Upon arriving at Fort DeSoto this morning we ran into the superintendent of the park, Jim Wilson, who graciously was answering our questions about nesting birds in the park when he mentioned that he was on his way to check the first Loggerhead Turtle Nest that had hatched out a couple of days before. With an opportunity like that handed to us we headed off in the direction he pointed. When we got there they had just removed the sign and the grating they had placed over the nest to keep predators away…

Mike, the park ranger on the right, began carefully digging in the hole pulling sand out, setting the empty eggs to one side, the sand to another and the few dead turtles they found in yet another pile…

As he kept digging deeper and deeper, he pulled out eight dead turtles, 126 eggs in all and a wonderful little surprise…a live turtle hatchling…

…which he carefully put in a bucket where they would keep the baby turtle until dark when they would come back to where it hatched out and release it to make it’s way into the ocean…

It was a fascinating experience to see the nest and watch the rangers gather their information with the bonus of seeing a live baby Loggerhead turtle.
With the sun making it’s way higher in the sky, we thanked the rangers and headed off to find some birds to photograph.

Images captured with Nikon D3S, AF-S 70-200mm VR II (first two images), D300s, AF-S 85mm Micro on Lexar Digital Media