35 tiny miracles on the beach: Loggerheads find their way to the sea — with a little encouragement (PHOTOS)

Nothing like a tiny newborn to steal your heart.

And that’s exactly what some 35 baby green loggerhead turtles did to several dozen lucky beach-goers who witnessed their birth Sunday afternoon behind the Martinique Condominium on Holiday Isle.

This was the second turtle nest of the year behind Oceania and Martinique condos and the last one to hatch.  

It all started when someone spotted the first four turtles making their way to the beach and the curious watchers cheered them on. Another couple of turtles appeared an hour or two later and the bystanders grew in numbers as we watched the one turtle make its way the 70 feet to the Gulf, sometimes circling, sometimes falling into footprint holes, or sometimes charging over “hills” of clumped sand.

The other turtle just poked his head out the sand and kept looking at us.

Shortly thereafter, George Gray and his daughter Sara, from the Turtle Watch, showed up to remove the rest of the hatchlings from the nest while it was still warm enough, before the expected cold night.  Ringing the turtle nest, children and adults alike squealed in amazement as Sara carefully lifted turtle after turtle from under the sand, each wiggling like crazy.  

Once they were sure there were no more live turtles in the nest, the Grays took the bucket of 30 or so baby loggerheads to within 10 feet of the shore, followed by the turtle groupies that had witnessed Mother Nature's amazing event.

We watched as the tiny turtles headed straight for the water, sometimes seeming to pause to wave goodbye with a flipper before entering the water, all to swim off in different directions.

Sometimes a wave would throw them back on the beach, only to have them get back up and head back to the water. It was a lesson in sheer determination.  

Those of us who were so lucky to witness the whole event felt some pride — like we had really helped those baby loggerheads to make it to the water with our encouragement.

It was “awesome.” And who knows, one of these years, one of those turtles may come back to this very beach and leave us another one of Mother Nature's miracles on the beach!

For a link to more photos, click here.