Waking up to sea turtle tracks on the beach is one of those 30A mornings that guests remember for years. Here is what makes it happen and what you can do to help it keep happening.
Nesting season: May through October
Loggerhead sea turtles nest on 30A beaches from May through October. Female loggerheads return to the same beach where they were born to lay their eggs — sometimes traveling thousands of miles to do it. They come ashore at night, dig a nest above the tide line, deposit 80-120 eggs, cover them carefully, and return to the water. The whole process takes 45 minutes to an hour. They do not want to be disturbed and will abandon a nesting attempt if they encounter light or activity.
Finding tracks at sunrise
The first guests to walk the beach each morning during nesting season often find the tracks — two parallel lines of flipper marks leading from the water to a disturbed area of sand and back. The pattern looks like a small tractor drove out of the Gulf, turned a wide circle, and went back in. Walton County’s turtle monitoring volunteers patrol the beach each morning, find the tracks, confirm the nest location, and mark it with stakes and tape before the beach gets busy. Finding a fresh nest before the volunteers do — calling it in or waiting for them — is one of the more meaningful things guests do during their stay.
How you can help
Four things visitors do that harm turtle nesting, all easily avoided: leaving beach chairs and tents on the beach overnight (turtles cannot navigate around them and nesting attempts fail), leaving holes dug in the sand unfilled (hatchlings fall in and cannot escape), shining lights toward the water at night during nesting season (hatchlings orient toward the brightest light), and disturbing marked nests. Fill in holes before you leave the beach. Remove your gear at the end of the day. Keep lights pointed down. Stay behind the tape if you find a marked nest. These are small things that matter.
Hatchlings emerging
Nests incubate for 60-75 days. Hatchlings emerge at night — usually on a cool night, often after rain. They are about the size of a silver dollar and they move toward the brightest light, which should be the moon reflecting on the Gulf. The whole nest emerges within minutes and they are in the water quickly. Witnesses describe it as one of the most moving things they have seen on a beach. It cannot be scheduled or predicted — it happens when the temperature and timing are right, and the volunteers who monitor the nests are sometimes there when it happens.
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