Author: Matthew Humphrey

By Dr. Tom Radzio, GSTC Research Ecologist

For many guests, the natural beauty and unique pace of Jekyll Island first starts to settle in when traveling across the miles of marsh that separate the island from the mainland. More than just a pathway for getting on and off the island, the drive allows one to relax and experience a vast, everchanging tidal landscape that supports a diversity of plant and animal species. If you happen to see a small turtle swimming in the water or sunning along a mudbank, chances are it’s a diamondback terrapin, the only North American turtle that exclusively inhabits coastal waters.

Terrapins are aquatic, but during late spring and early summer females emerge from the marsh to nest.  To improve the odds that their nests are successful, female terrapins select elevated sites that are unlikely to flood. The causeway provides such locations, but, unfortunately, many females that attempt to nest there are hit by cars. In addition to being catastrophic for individuals, mortality of nesting females is of concern because persistence of terrapin populations relies on adult females living many years and laying many nests to offset high predation on early life stages. 

Since 2007, the Georgia Sea Turtle Center (GSTC) has worked to quantify and mitigate terrapin road mortality. Throughout the nesting season (mid-May to mid-July) GSTC personnel regularly drive the causeway to census terrapins. Injured animals receive treatment at the GSTC Hospital, while unharmed individuals are uniquely marked and released away from the road. These marked terrapins are key to understanding what proportion of the nesting population succumbs to road mortality, information that can be used to assess whether the population will grow, remain stable, or decline.

Other efforts to mitigate terrapin road mortality include construction of predator-proof nest boxes, designed to reduce female movements across the causeway and increase the number of eggs that hatch. Additionally, eggs of deceased females are placed in incubators, and hatchlings are subsequently reared at the GSTC until they are large enough to avoid many predators on their own. Visitors to the GSTC can see these young terrapins in the Pavilion and learn more about their ecology and conservation at the Education Center. With your involvement, we hope to continue efforts to protect these special marsh inhabitants long into the future! 

The 2020 Diamondback Terrapin (DBT) Road Season could not have been successful without support from the Jekyll Island Foundation and its donors.  Please continue to support the DBT work by clicking HERE or text GIVEGSTC + $ amount to (844) 889-2692 and follow the prompts.

By Sergio A. Sabat-Bonilla, Georgia Sea Grant State Fellow

Hosted by Ben Carswell, JIA Director of Conservation

Growing up in Puerto Rico, I was fortunate to have had a childhood within a tropical oasis, where the Caribbean Sea meets the Atlantic Ocean. In Puerto Rico, the trade winds that develop along the northwestern portion of Africa traverse the Atlantic Ocean and deliver accumulated humidity into the northeastern slopes of the central mountain range. Having grown amongst these unique and vital ecosystems, it was a saddening realization knowing that they are being destroyed faster than scientists can conduct research to fully understand them. As I left the island to start my academic career across the US, I have found opportunities that allowed me to explore and expand a curiosity of the natural world that started along the beaches of my island.

These experiences led me to pursue a degree in Biology. Now I find myself working on both a master’s degree at Georgia Southern University, studying how water level variations affect invertebrate communities in wetlands of the Southeastern US, while also serving as the Georgia Sea Grant State Fellow. I am honored to be involved in a partnership between Georgia Audubon, Georgia Sea Grant and the Jekyll Island Conservation Program in aiming to cultivate strategies and deliver opportunities that engage the diverse communities of Georgia’s southern coastal region in the enjoyment and conservation of birds. This is deeply challenging work and I aspire to contribute and voice my passion to help make progress, having experienced both the negative effects that a lack of exposure to the natural environment can have on the wellbeing of a community and the uplifting power that equity and opportunity can have on individual.

