Turtle at the estuary
- Thread starter Tmecke
- Start date
Jungle Jim
Guest
We spotted twelve Olive Ridley Sea Turtles along the beach to Salinas Point last weekend.
They were basking in the late springtime sunshine. They had been eviscerated by Los Coyotes and Zopilotes. What was left of the excellent meat to include flippers, heads and tails was being slow cooked awaiting the death beetles and maggots.
One, an adult bull male had a dozen or more of the huge Sea Turtle Barnacles ( Chelonibia sp.) clinging to it's top shell. They are perfectly hydrodynamic as to cause minimal drag on their host vehicle.
This was the first time ever that we saw juveniles barely a foot long just as dead and innocent as the others. So much for the "required by law" TED "turtle excluder devices".
Trawlers gotta trawl!
JJ
They were basking in the late springtime sunshine. They had been eviscerated by Los Coyotes and Zopilotes. What was left of the excellent meat to include flippers, heads and tails was being slow cooked awaiting the death beetles and maggots.
One, an adult bull male had a dozen or more of the huge Sea Turtle Barnacles ( Chelonibia sp.) clinging to it's top shell. They are perfectly hydrodynamic as to cause minimal drag on their host vehicle.
This was the first time ever that we saw juveniles barely a foot long just as dead and innocent as the others. So much for the "required by law" TED "turtle excluder devices".
Trawlers gotta trawl!
JJ
Buffalo Marty
Guest
I'm not 100% sure if still the case, but in the past I noticed photos would *only* upload if the size was under 100k (pretty damn small). There are various paint programs where you can save to a smaller file size without losing too much detail.
Tmecke
Guest
My wife would be horrified if she saw that many dead turtles. We were down last September and saw many dead large triggers all along Las Conchas and at the Estuary, by-catch?
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Old55
Guest
Seems like it isnt possible for the last month.I was down at Tanque and had a nice shot and was at the Spit….always cool.GOOD INFO : https://pronatura-noroeste.org/playerosyanatidos/archivosPDF/file/0058.pdf
Jungle Jim
Guest
Good poop on the 90's bird watcher tour of our backyard................
That trip on the 29th of last month we were also rewarded with several fresh dead Craveri's Murrelets on the beach, obviously collateral kill from gill nets left overnight by the La Purinera (Salinas Point) pangueros. That rare bird also known as a type of auk nests under the rocks on Isla San Jorge.
They spend the day offshore feeding on fish then return to the island at night to feed their chicks that share their dugouts with the also very "rare" Mexican Fishing Bat.
I have spent several summer nights anchored on the lee side of the island. The scene there after dark is absolutely amazing! As soon as it's pitch black the adult Murrelets begin arriving by the hundreds to feed their chicks and the chicks call out with a catlike meowing that when amplified by curve of the island is almost deafening. A deck light shined up on the rocks shows swarms of birds diving into the rock crevices and swarms of bats leaving the crevices.
As for the Mexican Fishing Bat, they are actually quite common all along the coastline from Punta Coyote at the north and down to Desemboque southward. Most "expert" accounts claim that they only roost and breed on the islands which is not true. They can easily be seen in almost every abandoned half million dollar shack from PP to Los Conchas to Bahia San Jorge to Santo Tomas and beyond. They will be found in the crevices of any beach cliff structure and are especially fond of using old rodent burrows exposed on the sand cliffs.
Their signature call sign is the bloody looking poop drips on the walls of abandoned buildings. We saw them a few weeks ago at the old beach house shack at Playa Azul. The Mexican Fishing Bat is a unique little hunter that never drinks fresh water, hunts many miles offshore for fish and crustaceans then returns to their desert beach hell holes to digest their salty booty and nurse their little pups. They have specialized claws on their rear feet that look like Freddie Kruger finger knives.
They slow troll dragging those claws on the water surface and when they strike a small fish, crab or shrimp the snatch it up and eat it in midair.
If anything the urbanization of the Sonora coastline has increased their numbers just like the Osprey many times more than pre-historic times.
JJ
That trip on the 29th of last month we were also rewarded with several fresh dead Craveri's Murrelets on the beach, obviously collateral kill from gill nets left overnight by the La Purinera (Salinas Point) pangueros. That rare bird also known as a type of auk nests under the rocks on Isla San Jorge.
They spend the day offshore feeding on fish then return to the island at night to feed their chicks that share their dugouts with the also very "rare" Mexican Fishing Bat.
I have spent several summer nights anchored on the lee side of the island. The scene there after dark is absolutely amazing! As soon as it's pitch black the adult Murrelets begin arriving by the hundreds to feed their chicks and the chicks call out with a catlike meowing that when amplified by curve of the island is almost deafening. A deck light shined up on the rocks shows swarms of birds diving into the rock crevices and swarms of bats leaving the crevices.
As for the Mexican Fishing Bat, they are actually quite common all along the coastline from Punta Coyote at the north and down to Desemboque southward. Most "expert" accounts claim that they only roost and breed on the islands which is not true. They can easily be seen in almost every abandoned half million dollar shack from PP to Los Conchas to Bahia San Jorge to Santo Tomas and beyond. They will be found in the crevices of any beach cliff structure and are especially fond of using old rodent burrows exposed on the sand cliffs.
