Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, June 20, 1993 TAG: 9306200079
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: E-8 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Short
Members of the refuge staff placed the eggs in a new, manmade nest safe from high tides, predators and humans. It will be monitored throughout the summer, and probably most of the eggs will hatch this fall and send a huge batch of the threatened turtles into deep Atlantic waters.
Sea turtles are one of many species that owe their survival, at least in part, to the food and safety the refuge provides.
Visitors won't be able to see a sea turtle nest, but they will find structures like osprey-nesting platforms and duck-nesting boxes that provide homes to birds whose natural habitat is disappearing.
Orange stakes designate "singing routes" that volunteers use to listen for songs of small birds that migrate to the tropics.
The refuge recently acquired new land, and some of it will be used to offset the loss of the birds' natural habitat, said refuge manager Anthony Leger.
"One of our objectives is to have an unbroken line of brush and woods along the oceanfront for the neotropical birds to stop and rest on their migrations," he said.
To provide more waterfowl habitat, the refuge has enhanced 800 acres of wetlands and created 300 new wetlands acres in the past five years.
"Our primary objective is to provide wintering habitat for waterfowl," Leger said. "We want to see the ducks migrate back north to nest, fat and happy."
by CNB