Bald Head Island Day 4 (Sea Turtles!!)

While today included all of the regular beach things (i.e., going to the beach, swimming in the ocean, tanning, etc.), I was witness to something truly extraordinary this evening.  I watched a sea turtle nest excavation.  The nest officially hatched 3 nights ago, which was considerably earlier than they had initially predicted, for August 24.  This evening, they had two people dig out the nest and retrieve any remaining hatchlings and survivors that could not crawl out on their own.  There were 18 turtles left in the nest alive.  Daniel suggested that a major obstacle for them came two nights ago, when it rained heavily and packed down the sand, making it difficult for them to crawl out on their own.  This seems like a plausible explanation, since last year when we watched a nest excavation there were probably no more than 10 (probably fewer) that made it out alive.

Digging out the nest, including unhatched eggs and dead turtles.

A bucket full of baby sea turtles!

They are so cute.

These are both the hatched and unhatched eggs. They keep track of all of the hatched and unhatched eggs in all of the nests on Bald Head for statistical analyses.

Right before the turtles are released into the ocean, everyone is given one last look at them.

The short crawl to the ocean.

If you think about it, these guys have it a little bit easier. The people at Turtle Central carry them most of the way, so there is a smaller chance they will be eaten by predators on the way to the water.

Must I dream and always see your face?

I’ve been listening to a lot of Jeff Buckley lately.  Last night, I dreamt the two of us were wandering around a hotel and chatting.  This is irrelevant to this post, but Daniel claims that I had this particular dream  because yesterday, when we stopped at the comic store so he coud price some comics, our friend Kate told me all about her encounter with Norman Reedus in a hotel after a horror convention.  Fret not: it was a PG-rated encounter…she’s not that type of girl!  Needless to say, I’m completely jealous because I absolutely love Norman Reedus and would probably die on the spot if I had the the opportunity to meet him.

Back to the regularly scheduled post:

Grace is a phenomenal album.  It was released in 1994, just after the grunge movement was peaking.  I think a lot of people lumped him in with this group of musicians, based on his aesthetic, but most of his music is actually very pretty and his vocals range from the quiet and haunting on “Hallelujah”, to beautiful falsetto on “Corpus Christi Carol” to grungier cries and yells on “Eternal Life”.

Although it is nearly impossible to choose a favorite from Grace, currently I’m partial to  “Last Goodbye”, but I waver daily between “Lover, You Should’ve Come Over” and “So Real”.  But, like I said, the whole album is phenomenal, so choosing a true favorite is a silly idea.

If you are unfamiliar with Jeff Buckley (as I was before I met Daniel), Grace is the place to start, since it is his first and only complete album.

I’ve decided that Sketches for My Sweetheart the Drunk really deserves its own post, so my wordgasm for those tracks are coming soon.

Here is the youtube link for the video for “Grace”, the title track.  I won’t post it on here because I know that Vevo would never honestly let me embed one of their videos!  I’m bitter.

 

Daniel requested the picture of baby sea turtles..."just 'cause."

The above photo was taken on Bald Head Island by Daniel’s sister.