“Seven Must See” Animal Pictures

We are all so excited to be giving back to Stacey J. Aswad’s, of Walt Disney World’s Seven Must See’s, Animal Charities this month!  This is a great time of yearto visit the beaches on the Atlantic Ocean to see lots of exciting Endangered Species activity!

A family of rare Black Skimmer birds has set up a nest on the beach at Daytona Beach Shores.  It is rare for these birds to nest along Florida’s east coast and even more unusual that they are not nesting in a colony.  The first picture shows the Skimmer parents.  The second picture shows a growing baby Skimmer with one of the proud parents!

This is also the time of year that Sea Turtles make their way onto the beaches at night to lay their eggs in dry sand nests.  They attempt to disguise their nests and return to sea in hopes that their hatchlings will crawl into the ocean in about two months.  Thank goodness for the volunteers that walk the beaches to patrol for new nests.  Here you can see the mother turtle’s tracks onto the beach.

 

 

 

 

 

 

She was unable to get to the dunes because of a seawall and she laid her eggs in the middle of the beach.  The nest was located within a high tide zone.  The volunteers had to dig up the eggs and move them to a sager place.  This is a shot of the eggs in the nest.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The male eggs are always on the bottom of the nest.  Each eggs has to be carefully removed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The exact measurements of the nest are taken to ensure that the nest is properly recreated.

 

 

 

 

 

 

And finally the original nest is filled in and the eggs relocated to a safer area.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks to all of you and to Stacey for helping to support so many of the worthy animal charities!

Vicki

antispambot(‘vickid@mei-travel.com’)