Central to my work on Jekyll island will be developing and supporting efforts to conserve and understand shorebirds utilizing the Georgia coastline as a refuge during their migratory journeys (e.g., Piping Plover). Not only is this an important conservation endeavor as these are birds that utilize and depend on a diversity of environments on a global scale. Our work also brings with it a unifying message that the Georgia coastline is a vibrant region harboring a diverse range of life, whether for a few weeks or a lifetime, and it should be the mission of those who inhabit it to empower and protect the communities most impacted by environmental and social changes to this region.

For this reason, I hope to not only continue expanding and exploring my curiosity of the natural world during my year at Jekyll Island as your Georgia Sea Grant State Fellow but also to help shape efforts towards making the Georgia coastline more inclusive and open to all. I deeply appreciate the Jekyll Island Foundation’s contribution in support of my Fellowship and want to encourage all Jekyll Island visitors to appreciate and care for the remarkable and diverse bird life that thrives here.

To help further migratory bird conservation efforts on Jekyll Island, GIVE NOW. Your generosity enables JIF and JIA Conservation to make sure Jekyll Island is part of the conservation solution for birds, not part of the problem—from research and monitoring to educational partnerships and programs.

For more information, visit Jekyll Island Wildlife Research or Jekyll Island Shore Bird Monitoring.

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Sergio Sabat-Bonilla graduated from the University of Central Oklahoma with a degree in biology. Now as a master’s student at Georgia Southern University, he is studying how aquatic macroinvertebrate communities will respond to the hydrological variations in wetlands of the coastal plain. As the State Fellow working with Georgia Aubudon and Jekyll Island, he will be tasked with getting the diverse communities in the southern region of Georgia engaged in the enjoyment and conservation of birds. He’ll also be focusing in part on expanding shorebird monitoring efforts on Jekyll Island with ongoing support from the Jekyll Island Foundation. He is most interested in helping make the Georgia coastline more engaging and inclusive, so that any individual can enjoy the diverse ecosystems that shape the Georgia landscape while learning the effect humans’ lives have on the system and what they can do to conserve it.

“With my career goal of becoming a researcher and science communicator, this fellowship is the ideal opportunity to help me develop my science communication skills while pursuing a personal goal of aiding in the efforts to provide minorities and communities of color with the knowledge and resources to enjoy and explore the environments that surround them.”

— UGA Marine Extension and Georgia Sea Grant

‘Tis the season! The Holly Jolly Jekyll season, that is! This year the whole season has been reimagined to ensure guests will remain safe and healthy while participating in activities the whole family will enjoy. From the return of the Holly Jolly Jekyll Parade to the addition of two nights of fireworks, this season promises to be better than ever!

The Holly Jolly Jekyll season kicks off November 27 and ends January 3. Returning all season long, guests can hop on a Holly Jolly Light Tours to sit back, relax, and enjoy the view of over half a million lights across the island, all from the comfort of Jekyll’s jolliest trolley. Then, guests can head over to Jekyll Island Mini Golf and play into the evening amongst the life-sized gumdrops, peppermint sticks, gingerbread men, and more at Peppermint Land. Guests can also hop on a Holidays in History trolley tour to learn all about how the millionaires decorated for the holidays, their traditions, and even step into their homes to see the decorations up close.

SANTA! With a total of 15 Santa sightings throughout the season, the Jekyll Island Convention Center kicks off visits with the big man with multiple opportunities to see him at both their Breakfast with Santa and Cookie Decorating with Santa events. From special viewing locations, guests can also spot him in the island-wide Holly Jolly Jekyll Parade. Kids can likewise wave to him at the Holiday Big Truck Roundup while exploring several emergency vehicles from Jekyll Island Fire/EMS and Georgia State Patrol. But the fun doesn’t stop there! Prior to the start of both Drive-in Movies, featuring the movie Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Santa will join his fire department friends for a ride around in his big red fire truck!

It’s the best time of the year! From fireworks to playing a round of mini golf under twinkling lights, every day of the Holly Jolly Jekyll season is filled with joy and merriment. So, whether you’re visiting Jekyll Island for the day or the month, there’s a holly jolly line-up for all!

