It’s always fun to take a ramble on the seven-mile stretch of shoreline on Little St. Simons Island. You just never know what you’ll come across. The past couple of weeks have been interesting with beach finds in the form of sea beans. A sea bean is a broad term for the many nuts, seeds, and fruits that may be carried long distances by the ocean currents. Red mangrove seed pods have been washing up for about two weeks, and one guest found a hamburger bean last week. As the name suggests, the outer edges of the beans are lighter, and the inner area is darker, so that it has a “hamburger” appearance. Her bean came all the way from the cloud rain-forests in Costa Rica!

Northeast winds have set fall bird migration in motion. New species are seen moving through the island every day. Friday, September 19, was a particularly great day for shorebirds on Sancho Panza beach. At high tide no less than 200 Marbled Godwit were flocked on the shore, along with just as many Red Knot, 61 American Oystercatcher, 7(!!!!) Long-billed Curlew, and a smattering of plovers including Black-bellied, Piping, Semi-palmated, and Wilsons. Ruddy Turnstone, Western Sandpiper, Gull-billed Terns, Greater and Lesser Black-backed Gulls, and Royal Terns were also present on the shore. As the tide lowered, the birds moved down to feed in the mudflats, but the early morning showing was truly spectacular!!

Merlin and Peregrine Falcons are also moving through the area, and we are happy to welcome back thousands of migrating tree swallows! Keep your eyes on the skies…

One night, back in July, some of the staff members took a ride to the beach to look for nesting turtles. Much to our surprise, we did find a turtle, but it wasn’t coming to nest. The turtle was in poor physical condition, and we knew something had to be done. Luckily, we were able to reach the good folks at the Georgia Sea Turtle Center on Jekyll Island. We named the turtle Simone, took her off the island on a skiff, and turned her into their care. After an examination, they believed the turtle to have debilitated turtle syndrome. Simone is currently at the turtle center on Jekyll, where she is feeding heartily and seems to be doing well. To read more, visit http://www.georgiaseaturtlecenter.org/our-patients/sea-turtle-patients/current-patients/

The nesting season for Loggerhead Sea Turtles on Little St. Simons Island runs from May through October. A turtle intern monitors the seven mile stretch of beach daily, looking for crawls, nests, and hatchling turtles. This year has been a particularly good one for turtles, and the number of nests has surpassed previous records. The final number of nests laid is 113, and the number of false crawls is 103.

Little St. Simons Island is always looking for new ways to become more Green, and in early 2008 we began a new garden project. We have been working to establish a certified organic garden to grow fruits, vegetables, herbs, and cutting flowers for use in the Lodge. The garden has been prepared, inspected, and certified and some crops have already been planted and harvested. Plans are underway to construct raised beds for fall planting. The garden utilizes composted kitchen scraps and other materials found on the island naturally, such as fallen oak leaves, which gives us a way to reduce kitchen waste and to add nutrients back into the soil at the same time.

While we aren’t leading tours about the unique barrier island ecosystem that makes up Little St. Simons Island, the naturalists keep busy with other special projects. We develop new programs, conduct research and monitoring on native plant and animal populations, and come up with new ways to become a greener island. Read on to find out about some specific projects, such as the organic garden, that we are currently working on.