Today is a blustery day on the ocean, with high waves and intermittent rains. Here in Puerto Vallarta we often see very large, majestic frigate birds flying over the coast. They are opportunistic eaters, and this morning Matt saw one attack a smaller bird, force the bird to disgorge the fish it had just scooped up, and then the frigate bird took the fish and flew off. Frigate birds have their own frailties: if they fall into the sea they can’t take off, and will likely die there. (Our local divemaster saved one recently; click on the link to see the Facebook post by Banderas Scuba on Dec. 19 2015.) This afternoon we noticed an exceptional number of these birds circling our beach, 7 or more, coasting into the wind like it was easy, and they were not veering away from our area. We walked down to watch them, and a man told us the frigates were here for the turtles.
Turtles?
Yes, he said and gestured down the beach about 20 yards. There we found a group of hotel employees clustered around a hole in the sand. One man was armpit deep into a sand hole, and pulling out some things.
As we walked up we saw him pull out and discard a misshapen lump, which as it turned out, was a dead turtle egg. Someone had seen a live turtle emerge from the sand, and the staff came out to save them. Now the last 2 of the turtles were being deposited into a bucket. It seems that the frigate birds had also seen the baby emerge, and they were waiting to take advantage of the free meal.
In the bucket were 81 newly hatched loggerhead turtles, vigorously flopping around and trying to figure out how to get to the sea. One was pronounced dead, and we all sighed a bit as he was set aside; but then he rallied to show a little movement, and soon it was full on hey-I’m-not-dead-yet, so he went in the bucket with the others. They were all covered in the fine sand that they were born in, not yet washed clean by the ocean.
The staff had called for local officials to take the turtles away, so they could be protected and set free. No frigate birds were fed today.
Only 10 of us got to see this, so we felt really fortunate to be a part of this birthing ceremony. Live long and prosper, little ones!