By Dr. Tom Radzio

GSTC Research Ecologist

Female loggerhead sea turtles arrive each year on Jekyll Island to lay their precious eggs, typically more than 100 at a time. And when that happens, there is a good chance that a Georgia Sea Turtle Center (GSTC) AmeriCorps service member will be there to carefully document the event. “We are learning about these animals so we can better protect them,” says Katie Doherty, AmeriCorps service member. Every night during the nesting season, GSTC research teams can be seen patrolling the beaches seeking to locate and monitor every loggerhead sea turtle nest on the island, 136 this year! Collectively, nest monitoring throughout the Golden Isles suggest the possibility of a rebounding loggerhead population.

In addition to nest monitoring, the GSTC and its regional collaborators also seek to understand loggerhead turtle trends by studying the fates of individual nesting females. Take for example, “Dr. Shelly,” a majestic female loggerhead. First seen nesting here in 2008, she nested on Ossabaw Island in 2011 before returning to nest on Jekyll Island in 2013, 2016, 2018, and 2020, laying six nests this past season. Because very few hatchlings survive to adulthood, laying many eggs (over 2,500 in Dr. Shelly’s case!) is key to loggerhead population persistence.  Though spectacular, Dr. Shelly’s repeat visits to Jekyll Island aren’t uncommon. This past season, GSTC documented 55 different loggerheads nesting on the island, of which nearly half are known to have nested here in past years.

You might wonder how GSTC researchers keep track of all these individuals. Genetic samples, flipper tags, and passive integrated transponders, the same technology used to microchip the family pet, are used to uniquely identify nesting females. Because they nest all around the island, encountering turtles can be challenging. Thanks to generous past donations from the Jekyll Island Foundation donors, GSTC researchers use utility terrain vehicles to find most nesting females and can provide exciting educational program opportunities as a result.  We hope you’ll join us on the beach next season or anytime at the Georgia Sea Turtle Center where you might hear more about the incredible wanderings of Dr. Shelly and other turtles that visit our shores! 

Support the ongoing work of the Georgia Sea Turtle Center! Text GiveJekyll + $ amount to (844) 889-2692.

By Andrea Marroquin

JIA Historic Resources Curator

Mosaic, Jekyll Island Museum celebrates the reopening of Mistletoe Cottage following extensive efforts to rehabilitate the sunroom to its Jekyll Island Club Era appearance.

Originally built for locomotive manufacturer Henry Kirke Porter in 1901, the luxurious retreat was sold in 1925 to John Claflin, the largest dry goods dealer in the country.

One of the most fascinating rooms in the cottage is the sunroom.  A beautiful ceiling treatment, covered with hand-painted images of birds and leaves in brilliant colors, graced the sunroom for many years.  However, the cumulative effects of light, water, and time eventually took its toll on the historic fabric and substantively damaged the original material.

Historic Resources preservation staff consulted with specialists from the Northeast Document and Conservation Center, to carefully remove, conserve, digitize, and reproduce the delicate bamboo, rice paper, and silk fabric ceiling covering. The original Chinese silk wallpaper was framed for display in the cottage. Meanwhile, the reproduction ceiling treatment, reinstalled and trimmed with its original bamboo border, is now more vivid and vibrant than ever.

Following an historic paint analysis, the walls of the sunroom were also returned to their original blue paint color.  The brilliant blue adds to the indoor-outdoor feel of the space and complements the bright hues of the birds in flight above.

We invite you to come see the finished product!  The original beauty of the cottage can be discovered through tours and special programs of the historic district.  Click HERE for information about upcoming experiences offered at Mosaic, Jekyll Island Museum.

