{"id":3715,"date":"2011-11-18T12:47:30","date_gmt":"2011-11-18T18:47:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=3715"},"modified":"2025-11-18T09:40:42","modified_gmt":"2025-11-18T15:40:42","slug":"female-loggerhead-sea-turtle-friday-photos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2011\/11\/18\/female-loggerhead-sea-turtle-friday-photos\/","title":{"rendered":"Female Loggerhead Sea Turtle – Friday Photos"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"FemaleFemale Loggerhead Sea Turtle leaving the nest site – Nikon D200, handheld, f5.6, 1\/30, ISO 500, Nikkor 80-400mm VR at 80mm, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

When it comes to wildlife photography I am a firm believer in paying attention to my surroundings, carefully observing things that are out of the ordinary and listening to the sounds around me for the unusual because I just never know what wonderful subjects I might find.<\/p>\n

While I lived in Florida I visited Fort De Soto County Park often and had familiarized myself to know the sounds, behaviors of the birds\u00a0and the “lay of the land” quite well and because I had done that it offered me a unique and amazing encounter one very early morning in July of 2008. I don’t think I’ll ever forget it.<\/p>\n

\"FemaleFemale Loggerhead Turtle slowly making her way back to the water –\u00a0 Nikon D200, handheld, f5.6, 1\/40, ISO 320, Nikkor 80-400mm VR at 120mm, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

Usually when I arrived just before dawn at the north beach of Fort De Soto I would hear the rumble of trucks going to each trash can on the beach to empty them and accompanied by that sound would be the cries of Laughing Gulls as they swarmed near the trucks hoping to get an easy tidbit to eat.<\/p>\n

That morning as I crossed the footbridge I saw that the light looked better near the tidal lagoon to the south and I planned on making that my first destination.<\/p>\n

I could hear the sounds of the gulls to the north and smiled thinking I would make my way north after seeing if there were any birds in the lagoon near the concession stand.<\/p>\n

But the lack<\/em> of one sound made me very curious, I wasn’t hearing the trash trucks, but I was hearing the gull cries.<\/p>\n

I looked north and saw a group of about 20 gulls flying down into the mangroves and sea oats near the crest of a sand dune, the birds were squawking loudly.<\/p>\n

Very quickly I made my way through the soft sugar sand towards the direction of the gulls and as the sand dune came into view my jaw dropped, my pulse raced and I stood still as I watched a female Loggerhead Sea Turtle just as she finished covering the eggs she had come onto the beach to lay.<\/p>\n

I was amazed to see this incredible sight because almost all of the time female Loggerhead Turtles lay their eggs during the night and the only visible sign of their presence is the disturbed sand up on the dune and the tracks of the turtle coming from and going back into the water.<\/p>\n

\"FemaleFemale Loggerhead Sea Turtle in the surf –\u00a0Nikon D200, handheld, f5.6, 1\/100, ISO 320, Nikkor 80-400mm VR at 98mm, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

But there she was, with her big dark eyes, large flippers and barnacle encrusted shell. The reason the gulls were swarming so thick there was because they probably hoped to be able to snatch a turtle egg.<\/p>\n

Chris Muhrlin; who was the Assistant Park Supervisor at the time, had quickly come over and marked the nest site and covered it with more sand to keep the gulls at bay.<\/p>\n

At first I was so stunned that I wasn’t taking any images of the Loggerhead Turtle, I just stood there admiring this temporarily earthbound sea creature. She was so beautiful to me.<\/p>\n

Then the photographer in me took over again and I started to document her laboriously slow trek back to the Gulf of Mexico.<\/p>\n

The sun had not even begun to creep over the horizon but there was just enough pre-dawn light to get these photos without having to use flash.<\/p>\n

The turtle seemed to pay little attention to me, I suspect she was simply driven by primal instinct to return to the sea.<\/p>\n

\"LastLast view of the female Loggerhead Sea Turtle –\u00a0 Nikon D200, handheld, f5.6, 1\/100, ISO 320, Nikkor 80-400mm VR at 98mm, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

As the turtle came closer to the water I waded out into the shallows myself so that I could continue photographing this marvelous creature until the water became too deep for me to follow her.<\/p>\n

Oh, how I wished I could have done just that though.<\/p>\n

She dove under the water a few times; surfacing briefly in between, and then with one final lift of her head she sank below the surface and I didn’t see her again.<\/p>\n

By the time she left I was feeling a combination of euphoria, amazement, awe and intimacy. I witnessed something marvelous that day with that Loggerhead Sea Turtle<\/span><\/a> and I’ll not soon forget it.<\/p>\n

\"Loggerhead\u00a0Loggerhead Sea Turtle tracks –\u00a0Nikon D200, handheld, f5.6, 1\/250, ISO 320, Nikkor 80-400mm VR at 80mm, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

After the disastrous oil spill caused by BP’s Deepwater Horizon in 2010 exploding I wonder if this Loggerhead Sea Turtle survived the oil slick, the toxic water infused with dangerous chemicals, and the deaths of the turtle’s prey caused by the negligence of British Petroleum’s CEO’s.<\/p>\n

Does BP even care that they risked killing not only the creatures in the Gulf of Mexico, that they soiled a natural wonder with oil or that they have permanently changed the lives of so many people?<\/p>\n

I sincerely doubt that they did or do now<\/em>.<\/span> BP, did you kill her?<\/p>\n

