Waties Island Sea Turtles Monitoring Program 2026: Tuesday, June 23rd

Tuesdays team was greeted on the causeway bridge by the familiar black faced doe. Once she found a safe place to exit, we headed to the beach. The tide was going out and the wind was brutal. Those of us going to the lower end walked into the wind and a volunteer mentioned how it was taking her breath away. We found very little trash, a whole sand dollar, and a secluded beach.

After surveying the lower end, we were heading back to the truck to replenish the DNR poles and a cage used for the previous days nests when a call came in from one of the volunteers walking towards the jetties/upper end. This group saw a crawl from a previous day that was crossed out with Xs then further up the beach, they found a new crawl. They reported they could see the beginning and end of the crawl near the low tide line, but the wind had obliterated part of it leading towards the dune. I asked her to mark the crawl with a big arrow that I would be able to see from the truck as I approached and they were instructed to continue surveying the beach to the jetties. Permit holder Leslie was contacted to join us to examine the crawl. In the meantime, I picked up the volunteers after they completed surveying the upper end and delivered the poles and cage.

We gathered on the beach at the location of the crawl marks to access the situation. From the beach looking towards the dune, we could see equal length crawl marks that ended at blown sand, then a potential body pit halfway up the sand dune. The crawl width was 34”. The turtle approached from the right, climbed the dune, encountered some vegetation and turned back towards the ocean after crossing back over her incoming tracks. I probed extensively and Leslie joined in, but no egg chamber was located. Whether the wind erased possible clues or she didn’t nest remains a mystery so we marked the site as PN01 and will monitor it for further possible developments.