Friday, July 31 - Emergence of Nest 3R , PN #2

 Before it bids us adieu for 2026,  July provided us with one last great day on the Island. Another beautiful sunrise- evidence, etched in the sand, of another array of loggerhead hatchlings making their way to the sea- and an overnight crawl to remind us our hard working nesting mommas aren’t done just yet. 

 As we headed up island into that welcoming sunshine, we discovered an emergence at Nest 03R. Not much tops the list of favorite things of an early morning sea turtle patroller more than seeing hundreds of tiny tracks emerging from a nest you worked so hard to protect over the past 2 months or so. 

This nest had an unusual start - beginning its life as PN #2. The crawl was discovered on June 4.

The team worked hard to locate the egg chamber, but momma did her job in disguising its resting place so well, they were unable to find it, designating it a Possible Nest and allowing for further investigation by future teams.

The nest was located the following morning using documentation from the initial team and  a little assist from our frenemies- the ghost crabs. The eggs were relocated to a more suitable location to continue their incubation. The emergence occurred on day 57. The nest contents will be inventoried in a few days and the results reported to SCDNR. 

Buoyed by the joy of another successful emergence, we continued onward. We soon got a call from two fast walking volunteers who discovered a crawl near the far end of the island. 

Our speedy walkers Cherie and Caroline waiting “ patiently” for us to arrive so they can share their discovery. I can hear them thinking “ What took you so long?”

Based on the unique small size - 28” and the location and timing of the crawl, we believe this is a returning young mother who may have laid nests 9R and 13R. Two potential body pit areas were noted at the base of the dune -one nearer the incoming crawl and one nearer the outgoing crawl.  Work began to locate the egg chamber.

Try as we might, an egg chamber was not located, and the crawl became, ironically, our new PN2. We are  hopeful that, like its predecessor, the nest can be located tomorrow and moved to a more appropriate location. Or, in the event it is indeed a false crawl, that momma will return tonight and finish the job. 

Pics by Kim P. and Caroline. Text by Kim T.

All sea turtle monitoring by Waties Island Sea Turtle Patrol is permitted and authorized by SCDNR under Permit MTP500.

Thursday, July 30 - Inventory of Nest 02R

 As July- the heart of summer- prepares to yield to August- the final stretch of the season- nesting activity on Waties may be cooling, but the hatching action is just beginning to heat up. On a rare lower temperature and even rarer low humidity late July morning the Thursday team was treated to a setting full moon in one direction, a beautiful sunrise in the other, and calm seas tying it all together.

Following the patrol of the island, completing routine nest inspection and maintenance, the team was joined by additional volunteers and daily leads to conduct the inventory of Nest 02R.  This nest was discovered on May 29; incubated relatively undisturbed by predators; and emerged at day 59. On July 27, a vintage emergence hole with hundreds of treasured tiny tracks were observed heading to the sea and fanning out in a wide chaotic group meant to confuse and overwhelm predators lowering the chances any one hatchling gets eaten by crabs or seabirds. 

As we gathered at the nest, project leader Leslie reviewed procedures for the evacuation and assigned tasks to the willing volunteers…

who dug right in!

 Meanwhile, eggs are sorted and results tallied

In addition to excavating 104 hatched egg shells, 13 unhatched or pipped eggs, 1 deceased hatchling, and two lively and adorable stragglers, volunteer LeighAnn “assisted” a ghost crab out of the nest cavity!

Nest results- Hatch success 86.6%, Emergence success 84.1%

After the work was done, it was time to release our two tiny would be travelers into the surf. The icing on the cake of a great day.

Happy trails little ones!

                                                 Great job by all!

Pics by Cherie, Melissa, Carolyn, Sharon and Leslie. Text by Kim T.

All sea turtle monitoring by Waties Island Sea Turtle Patrol is permitted and authorized by SCDNR under Permit MTP500.

Wednesday, July 29th Another Nest has Emerged - Nest 04R

We started out early, hot and humid and thankfully we did have a breeze .  The lower end was quiet with Pelicans roosting on the beach.  From the look of the wrack line, last nights high tide was high on the beach welcoming the full moon which is known as the "Buck Moon".

Good Morning!

Pelicans and shorebirds

Lots of washed up material 

There were signs of blowing winds and the dunes on the Hog Inlet end of the island is a testament to those winds and the blown sand.

 

 I received a call that a nest had emerged, and was hoping our new nest #14 had emerged, since we found this undetected nest on Monday.  However, the nest that emerged was our Nest 04R.  This nest was laid on June 5th and was worked by our Friday Volunteers.  It was found about mid-island, on the lower portion of the beach and was moved to higher ground, the "R" indicates the nest was relocated.  When we relocate a nest we move the eggs to a more protected area of the beach.  In this case we moved it higher on the dune. The volunteers relocated 104 eggs.  

 

Nest 04R

Nest 04R - when found this morning a hatched egg was found inside of the cage, along with a hatchling.  He was alive, no yolk sac was seen, but not as lively as he could of been.  The volunteers left him where he was and continued their patrol up the beach.  By the time I walked up to the nest from Hog Inlet, the hatchling was gone.  We are hoping it was smart enough to go back into the emergence hole, and not taken away by a Ghost Crab.  No drag marks or other indications that event took place.                                                   

Emergence hole with eggshell

 

  

 

Hatchling outside of the nest

 

With the wind and high tide last night hatchling tracks around the nest were not found.  However, when we looked closely at the wrack line hatchling tracks were observed.

This nest emerged on day 54.  We will inventory this nest on Saturday.

Narrative by Leslie, Pictures by Leslie, Kim and Pam

Waties Island sea turtle patrol is permitted and authorized by SCDNR under permit MTP 500.


