It is sea turtle nesting season; Please share the beach

It is sea turtle nesting season; Please share the beach

Sea turtle nesting season has kicked off in Perdido Key and Pleasure Island, with volunteers from the Escambia County Sea Turtle Conservation Program and the Alabama Coastal Foundation Share The Beach program already patrolling local beaches each morning looking for signs of nesting or hatching activity.
Daily surveys ensure any nests laid in the night are protected and marked, allowing normal beach activities. Volunteers continue to check on nests during the incubation period, ensuring they remain undisturbed. The nesting season will run through September, although the season does not end until Oct. 31.
Four species of sea turtle nest on the AL/FL Gulf Coast. The loggerhead and green sea turtles are the most common nesters, followed by the less common Kemp’s ridley and leatherback.
Female turtles may nest several times in a single season. After around sixty days of incubation, the tiny hatchling turtles emerge all at once under the cover of darkness and race to the Gulf of Mexico. The hatchlings will make their way to open water where there are fewer predators. As few as one in 1,000 hatchlings survive to adulthood.
After a few years of growing and feeding, they will return to the area as juveniles and sub-adults where they will continue to grow and feed until they are mature enough to mate and lay nests of their own. Juvenile and adult sea turtles can often be seen foraging in bays and sounds, including near local fishing piers and artificial reefs.
Several species of shorebirds also nest on local beaches in the summer, including the least tern, snowy plover and black skimmer. Shorebird nests are shallow scrapes in the sand, with extremely small, well-camouflaged eggs. Eggs will incubate for up to 30 days before the small, cotton ball-like chicks hatch. Parents will often sit on the eggs and with newly hatched chicks to protect them from predators and the hot Gulf Coast sun. Birds are easily disturbed by people and pets approaching too close.
Share The Beach was founded and coordinated by Mike Reynolds through Friends of the Bon Secour Wildlife Refuge in 2005. The Alabama Coastal Foundation took over stewardshp of the program in 2018.