ORANGE BEACH – As a rookie volunteer beach patroller for the Share the Beach sea turtle group I really had no expectations of actually finding a nest.

My patrol area is in Orange Beach at what is called the Romar Beach overlook where there is a State Park beach access. I walk from there east to Bluewater Condominiums then west past Romar to Romar Towers then back to the overlook and my car.

It’s a good two-mile hike for a fat man in the sand, but I bring my camera and shoot a bunch of pretty pictures, some I’ve shared on these pages. If I didn’t have my turtle responsibility I probably wouldn’t get out and walk our beautiful beaches.

In fact, the turtle patrol is the first time in two years of living here that I’ve been on the beach before 6 a.m. I highly recommend it.

Sometimes the trip is very saddening. People leave a lot of crap on our beach and I shake my head every morning noticing the trash left behind. Apparently our visitors aren’t aware of the tenet: “take only memories, leave only footprints.”

Some will say “well pick it up.” I could spend four hours out there doing nothing but picking up trash and hardly make a dent it in. And get a major back ache for my troubles.

But this is about turtles. They have to crawl through this stuff to find a place to dig a nest and lay eggs for future generations. Volunteers get out early to find the telltale signs a momma has come up on the beach to complete this ancient ritual.

The idea is to be there before the tracks are obliterated by unaware tourists so the nest can be identified and, if need be, moved closer to the dunes. Most nests are moved further north to keep high-tide waters from compromising and/or exposing the eggs.

Well, five minutes into my most recent patrol on Thursday, I found a turtle crawl. She came in, scuffled around in the sand and made a track back to the Gulf. I wasn’t as excited as I thought I’d be, but my patrol was just beginning.

I had to turtle on. I called Orange Beach Team Captain Lisa Graham and told her where it was and continued on to Bluewater. There might be more.

On the way back Lisa was examining the area and surmised there might not be a nest. After taking a few photos, I continued my westward trek to finish patrolling the beach I volunteered to cover.

When I came back a group of volunteers were standing around in their chartreuse shirts watching me walk up.

“Well,” I asked, “do we have a nest?”

“We don’t know yet,” Lisa said. “We’re waiting on you before we start. You found it.”

“What sweet people!” I thought, but said: “Y’all coulda started without me. I did my job. I found it.”

Hands attacked the sand, in the appropriate sideways scoop motion as not to harm eggs if you scrapped across them, and eventually eggs were found.

Mark Scott came across them 15 inches below the sand. There were 86 of them.

Bonnie McKenzie and Jeannetta Bell lovingly extracted all 86 and deposited them in a bucket of wet sand. At the same time this was going on Mark was digging the new nest near the Romar Beach access boardwalk.

After the transfer was complete, all calculations made and the area roped off, we posed for a group photo and each of us held up seven fingers. (I had to ask later why. It’s the seventh Orange Beach nest of the season. More have been found since.)

And then a wave of excitement finally hit me.

I found a turtle nest!