By Mallory Harmel
Conservation AmeriCorps Member and

Ben Carswell
JIA Director of Conservation

Turtles, dolphins, alligators, and deer are animals Jekyll Island visitors may expect to see, but very rarely do visitors happen across a top predator that has mastered avoiding people and blending in with their surroundings like the Eastern Diamondback rattlesnake (Crotalus adamanteus). Eastern Diamondback rattlesnake, or EDBs, have been a conservation priority to the JIA since 2011 and are the subject of ongoing long-term monitoring and research.

Historically found across much of the Southeast, this cryptic species has now largely retreated to strongholds in Northern Florida and Southern Georgia. Petitioned for federal protection under the Endangered Species Act in 2011, EDBs have unfortunately been feared and killed more than appreciated for their stabilizing ecological role as predators.

Because they are challenging to find and study, many questions about their biology and physiology call for research to support conservation planning and management. JIAs conservation and veterinary professionals have zeroed in on health and reproduction as one of the most important knowledge gaps. With the support of the Jekyll Island Foundation, blood samples were collected from a dozen EDBs and will be tested to provide baseline blood “reference values”. This study, and the results, is the first of its kind in the wild for the species and will be impactful beyond Jekyll Island by making it possible to recognize when EDB populations may be succumbing to poor health in response to circumstances such as habitat loss or climate change. Additionally, blood data can be used to predict if a female is in early stages of pregnancy or could become pregnant in the following breeding season.

The EDB research team is excited to report the findings when the study is complete! In the meantime, if you come across an Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnake, please respect their space but know that they are not out to get you. They strike only as an option of last resort out of self-defense. Please never harm any snake and take time to appreciate their magnificent adaptations of form and function that allow them to survive and thrive in their wild domain.

Visit CONSERVATION ON JEKYLL ISLAND to learn more about projects, research, and education opportunities.

By Dion Davis

JIF Executive Director

As I write this, it is mid-August, and with the rain that made its way across the Golden Isles last week, the marshes of Glynn, normally beige and brown, are lush and green. They lie at the base of the Sidney Lanier Bridge as a portrait of beauty, teeming with nature and life. Continuing across the Jekyll Island causeway, multiple species of birds soar gently on the breeze. It’s a good day, and I am thankful.

Just as the colors of the marsh change with the seasons, so does the Jekyll Island Foundation. With wonderful leadership and a well-laid foundation comes growth—strong and steady. Some of our progress you can see publicly. But some is behind the scenes, quietly making your time on Jekyll, as a resident or as a seasonal guest, more relaxing and enjoyable.  

Increase comes in many forms: in nature, wildlife, and historic research projects; through relationship building with friends who become family; and in organizational upgrades. There are thousands of guests enjoying the Georgia Sea Turtle Center, our new Mosaic Museum, and Jekyll’s multiple viewing platforms and nature trails. Practical maintenance—on historic cottages, wildlife transport vans, or ATV’s—is happening all around.

For those who may have just tuned in, let’s take a quick journey back at what we’ve accomplished together and a glance at what’s to come.

Georgia Sea Turtle Center

• GSTC – preserved and repurposed power plant
• wildlife transport + utility terrain vehicles
• surgical + medical supplies
• laser, x-ray, endoscopy, ultrasound, + laparoscopic equipment
• rehabilitation tanks
• hospital pavilion upgrades
• Diamondback Terrapin – drone equipment + research projects
• UGA/GSTC graduate research assistantships
• GSTC education + veterinary staff interns
• gift store remodel

Conservation

• St. Andrews Beach + Guest Information wildlife viewing platforms
• Horton Pond basking + viewing platforms + nature trail
• Horton Pond-to-Horton House historic nature trail
• migratory nesting bird research
• bobcat reproduction study
• amphibians, alligator, + snake research

Historic Preservation

• Mosaic, Jekyll Island Museum project
• cottage restoration + exhibits: Indian Mound Cottage, Villa Ospo + Hollybourne Cottage
• Skeet House relocation + revitalization project

What’s on the horizon for JIF?

