So the turtle folks dropped by last night with a bucket of baby hawksbill turtles that had hatched and were making their way to the posh Sandy Lane lobby instead of the ocean. I mentioned it in a previous post (with the crazy picture of the huge leatherback turtle), but the babies us the ambient light of the ocean to orient themselves to the water. The problem with all these fancy hotels who insist on keeping their lights on (because the customers want to see the ocean apparently) is the turtles think the hotel is the ocean. The turtle people get called in, they collect them, and the take them to another part of the beach that hasn't been over run with hotels and bright lights.
So, we walked up the beach a short way to heron bay where there are no hotels. We got some of them going, but a good portion of them hadn't woken up yet. The first bunch got off to great start, but then the rest just kept on sleeping. We tried some tricks to wake them up, but they seemed to enjoy their snooze. The turtle folks got another call so they gathered up the rest and said they'd try another time when they were a little more awake
Moral of the day: if you go to a beachside hotel that has known turtle nesting spots - tell the managers to turn off their lights at night!
Oh, and yes, I did ask if I could use flash. They said as long as the flash was coming from the direction of the ocean, it was fine.
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