest while she was in the race.

Eliza Ann, named for sponsor Waterline Marina Resort’s restaurant, made the Island proud, taking first place in the 2017 race.

Follow Bortie’s progress beginning Aug. 1 in The Sun.

Sea turtle to be satellite tagged

Written by Cindy Lane on . Posted in Outdoors, Sea turtles.

BRADENTON BEACH – Following in the flipper tracks of predecessors Amie and Eliza Ann, a female loggerhead sea turtle that will be named “Bortie” will be satellite tagged on Coquina Beach next Tuesday and set free to “race” in the Tour de Turtles marathon.

The release, scheduled at 8:30 a.m. on Tuesday, June 19, is dependent on Sea Turtle Conservancy staff finding and detaining a turtle after she nests the night before.

The project is a partnership of the Conservancy, Anna Maria Island Turtle Watch and Shorebird Monitoring, Waterline Marina Resort in Holmes Beach and Bortell’s Lounge in Anna Maria, for which she will be named.Turtle Watch logo

Bortie will compete in the Conservancy’s 11th Annual Tour de Turtles race beginning on Aug. 1. The event is part of an ongoing research project tracking satellite-tagged turtles to determine where and how far they migrate.

Spectators interested in seeing Bortie off to the Gulf of Mexico can look for a cluster of vehicles at the Coquina Beach parking lot; the exact location will not be decided until Tuesday morning.

Amie, named for Anna Maria Island and sponsor Anna Maria Elementary School, finished the 2015 race in last place, in true turtle style; 84 little loggerheads hatched out of her nest while she was in the race.

Eliza Ann, named for sponsor Waterline Marina Resort’s restaurant, made the Island proud, taking first place in the 2017 race.

Turtle Alberto

Saving turtle eggs from Alberto

Written by Cindy Lane on . Posted in Featured, Outdoors, Sea turtles.

Subtropical Storm Alberto kicked off the hurricane season a few days early, sending Anna Maria Island Turtle Watch and Shorebird Monitoring Director Suzi Fox and Manatee County lifeguards scrambling to rescue turtle eggs that high tides were about to wash out to sea.

Nests in danger of being submerged by high tides were relocated at Manatee Beach and Cedar Cove, Fox said. Some eggs found in sand dunes also were reburied.

Turtle eggs in nests inundated by water eventually drown.

Turtle Watch volunteers spent Memorial Day locating new nests and logging nests that were washed over by high tides. Fox told volunteers to “Cross your flippers” that the high tide expected around 10 p.m. Monday did not harm any more nests.

“This isn’t a sad event, this is a natural event,” Fox said, adding that sea turtles have the rest of the six-month nesting season to make up for the storm in May, turtle season’s first month.

Alberto is the first storm of the 2018 hurricane season, which does not officially begin until June 1.

Monday morning, as volunteers were still on the beach tracking turtles that nested Sunday night, at least 16 nesting attempts had been documented, Fox said.

Bad weather tends to prompt sea turtles to nest ahead of the storm.

“What we’re going to see next is the girls will nest higher because the shoreline is very damp right now,” she said.

Beachgoers who find storm-tossed turtle nest stakes and tape can call Fox at 941-778-5638, or throw away the tape and leave the stakes at the nearest dune line, where volunteers will find them the next morning, she requested.

In other turtle news, a Kemps-Ridley sea turtle recently washed up dead in Cortez, an unusual occurrence, as the species makes the waters of Texas their home, Fox said. The turtle will be necropsied at Mote Marine Laboratory in Sarasota.

Turtle map

Turtles, birds, need our help

Written by Cindy Lane on . Posted in Outdoors, Sea turtles.

CORTEZ – Everyone who visits the beach can help sea turtles and shorebirds, Suzi Fox, director of Anna Maria Island Turtle Watch and Shorebird Monitoring, told a packed house at the Florida Maritime Museum on Wednesday, March 21.

Fox and about 100 volunteers monitor the Island’s beaches each morning from May 1 to Oct. 31, following turtle tracks to nests, which are marked with stakes and tape and excavated after hatching to determine how many hatchlings were in the nest.

The stakes are placed far enough apart that an adult mother turtle can fit in between them, because turtles do not notice stakes on turtle or bird nests, she said, adding that when a turtle ventures into a staked shorebird nesting area, Turtle Watch does not stake the turtle nest separately, to avoid disturbing the birds.

Turtle
Suzi Fox, director of Anna Maria Island Turtle Watch and Shorebird Monitoring, talks to a full house of wildlife lovers at the Florida Maritime Museum. – Cindy Lane | Sun

Fox showed visitors a video of Eliza Ann, a loggerhead sea turtle that was satellite tagged after nesting on Coquina Beach on June 20, 2017. Sponsored by Waterline Marina Resort in the Sea Turtle Conservancy’s Tour de Turtles race, which tracks where and how far turtles swim, Eliza Ann nested four times on local beaches last season, once at Coquina and three times on the north end, she said.

For Fox, that proves the long-held theory that nesting turtles return to the beaches, although not necessarily the exact spot, where they hatched.

Last year, the Island had a record 488 turtle nests, some of which laid eggs on the bay side of the Island. Anna Maria Island is the only island in Florida where sea turtles nest on the bay side, she said.

The biggest problems for turtles on Anna Maria Island are lighting that is not turtle friendly and wish lanterns, Fox said.

In very bright areas, a cage is placed over unhatched nests to trap hatchlings before they can be disoriented away from the water and toward the street by lights. The hatchlings are later released at night, after they have calmed down, Fox said, adding that – like infants – they often calm down after a ride in the car. Bad lighting also can disorient nesting mother turtles.

Information for waterfront homeowners on turtle-friendly lights is available at www.myfwc.com.

Wish lanterns have metal and wood pieces that are slow to biodegrade and can injure turtles and birds, she said, asking people to find another way to celebrate events.

Turtle Watch also participates in a stranding network; turtles can become cold-stunned in winter and need reviving, and fishermen sometimes tangle turtles in their fishing line, cut the line, and bring turtles in for rehabilitation.

Since turtles and birds share the beach, Turtle Watch began monitoring shorebirds in 2006, Fox said, including snowy plovers, least terns, black skimmers and oystercatchers, some of which are imperiled.

As they prepare to nest, fattening themselves up and starting to pair off, Fox will be surveying their numbers in coming weeks.

As bird and turtle seasons approach, the organization will be posting signs on the beaches drawn by schoolchildren warning people about beach etiquette around wildlife, making notecards for sale with kids’ drawings, and working on the “Skip the Straws” and “Darker Skies, Darker Beaches” campaigns to raise awareness about littering and beach lighting.

For more information, visit https://islandturtlewatch.com.