While exploring the beach at Botany Bay Nature Preserve I came across several sea turtle tracks where the mothers had come up the beach looking for a place to lay eggs. In two places, I was dejected to find that the turtle had run into an obstacle and turned around. Here you can see the tracks coming up the beach and going back out to sea right next to each other.

Turned Around

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I was pretty astounded how perfectly aligned they were and how perfect the turn was after she bumped into the base of a palm tree. If she had been 1 foot to the right or left she would have gone by the tree and found the dry sand above the high water mark to dig her hole. About 30 feet further down the beach there was an almost identical set of tracks this time turned around by a fallen tree. Apparently she will try again and again even in the same night to find a safe spot for her eggs and each time will make the laborious journey back out to see. I walked for a couple of miles down the beach but never found a successful track. The morning quiet was broken about an hour later a two park rangers on ATV’s zoomed down the beach looking for the same thing pausing briefly at each track before moving on.