The Thursday Volunteers started the day out on the beach doing the nest monitoring activities, and some beautiful sunrise pictures were taken. Nothing new going on with the remaining nests. The last few days have been cool and crisp, not today. The humidity is back, several types of jellies were spotted on the beach, and when the sun came out the temperatures rose fast.
Due to the morning high tide, the CSTC, Leads, and Volunteers had to walk up the island to meet the Thursday morning Volunteers at Nest 10R. This nest was a little over a mile up the beach from where we parked are vehicles.
Nest 10R was laid on Sunday, July 12th and moved from the jetty area of the island to a new home that was higher and safer from being over-washed. The momma turtle was 31 inches across and dug a 20 inch nest and laid 97 eggs which one was sacrificed for DNA Research. This nest emerged on September 7th, day 57. At inventory there were 74 Hatched eggs, 18 Unhatched Eggs, giving this nest a Hatch and Emergence rate of 76.2% At inventory time this nest was 24 inches deep.
There was a little excitement digging this nest out - the diggers ran into one of our pesky Ghost Crabs who had been "hiding" in the nest cavity. Some fast and fun moves were performed to get the crab out of the way.
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| Melissa talks about the nest |
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| Diggers |
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| Lots of help |
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| Sorters |
When we completed this nest, we all headed back down the beach to do the inventory for Nest 12. Boy it would of been nice to have out trucks this morning. Due to the last several high tide nights and the shift in the winds and wave action the beach was tough to walk on, but we all persevered.
Nest 12 was laid back in the dunes close to where the horses enter the beach, it was pretty well hidden when you walked up the beach. This nest was laid on Wednesday, July 12th and it is one of our "in situ" nests - meaning the nest was left as is. However, on an in situ nest we do not know how many eggs were laid and how deep the nest was dug. This momma was 34 inches across and she hid this nest well. It took two teams and two days to find the nest chamber. This nest emerged on September 7th on Day 54.
Due to the location of this nest, it was hard to get all of the help needed close to the nest so we had to use a "fire barricade" method to move the eggs from the nest location to the area where the sorters had set up the space to count the eggs.
The sorters were busy and as the inventory proceeded the call went out that we love to hear "we have a hatchling"! The pick bucket was quickly prepared for this precious hatchling. As the inventory proceeded we added two other siblings to the bucket.
The end result of this inventory is the following;
34 Hatched Eggs, 69 Unhatched eggs, zero dead hatchlings and three live hatchlings. The Hatch rate for this nest is 32.6% and the Emergence Rate is 29.8%. This nest was 30 inches deep at the time of inventory.
Now to the exciting portion of the morning, the release of the three hatchlings that were discovered in Nest 12. This is always a treat for our Volunteers, and especially for our students. Its part of our job that never gets old.
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| They are off . . . |
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| Hatchling with tracks |
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| Safe Travels little one |
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| A wonderful end of the morning |
Our nesting season is getting very close to the end. . . .
Narrative by Leslie, pictures by Leslie and Melissa
All sea turtle monitoring by the Waties Island Sea Turtle Monitoring Program is permitted and authorized by SCDNR under Permit MTP500.
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