March brings five minutes of spring to subtropical South Florida.
It also heralds eight months of sea turtle nesting season, which usually draws more than 20,000 female loggerhead, leatherback, Kemp’s ridley and hawksbill turtles to Palm Beach County
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A late green sea turtle laid this nest Sept. 24 on the beach in Gulf Stream. The eggs were expected to hatch in about 60 days from then. Sea turtle season officially ends Oct. 31 and begins again March 1.
Photo courtesy of Sea Turtle Adventures
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OCEAN RIDGE: Bulldozers work in the surf at the north end of Palm Beach County’s Hammock Park as sand is pumped from the dredge through the floating pipe and then to shore, where a sand and water slurry is spread to widen the beach. Photos by Jerry L
David Anderson, sea turtle conservation coordinator at Gumbo Limbo, checks a loggerhead nest at Red Reef Park.
By Larry Keller
As surely as the sun rises in the east, David Anderson and others from Gumbo Limbo Nature Center are on the beach, excavat
‘False crawls,’ where the female turtle comes a few feet ashore and then turns around without nesting, have become more common this year. Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star
By Willie Howard
Sea turtle nesting on Palm Beach County beaches is unofficiall
A Leatherback sea turtle returns to the ocean after depositing her eggs at first light on the beach in Gulf Stream on April 6.
Photo by Joan Lorne, Sea Turtle Monitor
Whether you’re a seasoned South Florida beachcomber or a relative newcomer to coastal Palm Beach County, consider this either a timely reminder or a heads-up to one of the marvels Mother Nature is kind enough to let us witness every year.
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