Spiny Jewelboxes

Florida spiny jewelbox shells

Marco Island, Naples beaches 2012

Unusual Dark Tulip Shell

Turtle Nest on Tigertail Beach

This morning the Turtle Lady was very sad, having found several ruined nests. In the photos below you can see that she is removing whole eggs, as well as eggshells from the disturbed nest and counting them on a handheld clicker.

At the very bottom, she found a turtle actually hatching, about 2/3rds out of its egg. It was alive and still had its yolk sac attached to its underside. She said it wasn’t ready for release yet and in fact its facial features seemed somewhat unformed, although perhaps that was merely the sand covering it. Its flippers wiggled and it actually turned toward the Gulf when she put it down for a moment.