Sea turtle nesting is winding down on Anna Maria Island while the last of the island’s least tern chicks have fledged.
According to Anna Maria Island Turtle Watch and Shorebird Monitoring’s weekly report released Aug. 7, nesting turtles laid just six new nests and produced five false crawls Aug. 1-7, while hatching activity keeps climbing.
It’s the seasonal turn AMITW watches for every year, as adult female sea turtles finish coming ashore and, from the nests laid about 60 days ago, hatchlings by the dozens scramble to the Gulf.
Heavy rain during the week erased many of the tracks patrollers usually follow to spot disorientations, so AMITW leaned on its 24-hour hotline, 941-301-8434, to find hatchlings in trouble.
Calls led rescuers to hatchlings, some needing rest before a nighttime release, to darker stretches of beach for redirection, and in some cases to Mote Marine Laboratory’s Sea Turtle Rehabilitation Hospital for care before they could be sent offshore.
Those calls also can help patrollers trace disorientations back to specific lights, which get reported to code enforcement officials who alert property owners to switch to turtle-friendly fixtures or turn out their lights.
AMITW also recovered more than 10 post-hatchling washbacks during the week, including one sea turtle pulled from a canal and another from the bay.
Post-hatchling washbacks are turtles that reached the Gulf of Mexico only to be pushed back to shore, often dehydrated and exhausted.
Meanwhile, the shorebird season was coming to a close in north Bradenton Beach.
A least tern colony produced 17 chicks, 11 of which became flight-capable, for a 65% fledge rate, the most successful season since the birds began nesting at the site in 2021.
A black skimmer colony, by contrast, had no chicks.
As of press time, 11 tern fledglings had joined migrating birds preparing to start their journey to the Caribbean, and the protective enclosure on the beach was being removed.
AMITW’s shorebird monitor, Kathy Doddridge, logged 87 mornings watching over the colony this season.
By the numbers: sea turtles
The week ending Aug. 7, AMITW reported 455 nests, 569 false crawls, 20 adult disorientations, 27 hatchling disorientations, 6,591 hatchlings.
By the numbers: Shorebirds
The week ending Aug. 7, AMITW reported 39-80 least tern adults, 17 chicks produced in the colony in Bradenton Beach.