Sea turtle activity continues to be productive on the shores of Little St. Simons Island. As of July 18, we have 96 confirmed nests and have seen 140 additional non-nesting emergences. Hatching of early nests has begun as well; two nests have emerged this week!

Guests continue to accompany our naturalists to the beach for night time walks in the hopes of encountering females and hatchling turtles. Earlier this week, a female turtle was spotted in the surf by one of the night walking groups, but immediately returned to the sea. She appeared to have waited a bit then moved slightly north on the beach to successfully nest; her crawl and nest cavity were confirmed the next morning!

Mississippi Kite have been sighted twice on Little St. Simons Island this week. The first sighting was on July 5 at Sancho Panza near the second fishing hole. The second sighting was on Saturday, July 10 in the main compound. The birds are not regularly seen on LSSI although they are found nearby, nesting in groups along the Altamaha River corridor.

It was a great afternoon of birding at Sancho Panza beach today, with a variety of shorebirds and other species. An Osprey greeted our group by flying from a distant driftwood perch to directly overhead. As we approached the shoreline, Willets were feeding along the surf edge. We looked across the creek, and saw not one but two Long-billed Curlew resting on the beach! Marbled Godwit, Ruddy Turnstone, and Black-bellied Plover fed busily in the wet sand. Royal and Least Terns were resting on the shoreline; Black Terns, a Gull-billed Tern, and Black Skimmers flew above the creek water. Waders included Great Blue Heron, Snowy Egret, Tri-colored Heron, and Reddish Egret.  Brown Pelican, American Oystercatcher, and Black-necked Stilt were also present.

After the beach, we stopped in for a brief visit at the Myrtle Pond blind where we got to watch Roseate Spoonbill, White Ibis, Snowy Egret, and Tri-colored Herons. We also enjoyed seeing young Mottled Duck and Common Moorhen, as well as several birds bathing in the freshwater, including Red-winged Blackbird and Boat-tailed Grackle.

June has been a very exciting month for wildlife on LSSI! Here are some of the highlights:

• Fallow Deer fawns are being born and can be seen with their mothers throughout the island

• Black Skimmers, Least Terns, Wilson’s Plovers, and American Oystercatchers are all nesting successfully on our beaches; three of the American Oystercatcher chicks were fitted with leg bands to help track them throughout their lifetime and two of the three have been seen flying along the waters edge at the beach!

• Groups of baby armadillos have been seen on Beach Rd.

• Sea Oats are maturing on the beach and are a beautiful pale green in color

• Sea turtle nesting is very successful; our current tally is 64 nests and 91 non-nesting emergences (false crawls); on June 9, an injured green sea turtle was found and taken to the turtle center on Jekyll Island, and on June 14, a green sea turtle crawl was found — no nest was discovered, but the area is marked as a potential nest site that we will continue to monitor

• Fishing in the surf and the creeks has been productive for small to medium sized sharks, and the creeks are very productive with bait fish and shrimp; juvenile (6 – 10 inch) redfish can be seen swimming just under the surface in Mosquito Creek when the conditions are right

• Black Terns and Reddish Egret have been sighted in and around the beach pond

• There was a lightning strike mid-month that ignited a small wildfire in the large tract of marsh east of Myrtle Pond; because these types of wildfires are a natural process (and beneficial!) the head fire was allowed to burn itself out naturally and the backing fire was extinguished for safety. The estimated area burned was about 4 acres.

With all of these exciting things happening on Little St. Simons Island, don’t you think it’s time for your next (or first) visit? We hope to see you soon!

The past two nights have been incredibly active for Loggerhead sea turtles on Little St. Simons Island, relative to the number of emergences typically seen on our beach. On Friday morning, our turtle intern Kristina Hammond spent the morning exploring 10 turtle activities from the previous night; there were two nests and eight false crawls, bringing our totals to 17 nests and 23 false crawls for the season.

Today naturalist Abby Sterling rode the beach, and was astonished to find that last night was even busier for turtles. She discovered a total of seven nests and eight additional false crawls! The totals as of June 5 are now 24 nests and 31 false crawls! This is shaping up to be one of our biggest turtle seasons, if things continue at the present pace. The highest year so far on LSSI was in 2008, with 113 nests.

There have been good numbers of Roseate Spoonbills on Little St. Simons Island as of late. The gorgeous pink wading birds have been seen in nice sized flocks at Skimmer Pond, Myrtle Pond, and North Pond. High numbers have been in the 20s. At Myrtle Pond, the spoonbills have been spotted from the tower, north and south ends of the pond, and at the blind for a lucky few guests.  A variety of age classes have been in all locations.

Recent activity at Myrtle Pond includes some new additions to the LSSI family, as Common Moorhens can be seen out and about with their chicks. Many of the chicks, especially on the south end of the pond, are only about a week old, and still very black and downy. There are also some older, more independent chicks throughout the pond; they can be distinguished by the similar markings to their parents, but more overall grayish color.

On Wednesday, May 26, the LSSI staff bid a fond farewell to one of our naturalists, Roxann Vistocci, who will be moving on to a new path in life.  Roxann began her career as an LSSI naturalist in April 2008, spending over two years leading island guests on activities! In the fall, Rox will move to the Pacific Northwest, to enroll in the graduate program at Islandwood, an outdoor education facility on Bainbridge Island. There she will work with students in outdoor education, while earning a Certificate in Education, Environment, and Community, in partnership with the University of Washington.

In the meantime, she has moved back to New York City to spend some time with family. While in NYC, Roxann will continue her career path as an Urban Park Ranger with the NYC Department of Parks and Recreation.   While on LSSI, Rox took a particular interest in the reptiles and amphibians found on the island, and also helped initiate the outreach program bringing LSSI to the second graders at Goodyear Elementary School.

We wish our dear friend the best of luck in her future, and miss her already! ALL THE BEST TO YOU, ROXANN!!!

The loggerhead sea turtle nesting season is off to a good start; as of May 27 we have encountered a total of 11 turtle nests on the beach and 3 false crawls. On Saturday, May 22, guests visited the beach on an evening walk to look for turtles, and saw a female far down the beach. They ran like mad, and got to the area just as she was arriving at the tide line. They watched her swim away, and marveled at the luck they had to have that brief look! Our turtle interns continue to monitor the beach daily seeking out new nests; keep checking back for more updates.

Yesterday we embarked on a hike from the bridge on the South End of LSSI to the Wishbone Trail, following hammocks and crossing the low marsh on the way. Fiddler crabs marched by the thousands across the marsh, scuttling into burrows and out of sight. The birding was quite eventful for a warm late spring morning. The calls of male Orchard Orioles continuously flowed around us, and on many occasions the dark, brick-red male songbirds could be seen flitting in the low branches of the gnarled Live Oaks.  Watching through binoculars, we saw the Orioles and several other birds feeding on bright green, plump caterpillars, and sometimes transporting the caterpillars to young birds or to nest sites. Many of the birds we saw, such as pairs of Eastern Towhee and Carolina Chickadee, appeared to be defending territories and busily collecting food. A Red-bellied Woodpecker flew from the side of a tree with an insect in its bill to another tree, and leaned down into a cavity to feed its young. The young woodpecker popped out of the cavity and let us have a peek at it!

Other birds encountered on the hike included Great Blue Heron, Great Egret, Snowy Egret, Tri-colored Heron, Black Vulture, Turkey Vulture, Downy Woodpecker, Eastern Wood-pewee, Blue Jay, Carolina Wren, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, Yellow-throated Warbler, Northern Cardinal, and Red-winged Blackbird!