I truly hope that this wondrous Loggerhead survived.<\/p>\n

Mia<\/p>\n

Click here<\/span><\/a> to see more of my reptile and amphibian photos in their galleries.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At first I was so stunned that I wasn’t taking any images of the Loggerhead Turtle, I just stood there admiring this temporarily earthbound sea creature. She was so beautiful to me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":164059,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,704,1099],"tags":[1102,1103,1100,1104,4070,173,4077,16961,4280,4035,16960,3976,16959,1101,7945,7946],"class_list":["post-3715","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-florida","category-fort-de-soto-county-park","category-loggerhead-turtles","tag-bp","tag-british-petroleum","tag-caretta-caretta","tag-deepwater-horizon","tag-female","tag-gulf-coast","tag-gulf-of-mexico","tag-loggerhead-sea-turtle","tag-loggerhead-turtles","tag-nature-photography","tag-nest-site","tag-nesting","tag-sea-turtle","tag-sea-turtles","tag-turtle","tag-turtles"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/loggerhead-turtle-female-nesting-mia-mcpherson-7997.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-XV","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":15483,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2014\/07\/27\/posts-from-the-past-wildlife\/","url_meta":{"origin":3715,"position":0},"title":"Posts from the Past – Wildlife","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"July 27, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Today I am focusing on older posts that have wildlife in them starting with Loggerhead Turtles then going to a Moose, a Midget Faded Rattlesnake and Red Fox kits.","rel":"","context":"In "Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge"","block_context":{"text":"Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/bear-river-migratory-bird-refuge\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Pair of Red Fox kits, Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, Box Elder County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/red-fox-kit-pair-mia-mcpherson-1192.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/red-fox-kit-pair-mia-mcpherson-1192.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/red-fox-kit-pair-mia-mcpherson-1192.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/red-fox-kit-pair-mia-mcpherson-1192.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":8014,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2013\/04\/03\/today-on-on-the-wing-photography\/","url_meta":{"origin":3715,"position":1},"title":"Today on On the Wing Photography","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"April 3, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Who knew that one day my photos would be in a book published by National Geographic? I am truly honored.","rel":"","context":"In "Antelope Island State Park"","block_context":{"text":"Antelope Island State Park","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/antelope-island-state-park\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Snowy Egret take off, Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, Florida","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/snowy-egret-flight-mia-mcpherson-0172.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/snowy-egret-flight-mia-mcpherson-0172.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/snowy-egret-flight-mia-mcpherson-0172.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":109638,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2023\/01\/16\/winter-loggerhead-shrike\/","url_meta":{"origin":3715,"position":2},"title":"Winter Loggerhead Shrike: A Species In Decline","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"January 16, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Due to extended gray, cloudy weather and not getting out into the field I dug into my archives and today I am sharing a photo of a winter Loggerhead Shrike.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Loggerhead Shrike in winter, Box Elder County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/loggerhead-shrike-winter-mia-mcpherson-9820.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/loggerhead-shrike-winter-mia-mcpherson-9820.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/loggerhead-shrike-winter-mia-mcpherson-9820.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/loggerhead-shrike-winter-mia-mcpherson-9820.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":101743,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2022\/04\/23\/loggerhead-shrike-population-decline-concerns\/","url_meta":{"origin":3715,"position":3},"title":"Loggerhead Shrike Population Decline Concerns","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"April 23, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"About two weeks ago I found an adult Loggerhead Shrike perched on a lichen covered rock in northern Utah a good distance from the road that I was on.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Loggerhead Shrike perched on a lichen covered rock, Box Elder County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/loggerhead-shrike-adult-lichen-rocks-mia-mcpherson-6340.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/loggerhead-shrike-adult-lichen-rocks-mia-mcpherson-6340.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/loggerhead-shrike-adult-lichen-rocks-mia-mcpherson-6340.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/loggerhead-shrike-adult-lichen-rocks-mia-mcpherson-6340.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":14509,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2014\/03\/06\/loggerhead-shrikes-are-calling-on-antelope-island\/","url_meta":{"origin":3715,"position":4},"title":"Loggerhead Shrikes Are Calling On Antelope Island","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"March 6, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Last year about this time I wrote a post complaining about Loggerhead Shrikes being MIA but this year I don't have that complaint because I am seeing and hearing these \"Butcherbirds\" on Antelope Island.","rel":"","context":"In "Antelope Island State Park"","block_context":{"text":"Antelope Island State Park","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/antelope-island-state-park\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Back view of a Loggerhead Shrike juvenile, Antelope Island State Park, Davis County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/loggerhead-shrike-juvenile-mia-mcpherson-2563.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/loggerhead-shrike-juvenile-mia-mcpherson-2563.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/loggerhead-shrike-juvenile-mia-mcpherson-2563.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/loggerhead-shrike-juvenile-mia-mcpherson-2563.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":51818,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2018\/04\/25\/loggerhead-shrike-allofeeding-courtship-behavior-plus-a-close-up\/","url_meta":{"origin":3715,"position":5},"title":"Loggerhead Shrike Allofeeding Courtship Behavior Plus a Close Up","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"April 25, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"The Loggerhead Shrike did fly in and brought prey to feed the presumed female, during the mating season the males will allofeed the females as part of their courtship behavior. I've never been able to photograph allofeeding behavior before so I was tickled pink.","rel":"","context":"In "Antelope Island State Park"","block_context":{"text":"Antelope Island State Park","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/antelope-island-state-park\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Presumed male Loggerhead Shrike allofeeding the female, Antelope Island State Park, Davis County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/loggerhead-shrikes-allofeeding-mia-mcpherson-4288.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/loggerhead-shrikes-allofeeding-mia-mcpherson-4288.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/loggerhead-shrikes-allofeeding-mia-mcpherson-4288.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/loggerhead-shrikes-allofeeding-mia-mcpherson-4288.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3715","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3715"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3715\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/164059"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}