Lucky mornings

For the past week or two I have been lucky enough to catch a turtle or two nesting as the sun rose along Juno Beach. This morning was one of those days! I came across this nesting green sea turtle just south of the Juno Beach Park Fishing Pier. She seemed to be having some trouble laying eggs, so I checked her out and her cloaca was completely plugged up with eggs! I have never seen anything like that in all my years of sea turtle work! She was missing a rear flipper and it is possible that there was other damge that caused the blockage?? I removed about a dozen eggs and she continued to lay a normal size clutch of eggs and she returned to the water about an hour and a half later. Check out some of the pictures in the gallery.