 

Monday, 7/27/2026 - N2R emerged and Nest 14

The morning started up nice and cool.  Different story by the time we were done, we were quite sweaty.

N02R emerged on day 59 with tracks going everywhere. We checked all the vegetation around several times to make sure that no hatchlings had gotten stuck. 

 

                                                         Nice emergence hole.

As the nesting part of the season starts to come to an end, the teams on Waties divide up so that the  beach near the dunes, in the middle, and near the shore are covered for undetected nests.  An undetected nest can be found in several ways. Sometimes there will be a large number of ghost crab holes in one spot up in the dune. Other times, hatchling tracks may lead to the ocean, even though there is no apparent nest in the area.

As Claudia and Jewel were walking up the beach, Claudia noticed three large crab holes up in the dune. When Jewel looked to the left, she small pieces of egg shells lying on the sand. Turtles have to be there somewhere. They called me, and when I got there, I looked at my list of false crawls and saw that there had been a few in this area.

I picked out a spot, and down the probe went. I even said, “Don’t get excited. It’s probably just a ghost crab hole.” Well, when Jewel started to remove the sand, she found more tiny pieces of shell. She continued digging farther down, and all of a sudden, to the right of the hole, were the rear flippers of a hatchling.

 

At first, she thought it was dead, but then it moved. At that point, I checked with Leslie, and since we could not tell if it still had its yolk sac attached, we gently covered it back up. We placed the triangulation poles and put the cage on the nest. 

Front row  Claudia, Jewel, Sherry.  Back row Donna,Debbie

Photos by Jewel & Sharon, Text by Sharon.

Waties Island sea turtle patrol is permitted and authorized by SCDNR under permit MTP 500.

Sunday, July 26. - Inventory Nest 01R

 The week beginning Monday, July 20, presented numerous challenges for our volunteers including high heat and humidity and gale force winds that were reshaping the landscape of the island daily. Later in the week were threatening skies and storms that dumped sizeable amounts of rain. There was concern the conditions would combine to make it difficult to monitor nesting or hatching activity during our daily patrols. A case in point was our Nest 01R. Beginning on Monday and continuing throughout the week, subtle changes were noted and documented within the caged area at the nest, but any definitive signs of an emergence - hatchling tracks or a clear emergence hole - were quickly wiped away. A slight depression might appear in a photo only to disappear on a return trip past the nest an hour later. Numerous holes at the center of the nest were assumed to be ghost crabs holes, but were likewise distorted with no crabs found in the area. 

Finally on Friday, July 24, two faint hatchling tracks were seen emerging from the nest. One of the tracks was made by a hatchling about mid beach barreling its way toward the ocean. The little one was fully viable, strong, with a wholly absorbed yolk sac and easily made his way into the surf.

                                              Yes, I am ready and on my way

Another fully developed hatchling was found deceased about 10 feet from the nest outside a large ghost crab hole. These signs pointed to evidence of a recent or soon to be emergence. We closely monitored the area over the next two days and no further activity was noted. Using all the clues we had, the daily LOAs determined the first main nest emergence occurred on Thursday July 23, with the two stragglers noted on Friday bringing up the rear after the main event. Emergence was at 62 days. 

The LOAs had some previously scheduled maintenance to perform on Sunday, and made a decision at that time, per DNR guidelines, to complete the inventory. The nest was very deep, having been inundated by the blowing sands. Once the first level of hatched eggs was reached, the inventory was completed quickly and the results tallied: 90 eggs hatched, 12 eggs unhatched/pipped, 3 dead hatchlings and 1 lone live hatchling no doubt happy to be freed and sent on his way. Nest hatch success rate 86.5%, emergence success 82.6%. 

                                    One lone live hatchling happy to be helped from the nest cavity

                                                       Watch out world, here I come….

Photos by Sharon, Cherie and Kim T. Text by Kim T.

All sea turtle monitoring by Waties Island Sea Turtle Patrol is permitted and authorized by SCDNR under Permit MTP 500. 

Saturday July 18, 2026 FC11 and Nest 13R

 We started our walk with a beautiful sunrise. We split up and went on our way. It became a very busy morning with high heat and humidity. We did have some really nice cloud cover for a short while.

As we walked up the beach we had to have seen 50 or more pelicans come down in groups of 10-15 at a time. At least 7 groups flew by us. They were a sight to see, especially in the clouds. We came across a chicken egg which was broken, a plover egg, and nice foam football, and a stuffed animal along with a good amount of trash especially water bottles. 

As we worked our way up the beach we approached a crawl. Momma had come up, wiggled her way through the dunes then came back down. Her tracks were 28" wide. We started to work the nest as while Betsy continued on to finish up the rest of the walk. 

As we were probing with no luck, we got a call saying there was another crawl. We gelt that this could be a false crawl and decided to get up to the other possible nest. Once we got up there, we saw a nice clean in and out crawl with an obvious body pit. Well we didn't have to probe long, one probe and it sank right in.....and we found nest number 13. 

Because the area that she laid her nest in was not in a safe spot (a good chance the nest would have been washed over), we had to relocate further down the beach to higher ground and away from the rack line. We measured her as 28" with a clutch of 80 eggs with keeping one egg for DNA testing.  We carefully transported them all to their new home. We did call Leslie and she came down to get us so we could get the eggs back in the ground ASAP. We got to our new spot, dug a good 20" hole, placed all the eggs, in, covered them up, did our measurements and coordinates, and labeled our nest #13R. Great job by all. The Saturday team did awesome work! Thank you!

Narrative by Cheriè  Pics by Cheriè and Jackie

All sea turtle monitoring by Waties Island Sea Turtle Patrol is permitted and authorized by SCDNR under Permit MTP500.