Strange Day on the Beach

I was too tired to get up early to see more turtles released but still made it to the beach.  It was not very windy so hardly any waves and very hot.  I set up the shade and blew up my tube so was good for the day.  The guy next to me caught a baby shark.  Then I saw him bring in another fish and it was another baby shark.  I think it looked like the same one.  When I got there there were a lot of dead crabs all over the beach so just scraped them away and put them in a pile. Guys on the other side of me had a rake so cleaned up alot of them and put them with a jelly fish so no one would get stung.  As the tide went out then there were more and more of the crabs.  Last week one bit me but this week I was stepping on them everywhere they were all coming in to shore and dying... very strange.  There were the regular ones as well as the Calico Box Crabs.  Not sure why this is happening.  When you google you see the red ones in California last month so I guess we get these guys this month.  As the article for California states it was a smorgasboard for the Sea Gulls.  They were actually full I think.
I swear by the time that I left there were thousands of them washed up on the beach.

3 or 5 strips left to make on James' Bedspread

Turtle Release At National Seashore

I drove down on Saturday to see the first release for 2016.  It was awesome.  The little turtles are so cute.  I hope that a lot of them survive.  This was the first release this year and it was from Clutch 2 and it had 70 babies in it.  As you have seen in my previous blogs the stroll up and down the beaches for months looking for nests that turtles have laid their eggs in.  The turtles come up and bury them in the sand and then go back out to the sea.  That is the only time that the female sea turtles come to shore.  The males never come back.  Since they are an endangered specie the volunteers find them and the Rangers gather them up to keep them safe until they are ready to go out to sea.  They release them at 6:45 in the morning when the public is allowed to watch. There are other releases that are not for public viewing.  There is a net over the area where the Dr puts them on the sand to run.  She put them out there one at a time.  When they get out past the net then there are people with flags and owls on sticks waving them in the air so that the birds don't swoop down for breakfast.  Once they make it to the water they are on their own and hopefully a few will survive.  They go to a weedy area to hide for a few years until they are big enough to go out into the open water.

This little boy reminded me of James when he was little - I am sure he would have wore his ninja turtle shorts too.