Mosaic Museum Phase II—The Paddock Outdoor Education Space—will serve as a multi-purpose outdoor location for interactive and explorative learning on Jekyll.

Coming in the fall are a new corporate sponsor program, membership upgrades, new tribute gift options, and in time—a GSTC capital campaign.

Visit the Jekyll Island online store and support the GSTC, conservation, or historic preservation through online donations.  

On behalf of the Jekyll Island Foundation Board of Directors, thank you! We look forward to many years of continued partnerships, making new friends, and growing together.

Welcome back to one of Jekyll’s best places to learn the hidden lessons of nature and all about alligators.

By Ben Carswell

JIA Director of Conservation

For the wildlife denizens of Jekyll Island’s Horton Pond, the year 2020 has been… unremarkable. Despite the historic challenges that are taking place in the larger world, the relatively peaceful natural realm surrounding Horton Pond continues as though nothing is afoot. Visitors and residents can take comfort in knowing that this serene refuge has also continued to bring peace and healing relief through the improvements that the Jekyll Island Foundation funded in 2014.

In Spring, alligators awoke from their winter torpor and went about their usual grumbly mating rituals, occasionally scattering the turtle squad gathered on the basking platform with no care for social distance. Wood ducks moved back into the Pond’s nesting box. Now in Summer, the Kingfisher’s rattling call echoes from water’s edge to the tops of the tall pines. Night herons peer out from shadowy shrubs along the bank. The anhinga somehow achieves a comic beauty despite appearing to be a mashup of a turkey, a fish, and a snake. The dragon flies have arrived now. They are hunters of insects, but they are hunted themselves, from below by bass in the pond and from above by swallow-tailed kites whose unmatched regal grace in the skies inspires faith that the world shall overcome.

In this timeless theater of biodiversity, the show flows on, and the island is delighted to be able to share this encore with you again, through our Gatorology program. This Ranger led experience focuses on instilling appreciation, knowledge, and respect for the ancient American Alligator. Now an even more intimate educational experience, the maximum number of tickets per session has been lowered to six. We hope you’ll join us!

Gatorology is offered at the Horton Pond observation deck each Wednesday and Friday from 11:00 am – 12 noon through September.

To support CONSERVATION efforts on Jekyll Island, click HERE.

By Kaylee Johnson

JIA Mosaic Museum Assistant Manager

For the first time in 130 years, Hollybourne cottage will be open to the public for regular visitation! Tours of this cottage are no longer only held in the month of May but will be done twice daily beginning this month. Beginning July 1, 2020, Jekyll Island guests can explore this impressive building while on the Mosaic, Jekyll Island Museum’s Bridgebuilder’s Cottage tour.

Hollybourne cottage, built in 1890, was the winter vacation home of Pennsylvanian Charles Stewart Maurice, his wife Charlotte, and their nine children. For fifty years the Maurice family wintered here on Jekyll Island in their spacious tabby house. Charles, a bridge builder, included several bridge building techniques in the construction of his holiday home, like the loadbearing trusses in the walls and attic and pier support system in the basement.

The Mosaic’s incredible interpretive staff invite island guests to join them on a basement-to-attic guided tour of Hollybourne. Tour-goers will get to dive into the history of the Maurice family’s stays on Jekyll Island and their involvement with the historic Jekyll Island Club, the fascinating construction methods employed in the building of this cottage, and current preservation projects that are still under way.

The preservation of Hollybourne has been a long, and still ongoing, journey. For well over twenty years dedicated volunteers and staff, and generous donors, have labored to return this cottage to its Gilded Age glory. We would like to thank all involved for making the reopening of Hollybourne to the public a possibility.

Click historic tours for more information. To reserve a seat on the Bridgebuilder’s Cottage tour click HERE or call the Mosaic Gift Shop at (912) 635-4036. To support, text JekyllMosaic + $ amount to (844) 899-2692 and follow the prompts.