Their signature call sign is the bloody looking poop drips on the walls of abandoned buildings. We saw them a few weeks ago at the old beach house shack at Playa Azul. The Mexican Fishing Bat is a unique little hunter that never drinks fresh water, hunts many miles offshore for fish and crustaceans then returns to their desert beach hell holes to digest their salty booty and nurse their little pups. They have specialized claws on their rear feet that look like Freddie Kruger finger knives.
They slow troll dragging those claws on the water surface and when they strike a small fish, crab or shrimp the snatch it up and eat it in midair.
If anything the urbanization of the Sonora coastline has increased their numbers just like the Osprey many times more than pre-historic times.
JJ
Old55
Guest
“A friend” likes to get really really high and sit it a lawn chair at waters edge on still moonless nights…click on Night vision gen 3 and watch the show…..this is really interesting…they travel like 35 miles a night!https://hakaimagazine.com/videos-visuals/mexican-fishing-bats/
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Jungle Jim
Guest
We do the same every night right here on my hacienda in Yuma. Our pool is salt water as is our spa. With the pool lights on and as we parboil in the tub we have a constant show of night-time visitors that most people would never dream ever lived here. The big Mexican Freetail Bats scoop up water with their tail skins, the tiny Western Pipistrelle Bats flutter down and take a sip with their mouth and the nectar and fruit eating Long-Tongued Bats hover and take a slurp with their noodle-like tongues. We have regular visits from a half dozen local nesting Texas Nighthawks and an occasional Desert Poor-will.
We have had migrating Grebes spend the day on the water and have dipped out two young Nutrias that found their way here from the river that is just two blocks away. We always have a pair of Black Phoebe's that hang out on the patio furniture waiting for a swamped Honey Bee or Yellow Jacket wasp to snatch out of the water.
By the way Jerry, I saw on that map in your sea bird link that they labeled Salinas Point as La Purinera. I did a little searching and found out that the Purina animal food company had a fish meal processing plant out there at one time. Most likely to feed the now defunct chicken farms further south. Know anything about them? That would explain the old at one time graded dirt road above the beach that for the most part is now covered with drifting dunes. Also, the concrete shack at the panga camp always seemed a little ostentatious for a bunch of dirt poor scraggly pescaderos.
JJ
We have had migrating Grebes spend the day on the water and have dipped out two young Nutrias that found their way here from the river that is just two blocks away. We always have a pair of Black Phoebe's that hang out on the patio furniture waiting for a swamped Honey Bee or Yellow Jacket wasp to snatch out of the water.
By the way Jerry, I saw on that map in your sea bird link that they labeled Salinas Point as La Purinera. I did a little searching and found out that the Purina animal food company had a fish meal processing plant out there at one time. Most likely to feed the now defunct chicken farms further south. Know anything about them? That would explain the old at one time graded dirt road above the beach that for the most part is now covered with drifting dunes. Also, the concrete shack at the panga camp always seemed a little ostentatious for a bunch of dirt poor scraggly pescaderos.
JJ
Old55
Guest
Interesting , sounds right but not a clue.I will ask. At my old ranch they used to mine bat guano from an abandoned mine on Apache pass. The nightly show of the bats leaving the remains of the old Fort ice plant basement is pretty cool. “ Fort Bowie National Historic Site and Bureau of Land Management's (BLM) Safford District entered into a cooperative project on their common boundary to close a number of openings at Quillin Mine, located along the historic Butterfield Overland Trail. Four of these openings, all actually on BLM land, are known to host significant bat populations, most notably Mine BOT #1, situated 100 feet from the park boundary. The primary roosting chamber is a stope measuring approximately 15 feet wide by 30 feet long by 15 feet high, situated midway between adit and shaft entrances to the mine. The original survey of the mine was conducted in April 1996, at which time 20 Western big-eared bats were found emerging from hibernation, but guano approximately 6 feet deep attested to the heavy summer use (Burghardt, 1996). Subsequent summer surveys confirmed a maternity colony of 4,000 Cave bats and several hundred Fringed bats. (Altenbach 1996) A bat gate was constructed on the adit in stages during 1998 as the batsí acceptance was tested, then an innovative cupola design was constructed in early 2000 over the shaft. The colony has been receptive of the closures….(http://npshistory.com/publications/mines/batgate-2003.pdf). Have you noticed that mind bendingly huge mansion the Colorado man of wealth and taste is building a Playa Paloma north of me?….holy shit…it is most likely the safest place on the coast as that cool little wooden tiny house farther north Antonio built for a stop over spot is owned by the last guy anyone in his right mind would mess with!
Old55
Guest
My wife was a running partner with Donna Howell years ago.They would spook around isolated corners of arizona checking on gates at mines and doing counts…https://www.tucsonlocalmedia.com/livenup/article_62d0e54c-660d-11e9-b4ae-1f58dfed5a1c.html
Tmecke
Guest
About a half century ago I remember starring at a large stucture on that point wondering how and why it was there. My father told me it was an abandoned fish processing plant. More details tomorrow, had to much fun this weekend and I'm wiped out.